Downton .................predictable

[triplets]

Won`t say too much for those yet to see....................grrr just knew what was going to happen, they could have thought of another way. Spoilt it.

glad i only just watched this tonight and not on christmas day.

i thought the baby was going to be stillborn, they way it was going.

didnt really think the story line about tom worked at all either

Yes - I think they could have handled the Tom thing better. It's obviously now extra-weird for him to be a member of the 'family' but without Sybil there. Equally Giant Baby Sybil needs her dad to be part of the 'above stairs' set so he can't really be nipping out for a fag and a gossip with O'Brien or whatever. I would have liked to have seen more of the awkward dinner below stairs and less of the Slut Maid number 5 (is it 5 now?) making an arse of herself. Why did we need the fascinating look into Victorian manners exemplified by the servants all having to be called weird things like Miss Crawley and Mr Grantham?

Well obviously Branson and Rose are going to get it together once she arrives at Downton. She's Sybil's replacement, up to and including the marvellous classless bonding with Anna whilst teaching her to reel. What giggling and girly hugging they had! Boring. But Branson can't risk an affair below stairs because the Grantham lawyers would swing in (even in these enlightened Downtin days) and snatch Baby Sybil. So he's going to have to play safe. Ho hum.

Downton. Not Dowtin. They're still posh up there.

When does the new series start?

I thought it was really rather horrible for a Christmas special. Last year'appropriately cheerful and romantic but the ending of this one with Matthew's bloodied staring face was just gruesome . Agree the slutty maid was a ridiculous bit of storyline, rather like the maid who came on to Lord 6 a while back. This time slut-maid was so laden with fake tan/bronzer that I laughed out loud. Far too many tans at the fair too. The makeup generally has gone downhil since the first series, Lady G is always layered in vats of eyeliner.

Totally crapola :( Unbelievably boring and uneventful until the last 15 mins, then really miserable for a Xmas edition. And Mary is becoming increasingly wooden and detestable at the same time - which is a kind of anti-achievement...

In retrospect, it also seems a bit unfair not to have given Dan Stevens something more exciting to do for his last episode. The Sybil actress got to do drama and a truly horrendous death scene. Dan got to mildly reprimand Edith's adulterer and say how happy he was with Mary. I appreciate they wanted to keep the news under wraps beforehand, but sending him off with no fanfare seems harsh.

Why, oh why, can't we have happy endings in the Christmas specials? You are feeling the joys of the season, then turn on telly, and it's murder, death and mayhem everywhere. Thank goodness for Miranda. Will miss Dan Stevens, though , and after the funeral, what story lines will there be for Lady Mary? I find Edith interesting, and hope there's more drama coming for her, although I fear we will be seeing more of Branson and Rose than we want.

trib I thought that too, he should have had a torrid affair and caught syphillis or something :o

Maybe lucky for JF that DS wanted out as now there´s Lord G´s own GS to take over-without having to have a pesky MC type in the mean time

Hoping for something good for Edith-& much much less of boring Mary in the next series.

I'm assuming Lady Rose will eventually marry Tom Pickle, no?

And yes, ediths new fella looks like the other one, but younger

Had not heard DS was leaving, so it was a shock to us until the few minutes before, driving along, I suddenly said "Oh no, he's not being killed off is he?!" a few more seconds of sunshiney driving, and all those oh-so-sickly things MC has been saying replayed in our heads, and we knew. Oh look, there's a lorry.....

Oh great. No happy ending. Happy Christmas Everyone. Thanks a bunch JF!

"I'm assuming Lady Rose will eventually marry Tom Pickle, no?"

Oh God no, I hope not.

I doubt he´d manage to marry above himself a second time!

I think he´s destined to be a widower, isn´t he?

God - surely Pickle doesn't deserve that. He is in a tricky situation as (for the sake of Giant Baby Sibyl) he can't really marry into 'his own kind' but can hardly expect to bag another aristo either. Like Mary he needs to look to the middle classes to save him - a highly respectable doctor's daughter would be much more acceptable.

Which reminds me, why the HELL did Dr Wotsit try it on with Isobel after all these years? He can't stand her, for one thing.

I think the signs were there when Mary did that very odd glacial reaction - and kept looking down at baby when Matthew was whispering lovey dovie words. I thought oh no he's going to have to go.

I believe Pickle is THE man - and will handle Mary.

I had no idea DS was leaving so spent the whole of the episode missing the Christmassy factor of last year and wondering why they had chosen no Christmas theme to notice the now-glaringly obvious doom and gloom ending approaching fast.
Thanks very much, JF, merry Christmas to you too.
Agree with all of the above but nobody's mentioned the lack of Lady Violet's moments...? I missed her cracking one liners and withering looks, in an episode that length there could have been a bit more.

Just finished it. Boring and ridiculous.

Yes - as a 'Christmas Special' it kinda failed on both counts!

They might as well go the whole hog and have a Dynasty-style massacre, perhaps leaving Anna as the sole survivor bringing up Giant Baby Sibyl and Unnamed Heir on her own.

Who else thinks the baby will be called Matthew?

Why are people calling baby sibyl giant? It was a year later so she looked about the right size to me...

Sorry tango GBS is her name from our Downton thread when series 3 was on. She is no longer a giant baby but correctly proportioned - however 'correctly proportioned Sybil' isn't so catchy

Just how many more clichés are there in JF's "repertoire" ! Overlong , over signposted and plenty of ignored unfinished plot threads. Presumably Daisy didn't move to the farm after all ?

Ahh, I get it now tripot, thanks.