A few emails came in yesterday re: the Downton Abbey finale. Question: Is Downton Abbey more like... Gossip Girl or Days Of Our Lives and less like, say, Mad Men or Breaking Bad? Same quality, right? Only one has English accents and period piece clothing. Season 1 of Downton Abbey, as I’ve noted previously, was good. Season 2 was total bullsh-t. Season 3 even worse. Which is fine. Because Gossip Girl was ridiculous too. But Gossip Girl was never nominated for awards.
Forget about the china settings and architecture and just consider the story: disfigured pretenders come back from the dead, preposterous deathbed declarations, affairs with the maids, inheritance snatching, and last minute financial saviours -- how is it that different from Marlena and John Black, Chuck and Blair? Especially now, as we contrive to find a new love interest for Lady Mary since Dan Stevens wanted to leave the show? Downton Abbey is afternoon programming on PBS in the evening. Which is great! And we should enjoy it for that! The same way people enjoy Revenge. Why doesn’t Revenge get as much love?
As for Matthew Crawley’s death...
It was actually comedic, non?
A milk truck!
Please. All we need is twins. A twins storyline would complete this soap. But first...
We can’t go too many episodes without a romance. And so they’re already saying that Tom Ellis will soon be confirmed as a new cast member on Downton 4. (Source) Because on a show like Downton, no one wants to see Lady Mary be sad. Mostly because black makes for such a boring wardrobe.
Ellis is it, then, for next year. But with a secret past and dark associations. Is this when we meet the twins?
What other soap opera conventions has Julian Fellowes not mined yet?
Babies switched at birth, that’s a good one.
And...
OMG.
James Franco as the artist Franco.
Here’s Michelle Dockery at London Fashion Week. Eventually she’ll want to leave too. Can Downton survive on Lady Edith alone? What would happen if they replaced Lady Mary?
Remember when they replaced Bo on Days Of Our Lives and then replaced him AGAIN with the original Bo? I was Twi-Hard for Bo and Hope back then.
