Who is your favourite Downton sister?

[AWiseWomanOnceSaidFuckThisShit]

Having a Netflix binge. I bloody love Edith I'm rooting for her! She's constantly getting hurt and being overlooked by everyone. I know she comes across as bitter and downtrodden but yet she's kind and helpful and supportive. She's the one I'd want as a friend :-)

Yes it’s a status thing, the cook and housekeeper were traditionally called Mrs.

@Mummytomylittlegirl , few more for you.
We went on a coach tour , Oxford then downtown abbey. It was a fantastic weekend.
If you do go, book also to see the Egyptian collection in the basement

@drinkingwineoutofamug fab photos and lucky you!

On a related note, the three 'sisters' couldn't have looked less alike...

Do we know that Edith's Michael actually died in Germany? I always expected him to reappear at some inconvenient for her moment.

I haven't yet seen the film– clearly, I need to so before the next one is released next year!

@NewModelArmyMayhem18 I fully expected Michael to dramatically reappear at Edith's wedding to Bertie!

I love Sybil to pieces.

Edith annoys the living daylights out of me, for most of it she comes across as pathetic, though in real life I would be ty sympathetic toward her. She does get less irritating by the end.

Mary is just a fabulous character. I've read that some think the actress I'd 'wooden' but - that's a conscious decision! Michelle Dockery absolutely nails the stiff upper lip, aristocratic act-as-if-everything-is-always-dandy thing. Mary is so layered and fun to watch.

I don’t find Edith pathetic. She learns to drive tractors, makes the running in her relationship with (the considerably more pathetic) Strallen and stands up to her father about writing a column.

Totally agree re Mary.

I fully expected Michael to dramatically reappear at Edith's wedding to Bertie!

Oh goodness me too! I can’t quite believe he didn’t. He was a great character and his ‘end’ was such a waste.

Did anyone else think all of Mary's post-Cousin Matthew suitors looked exactly the bloody same? I could never remember who was who.

@TheCountessofFitzdotterel

I don’t find Edith pathetic. She learns to drive tractors, makes the running in her relationship with (the considerably more pathetic) Strallen and stands up to her father about writing a column.

Her actions aren't pathetic. It's the facial expressions, the sniping, the feeling sorry for herself, the over exaggeration of being the least favourite/middle child. (All of which are mostly in the earlier seasons to be fair and is also down to other characters' actions towards her.)

I did like her a lot more in the later series, she had great character development.

Maybe Julian Fellowes has yet to play the 'Michael returns from the dead' card?

I did find it fitting and oddly satisfying that Edith ultimately 'trumped' Mary in their marriages!

I'm going against the grain. Can't stand Carson in the last series.

He's needlessly spiteful and repeatedly rude to Barrow, even though in an earlier series Thomas mentions Carson is a fair man. I think the suicide attempt was mainly down to how Carson dealt with Barrow.

Can't stand the scenes when Thomas is off to his new job and Anna, Carson and Robert all take the chance to tell him publicly to be a better person.

I haven’t got to the last series yet but Carson is definitely flawed all the way through. He manages to be even more snobbish and stick in the mud than Robert over Nellie Melba and he has a visceral homophobia against Thomas. I think he’s a great character though as this all feels realistic for a man of his age and class who has chosen to devote his career to keeping standards up in an aristocratic household.

Carson is married to Mrs Umbridge (from Harry Potter) in real life.

Imagine meeting them both on holidays on the beach together

@3luckystars

Carson is married to Mrs Umbridge (from Harry Potter) in real life.

And Mrs Hughes is married to Ethel's child's grandfather!

@VanishingAct

Did anyone else think all of Mary's post-Cousin Matthew suitors looked exactly the bloody same? I could never remember who was who.

Yes. I had absolutely no idea who was who!

Yes! It didn't help that they kept turning up in different combinations, so you couldn't compare them. I did recognise Julian Ovenden, but I'm not sure I knew which one he was.

@PolkadotsAndMoonbeams he was the one she got grubby with in the pigsty (not a euphemism) but then got posted to Poland or Russia with the foreign office. I think his name was Charles?

@VanishingAct

Did anyone else think all of Mary's post-Cousin Matthew suitors looked exactly the bloody same? I could never remember who was who.

Me too! I need faces to be very different or they all merge into one! I always struggled to see the difference between Alfred and Jimmy as well.

@3luckystars

Carson is married to Mrs Umbridge (from Harry Potter) in real life.

Oh my god I love this!

[quote drinkingwineoutofamug]@Mummytomylittlegirl , few more for you.
We went on a coach tour , Oxford then downtown abbey. It was a fantastic weekend.
If you do go, book also to see the Egyptian collection in the basement [/quote]
Thanks so much for pics! I really hope I can book. Currently being terrorised by newborn twins and a toddler so just need to plan my escape.

And of course Prof Umbridge was also Cousin Maud in the Downton film!

I hated the way Mary revelled in her superiority over Edith, based on nothing more than birth order. I also hated how that superiority (and accompanying bitchiness) was just accepted by the parents, the family, by all of society really, as the natural way of things.

[spoiler alert]

Was so glad she ended up with a love match, taking precedence over 'em all.

Watching a Christmas episode this morning. Mary really can’t sing!