Category: downton abbey

While I’m currently obsessed with The Gilded Age’s Season 3 – the writing is SO good this season – I will still make time for the proto-Gilded Age, Downton Abbey. Between the actual television series and the neverending parade of post-show movies, I am not surprised that people have actually lost the plot of the Crawleys’ lives. The only one I really care about is Tom Branson (Allen Leech), the Irishman who marries the only cool Crawley daughter, Lady Sybil, then decides to raise their daughter at Downton after Sybil’s death. Tom talks sense into princesses and romances socialists, suffragettes and a lady’s maid (who turned out to be an actual lady). He eventually remarried and seems quite happy.

I bring up Tom because, at some point in the Downton world, he goes into business with Lady Mary’s second husband Henry Talbot and they basically own a car dealership, and Henry also races cars, a convenient excuse for why Matthew Goode never seems to find time in his schedule to show up for the movies. Well, now they’ve got a scandalous new reason for Henry’s absence: Lady Mary and Henry have gotten a DIVORCE! In England in the 1930s. This is the big scandal at the heart of Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale:

As you can see, they also bring back Paul Giamatti, who must be doing this for sh-ts and giggles at this point, because I can’t imagine the money is that good. He returns as Cora’s brother Harold Levinson. This would be… Great Depression-era, correct? The tagline is that it’s set as the family “enters the 1930s,” and the stock market crashed in 1929. So yeah, lines up. I guess they’re going to have to sell Downton, and that’s the “grand finale.” They can’t kill off any more people and get surprise windfall inheritances. I also have to say – they made Lady Mary into a black widow, so I’m shocked that her second husband got out of the marriage alive. Hm. And Alessandro Nivola is her love interest in this?? I’ve never understood why men go gaga for Mary, honestly – she’s so haughty and priggish. Anyway, I’ll be watching… whenever it comes out on streaming/rental.

Screengrabs courtesy of the trailer.

I was a huge fan of the original Downton Abbey series. Americans tended to believe that Downton was some kind of highbrow series, but it was not. It was just a soap opera with Edwardian costumes. There’s part of me which will never, ever forgive Lady Mary for all of the ways she undermined and screwed over her sister Edith, but I digress. As I said, I was a big fan. After the show ended, producers have tried to revive interest in the Downton Abbey universe by making two films, 2019’s Downton Abbey and 2022’s Downton Abbey: A New Era. Both of the movies were absolutely awful! A New Era was one of the stupidest things I’ve ever seen, with the Dowager Countess suddenly inheriting a summer home in the south of France. My god. I don’t think either of the films were financially successful, but maybe they broke even. Or maybe this is all some sort of financial scheme. Well, they’re making a third film! There’s a minor spoiler in this:

Downton Abbey is back! After a successful run from 2010 to 2015, the beloved show had two movie spinoffs: 2019’s Downton Abbey and 2022’s Downton Abbey: A New Era. Now, it’s back again, with a third installation confirmed in May 2024.

The news of the new movie was announced by Focus Features and Carnival Films with a sweet video on Instagram of the cast reuniting on set. Michelle Dockery, who will reprise her role as Lady Mary, shared that the ensemble of actors was thrilled to come back together and work on a new story once again.

According to the official release, much of the main cast will return to the big screen in the third film, including Hugh Bonneville, Elizabeth McGovern, Michelle Dockery, Laura Carmichael, Joely Richardson, Alessandro Nivola, Simon Russell Beale and Arty Froushan. Notably, recent Academy Award nominee Paul Giamatti will also reprise his role as Cora Grantham’s brother, Harold Levinson.

Dominic West will also return to the cast as Guy Dexter, whom he played in the previous installment, Downton Abbey: A New Era. The last installment in the Downton Abbey franchise left off with the death of a beloved character, Lady Violet, whose secret relationship with a Marquis in the South of France was explored by her family. Meanwhile, Lady Mary, Violet’s granddaughter, entertained her own romantic relationships, lamenting the absence of her husband, Henry Talbot, and starting an affair with the director Jack Barber, who is filming a movie in her home.

[From People]

Lady Mary didn’t really start an affair with Jack Barber (played by Hugh Dancy) but they did flirt and he was up for it. Probably because he doesn’t realize that she’s Black Widow Crawley, the bajingo of doom. Speaking of, A New Era was set in 1928, meaning from the start of the series to the last movie, we’ve only covered 16 years. George, the heir of Downton, was born in 1921. Will the third film see the Crawleys finally enter the 1930s and all of those complications? Probably not, that would ruin how low-stakes this soap opera really is. Anyway, I can’t believe that so many actors are refusing to just let these stories end with dignity. Bridget Jones is another one, I cannot believe they’re making another Bridget Jones movie.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instar.

I didn’t see the first Downton Abbey movie in theaters, but I totally watched it when it came out on DVD/streaming. I loved the series in all of its stuffy Edwardian soap opera glory and I still get mad when I think about certain storylines (mostly involving Poor Edith). I had the impression that the first film didn’t do very well financially and I was like “how do they justify making a second film?” Turns out, the first film did pretty well, all things considered. Box office receipts: $237,860,050, and these films are relatively cheap to make. It’s not like they have to build a 200-year-old castle from scratch, nor do they have to pay special effects companies to CGI a bunch of crap. No, these films are just old-fashioned soap operas and here we go: the Crawleys are finally entering the Roaring Twenties. Here’s the trailer for Downton Abbey: A New Era.

Downton Abbey: A Very Crawley Holiday!! This looks so cheesy and dumb, I CANNOT WAIT. One thing I love about Julian Fellowes is that he swore that he would never kill off Maggie Smith’s Dowager Countess and he’s kept his promise. She’s a treasure. A treasure who is doing this for a paycheck and because she does not give a flying f–k. As for the plot… the Crawleys invade France, for a vacation. And I think Tom Branson (played by Allen Leech) finally falls seriously in love and gets remarried. But will he and Sibi still reside at the Abbey??!? What about Edith and her man? Hm. Oh, and speaking of doing it for a paycheck, apparently Matthew Goode is in this movie so at least we know Black Widow Mary hasn’t killed off another one. Dominic West is apparently in this one too?? Hm.

Photos courtesy of Downton Abbey’s social media.