Downton Abbey post-Season 3

Bottom line: After three seasons, I am getting a little tired of all this drama.

2.5/4

As I am going to be discussing my thoughts with respect to Season 3, mind yourself of spoilers.

I liked the first two seasons of Downton Abbey, in part, because the drama was varied. Did Mary care about Matthew? Were they going to get together? What mischief was Thomas up to now? How was Mrs. Bates going to try to foil her husband’s new life? The drama was about how each of the characters were going to react to a new situation.

Unfortunately, Downton Abbey’s recent driving force has been who is going to die or hook up. I’ve seen enough movies to be emotionally prepared for character deaths so that isn’t going to work on me and I don’t really care about the new relationships.

There are new characters introduced for a little while but I’m not very emotionally invested in them. Take the new maid in the last episode or two. At the beginning of the episode, she eyes up Tom Branson. Of course, they are going to be a thing for an episode or two but because she was just introduced, is she going to be a lasting character? Sure enough, she gets fired before too long.

Over the past season, quite frankly, I got sick of the majority of the characters. I resented Robert for making out with that one maid and never mentioning it. I grew weary of Matthew carrying on about this or that. A major plot line was that Robert’s poor investment decision was going be the financial ruin of the estate. Conveniently, Matthew receives a telegram saying that he might inherit an obscene amount of money. That little possibility shut down any sense of suspense for that plot line but I had to wait maybe three or four episodes for them to move past it. Matthew kept carrying on about how he couldn’t bring himself to accept the money on the matter of principle, never mind the fact that his wife and her family were going to have to sell their home otherwise. Sybil and her husband are the only characters I really liked so, of course, she had to die.

The costumes are still great. The music is still great. The cinematography is still great. If I didn’t ever watch anymore of the show, I don’t feel like I would be missing out. It is ok but I am starting to check out.

How are you feeling about Downton Abbey? Have you seen all of it so far? What characters do you like or dislike? Please do leave a comment. Thanks for reading!