Cameltoes

Re: the empty house. After viewing the trailer a couple more times, I believe there will be a flashforward (or maybe the events of series 6 will be framed as a flashback). It looks like Thomas is going back to visit Downton. So the house will be empty at some point in the future, but I don't think the emptying will take place by series end. There's a scene where the family arrives at the house and the could be part of the flashforward as well, but it doesn't have the same feel as the Thomas scenes.

I'd love to see a movie that takes place 20 years in the future. Marigold, George, and Sybil all grown-up and given Fellowes's love of incorporating history, we'd get a sense of the impact of things like Edward's abdication and World War II without needing 10 more seasons of the show to cover it.

None of the major, long-term characters make my list as the only problem with them was poor writing as the seasons went on. Thus, #1 on my list is Julian Fellowes himself. I am grateful for the vision that created the show, and the high points were magnificent but, when it was bad, it was horrid. Most of the characters who I disliked are gone: Jimmy - I got a kick out of the plot surrounding his entrance and I enjoyed it when his friendship with Thomas began to blossom, but he was mostly a useless character whose anger was never explained. Edna Braithwaite - Another character whose bad attitude was never sufficiently explored. As horrible as Thomas and O'Brien could be, it was always clear that they were hardened by life experiences and their humanity was revealed on many occasions. Edna was both cartoonishly malevolent AND stupid. Martha Levison - If she's an example of how JF writes upper class Americans, "The Gilded Age" will suck. She was supposed to be a match for Violet, but that completely fell flat. Mostly she just ran around bleeting about the English needing to embrace change ad infinitium. The problem is that the storyline and characterization (and history) were revealing that, we didn't need it pointed out by Martha. Her arrival for the wedding should have been delicious given all the hints we had about her personality but she pretty much did nothing but prove that everyone was right to not want her around. Ivy - Utterly pointless. I guess she was supposed to be some kind of cross between Daisy, Ethel and Gwen, but she ended up just being a simpering idiot. Susan MacClare - Horrid, horrid woman. She gives Mrs. Bates a run for her money in terms of being the most heinous character who ever graced the steps of the Abbey. She slut-shamed her own daughter only to then try to ruin her happiness after she actually become as "respectable" as she always wanted. Not to mention how stupid it was for her to turn up her nose at the Sinderbys given she and her husband's complete loss of fortune. Spratt - Nasty man who cost Moseley his chance at upward versus downward mobility (I'll ignore for a moment how ridiculous the plot that caused this come about was). I will forever be convinced that he is stealing from Violet and he's really responsible for the things that went missing. I do not understand why Violet keeps him around.

I am curious about Edith's scene at the :46 mark. She seems to be filled with anxiety but also perhaps anticipation and excitement. It makes me think her "happily ever after" will be Gregson's return from the dead. I just can't see them pulling off two brand new romances and having them both reach some sort of completion. Mary has more or less moved on from Matthew, but Edith brings a lot of baggage into a new relationship. A Gregson return would allow them to relatively neatly resolve the Marigold situation.

Makes perfect sense to me. The shows at the top of the list had justifiably lost a lot of viewers before their series finales. But, I guess it does show that Charmed still had (and seemingly has) a lot of good will with viewers based on the earlier seasons.

Shannen has breast cancer I wish her a full and speedy recovery! I feel badly for anyone who has to go through this.

I just caught up on all of season 2 of "Sleep Hollow" and Brad Kern must be livid. While the overall storyline is different on the surface, the show has totally been ripping off Charmed. They've had a wendigo, a succubus, an ancestral book with the key to stopping evil, and a pentagram covering the town. Plus, the overall baddie of the week plus the "big bad" behind everything is straight of the Charmed playbook. Kern was busy trying to make a silly Mermaid show when he should have just ripped off all of the Charmed plots and put them in a completely different setting. "Sleepy Hollow" is kind of like how I imagine a supernatural show centered on Prue and Andy or Phoebe and Cole solving crimes would be.

I wonder if it's ficitonally conceivable that they are the same person. She could have changed her name, gotten a new career, etc. She never met Phoebe and we don't know if she ever found out Prue's last name.

I actually don't think Mary is that mercenary. Ironically, I think part of the reason for her nastiness, is that she's not. She could have certainly agreed to marry Matthew from the beginning or strung him along, as the Dowager suggested, after they found out about the baby. I think her emotions get in the way of her pragmatism and her inability to reconcile the two sides of herself makes her lash out at others and make poor, insensitive choices. I absolutely hated the way she dealt with Lavinia, especially when she was dying. I don't think she had any business being in that room. But, I thought she was at her most sympathetic during season two because her inner conflict was palpable. I've never been convinced that she would have married Carlisle even if Matthew didn't get better. The problem was that she didn't have the guts to tell her father the truth about the Pamuk situation. All she needed was his absolution. I must say, though, that after season 3 especially, I also often wondered what Matthew saw in her. I know "the heart wants what it wants" but given his personality, I could more see a reversal of what was scripted - with Mary falling for him first and Matthew being turned off. But it seems that he fell in love with her from the moment she said, "I wouldn't want to push in."

Perhaps but my impression from the show was that that was changing or, at least, Mary herself wanted love in addition to position and/or money. She said she would have married Patrick "if nothing better came along". Anna knows her very well and in speaking with Gwen, she made it clear that she didn't think Mary would have married Patrick. She told Sir Richard that "tradition demands some mention of love". Evelyn Napier was a perfectly respectable option for her but he didn't do it for her. She followed her passions. Maybe it's because of her family expectations that she was always longing for more but love has been scripted as an ideal. Certainly for Mary and I think as a theme of the show in general. The great loves of the show all have involved overcoming great barriers - Anna/Bates, Sybil/Tom, Mary/Matthew. Of course it's hard to say since we only have mentions in the past tense, but I've not been convinced by anything we've seen that it was absolutely one-sided. We don't know anything about Patrick's personality. He may have been resigned to "doing the right thing". The thing that everyone wanted. His father was apparently not very nice so I can imagine pressure coming from Patrick's family as well. Maybe in an alternative universe where Patrick survives, we would have seen a true, and complex triangle with love conflicting with duty.

Here you go: Deleted Scenes

While I am more sympathetic towards Edith, I don't dislike Mary at all. I think she's a wonderful character. My favorite moments between the sisters are also the ones when they are getting along or showing some solidarity. There was a scene after Sybil's death of the two walking together. Anna found them to tell them about Bates being freed. We never got to see the conversation the sisters were having. That kind of thing bothers me more than anything. Their relationship is not all rivalry and petty squabbling but we rarely get to see the positive side of their relationship. It's a shame that the showrunners think that the nasty side is more appealing. If they weren't sisters, I could get behind it more.

I would have loved to see that version of season 3. Especially given that DS left the show. Star crossed indeed. My only issue is that because the plan was for Matthew and Mary to get together at season's end, Lavinia wasn't written as a stronger character. If she were to stay around as the mother of the heir, I'd want her to be a more kick ass character.

Realistically speaking, Edith would have left permanently. I'm sure she could have come up with a way to keep her daughter with her as well. Grandma Shirley McClaine could have helped. But, the show is keeping everyone at Downton so she's probably stuck there for God knows how long. I never understood why Mary had to be the one married to the heir. Yes, she's the oldest but any one of the sisters would have kept the money in the family. Everyone knew Edith was the one who was in love with Patrick. In a deleted scene from the first episode, which I wish they had kept in, Robert and Edith discuss Patrick and though it is unspoken, it is obvious he knew about her feelings. It was pretty cruel of everyone to want to force the sister who didn't love him to marry him while leaving the other heartbroken. Robert and Cora made the crack about Edith being their nurse but given that they were willing to marry off the love of her life to her older sister, they were pretty instrumental in dooming her to spinsterhood.

That's my biggest problem - Mary has become less mature and it's completely nonsensical given what they both and the entire family have been through. And I just don't see the type of unnecessary cruelty from Edith that we've seen from Mary. Not recently. Edith did get some digs in the beginning of season 2 (1916! 7-8 years ago in show time) but she changed dramatically during the war years and after Sybil died. Off the top of my head I can think of 5 petty Mary digs. Her adoring and devoted husband had to scold her on multiple occasions for it. It makes the character look absurd. She acts like she is a spoiled 5 year old while Edith has been forced to grow up. The bottom line for me is not Edith vs. Mary but that it undermines a character that has otherwise been very strongly conceived and written. The fact that she is at all sympathetic is a testament to the writing and, especially, Michelle Dockery (I cannot imagine anyone else pulling this off) but it's maddening to see her and the character wasted on such juvenile nonsense. I loved it when Mary and Edith teamed up to track down Sybil and convince her to return home. They don't need to be best friends but 30 year olds acting like children isn't pleasant - not in real life and not on TV. It's time for their relationship to evolve.