Dissecting Downton Part 1

By Misty Harris
(Spoiler alert for those who have not watched!)

Where were you Sunday night at 9 p.m.? Glued to your television set, no doubt, celebrating the arrival of Downton Abbey Season 3. The waiting was excruciating. I went through withdraw a time or two. Although it was the second time I watched the first episode, my anticipation level was the same, like Christmas all over again.
Will they or won't they marry? My money was on they wouldn't and Matthew wasn’t sure either. Will they release Bates? Who will love Lady Edith? Upon viewing, I was delighted to see Lady Edith's beau back on the scene and for a moment I had forgotten that Lady Sybil was expecting a child. Things have indeed changed. It's the beginning of the "Roaring Twenties" era and I am totally loving the costumes, flapper girl style, and the hair (Lady Edith "have you done something jolly with your hair"?) The comic relief -"I'm so sorry I thought you were a waiter"- and the arrival of Martha Levinson (Shirley MacLaine) balances out the black cloud that looms over the family's withering fortune and poor Mr. Bates' current status as an inmate.

A great number of the Crawley clan may be viewed as traditionalists/conservative. So how do you think they will deal with this unexpected financial bind? How will they bounce back from the cost of Mary’s dress alone? How will the servant staff survive, struggling to keep things together downstairs and upstairs, again the arrival of (as the Dowager Countess called her) the “Queen of Sheba” and of course Sybil’s new husband - who seems to be their biggest challenge of all? How will they manage to see eye to eye with their ex-butler turned relative Branson (I mean Tom)?  I guess we will have to wait and see. Tune in to Downton Abbey Season 3 Sunday evenings at 9 p.m. on WNED-TV. Click here to watch the first episode again!