Downton Abbey- Series 3, episode 1

By RedAmarilla (Flickr: National Television Awards 2012) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

This show airs later in the U.S., but it’s on British TVs now, which means that it’s on the internet and we can find it. Joy! We’re so glad this show is back, but the premiere wasn’t as eventful or exciting as we wanted it to be. Sure, the last two amazing episodes were the finale and Christmas special, but isn’t the first episode of a new season supposed to be just as good as those?

Mary is so proper and socially savvy. We love her. She’s smart, spirited, and she loves her family. She’s not a flat character, nor is she perfect. She’s the sort of female character we wish we’d see more on American TV. We liked that she stayed in touch with Sybil and is still protective of her. Even though she couldn’t have approved, you couldn’t detect a hint of judgment from her last night. One of us doesn’t think Mary is pretty. Just thin. It might be that her eyebrow shape isn’t the best possible choice. Sybil is the prettiest. Edith…poor Edith. We hope she finds someone better than the old dude.

Sorry, but we don’t care about Bates and Anna. We’re sad to say that if he were hot, we might care more. Still, we like that people are making “Free Bates” t-shirts. Lol. The big development is that Lord Grantham unwisely and against advice invested Cora’s fortune and lost it all?!! There’s no way he can lose Downton Abbey though. The show is called Downton Abbey! Cora took the news well. Too bad her husband macked on that maid last season. Ugh, we hated that so much.

We were Team Matthew in the fight. We get that Mary thought of it as a betrayal of her family, but it was for his integrity. When you marry someone, you have to take their side over your family’s. People were really mean to the new guy, Alfred. He’s kind of “meh,” but we hope the show figures out something interesting to do with him. We don’t think the show has had something interesting to do with Thomas in a while.

We figured since the Mary/Matthew relationship is the heart of the show, there was no way they could actually go through with the wedding. But we were wrong! Mary’s wedding attire was perfect, but the best fashion moment was Sybil’s cute short haircut. Matthew continues to be perfect. We liked when he stood up for Branson and made him the best man. We also like that Sybil is sticking by Branson. If our husbands looked like that, we wouldn’t care at all if our families didn’t like him. He does need to stop talking about Ireland though…He could try to make things easier, in general.

Episode grade: B-