Downton Abbey - update required

[StagnantRabbit]

Any big Downton fans out there who can tell me what happened in the very last episode of series 2 and also the Xmas special? Tryin to get ready for the new series on Sunday but is there anything else I missed? (apart from Lady Mary and Matthew getting together that is)

OMG-the chauffeur´s son inheriting-can´t see JF allowing that!!

I have just watched the last episode and it just continues to be so desperately lowbrow. They took a good idea and ITVed it. Popular shouldn't mean mindless. It makes the original Upstairs Downstairs look like a masterpiece.
They need to give JF the heave ho and get some decent writers in.
It's the period equivalent of 50 Shades of Shite- overrated and badly written.
I think I might have had enough after the ever so convenient letter from Reggie Swires turned up.

'I hereby bequeath my huge fortune to the scumbag who broke my daughter's heart, betrayed her on her death bed and sent her to her premature grave in a pit of despair and misery. '

....how is that far-fetched?

I think you're all being a bit harsh.

'Oh my willy's broken, oh my willy's fixed'

'No I won't give you the money, ok here's the money'

Where's the dramatic tension? Where's the man with the melted face? DA needs a big fat injection of something. If Bates turns out not to have killed hia wife, why I'll . . . . . . . . roll my eyes or 'harumph' or something devastating like that!

Maybe Possible Fake Heir will come back, whisk Edith off her feet and turn out to be the genuine heir to Downton, thus shoving M&M off to the Crawley house.

Ooh Edith could become a Bright Young Thing. Get her hair bobbed, wear devastating silver dresses, go dancing and smoke cigarettes using a long holder.

The problem is poozle that the Beeb can't do decent costume stuff either did you see The Hour? That was shxx as is the new Paradise on tonight I'll give it another chance but I don't hold any hopes for it. At least ITV is throwing money at DA while the Beeb think that any old cheap stuff will do.

at 'oh my willy's broken, oh my willy's fixed'

Isn't Edith's hair already bobbed? Is it chin-length tendrils plus bun, then?

DA definitely needs a London season for Edith to brighten things up we haven't seen them at the London house since the first episode.

The worst bit of modern language I have heard in downton was when Mrs Bates said to Bates last season 'As if', made me shudder it did!

I tried to watch The Paradise too. I wanted to like it but gave up half way through the first episode.

Saw a trailer for The Paradise last night and I actually thought it was a trailer for a special of Larkrise to Candleford, seemed to have some of the same people in it.

how could they have let poor Edith be jilted at the altar? That's so crap.

Is anyone else sick of Bates? Tbh I think they could just drop him now, the way they dropped the man with the melted face and the Canadian accent. He was there and then he was gone. Maybe the rightful heir to Lavinia's father's fortune will reappear, perhaps also heavily bandaged and with a Canadian accent. THe death certificate from India was unreliable. Another possible groom for poor Edith

I am finding it all a bit predictable. I thought Edith would get jilted. I hope its not going to turn into a soap, where they never let anyone be happy.

I always feel as if they like to really, really drag things out and leave them endlessly hanging in the balance in this series. At times it makes me want to throw something at the screen (Matthew dithering about the money, Bates dithering about Anna, etc etc) .

I am expecting Strallen to shoot himself actually. Either that or Edith will do herself in which would be a real shame, I like Edith.

I agree about the language, that bit about Matthew and Mary both having "so much baggage" really jarred. There is a lot of that and I wonder why they left those things in. It must be as obvious to everyone involved in the series as it is to us watching it.

How about this... Bates kills his cell-mate on the same day Anna gets enough info to clear his name from killing Vera, then he'd stay inside and they'd both feel really shit! Then she'd be freed up to do something/one else.

Mary's acting skills clam up even more and she dies sitting in her chair and no one notices for a whole series. just hoping :)

Poozle I question whether JF really is writing it at the minute.

What the hell happened to Shirley McLaine. I can't believe no one shares my outraged, already expressed upthread.

Sybil's child could not inherit title as cannot pass through female line.
I think Strallan may be impotent,hence not wanting to spoil Edith's life,in his eyes.
Think Mary will struggle to get pregnant,but surely won;t actually know she is infertile,am sure people just kept on trying in 1920s,wouldn't have been many fertility tests around then.

that's a tidy solution to Bates. I like that. Actually it really fits the general feel of this series

Bit if Sybil has a son, and Matthew was Lord 6's only male heir, wouldn't piccalilli be Matthew's nearest male heir

LadyHarriet - I share your outrage. I wanted Dame Shirls around getting up the haughty-yet-awesome nostrils of the divine Dame Maggie all series.

The Bates/Anna thing is the height of tedium and yet other storylines are rushed out - the pacing is definitely sloppy. I think the apparently jarring bits of language are put in on purpose by JF to show how jolly clever he is compared to us plebs who don't know that 'dude' was the usual form of address when speaking to a Marquis in 1922. I now hope immeasurably that someone will die so their final words can be 'be excellent to each other'. Although not the lovely Mrs Hughes, she has to recover so we avoid the horror of O'Brien being promoted.

I still think Strallan just doesn't love Edith. She's basically railroaded him all the way from the beginning, surely?

i had thought the same about bates but is that not too obvious?

Piccalilli! I love it!

I think it is also partially down to crazy editing. I think the actors are carrying the can completely and nót surprised they're planning on going.

I don't think we'll see much more from Strallan. Once they exit the screen it seesm they also exit JF's mind.