An exciting offer for Edith divides opinion in the house. Isobel ends up throwing Ethel a lifeline. Ivy is attracting plenty of attention below stairs. Anna’s perseverance finally pays off for her.Download Video Downton Abbey Series 3 Episode On ABC Family Tv Online Tv Live Streaming Video. Online Watch Downton Abbey Full Episode Watch Stream HD Video on Internet TV.Beginning in the years leading up to World War I, the drama centers on the Crawley family and their servants. "The sun is rising behind Downton Abbey, a great and splendid house in a great and splendid park. So secure does it appear, that it seems as if the way of life it represents will last for another thousand years. It won't". In season 2, the lives of the Crawley family and the servants who work for them has been changed forever, since the Great War was declared at the end of the last season.Mary and Matthew had the potential to be a bit sugarly boring without any love-triangle Lavinia in the way, so they spiced things up with enough flirty chat to make a viewer blush, and a nice bit of pre-wedding conflict over yet another surprise fortune for Matthew – he’s lucky, that one, never seems to walk out of his front door without banging into a bag of surprise bequeathed booty, although something tells me there’ll be news from a certain far-off tea plantation before too long… hopefully, not in bandages this time.
Downstairs, Carson was having kittens in the pantry, over Branson calling his new sister-in-law Mary – the cheek of the man! – and the new footman’s ‘hotel ways’, while Anna turned steely-chinned Miss Marple in her efforts to find justice for her husband.
Mr Bates didn’t have much to do this episode, except to keep smiling gratefully and falling out with his cell-mate, so I hope her work’s rewarded soon.
Trickling along in this first episode was Lord Grantham’s ill-concealed worry – nobody does a furrowed brow like Hugh Bonneville – over the family’s dwindling fortune, until lovely Cora told him what surely any financial adviser would advise: have a massive blow-out family wedding and never mind the silver. Invite everyone. And make that another crate of champagne, please. Delightfully decadent, like any self-respecting aristo-paupers in waiting.
But everything had to stop for another swishing arrival on the Downton forecourt. This was the much-heralded Martha Levinson, Cora’s mother, aka Shirley MacLaine with a wonderful set wave, unsettling support for Branson and a turn of phrase to rival the Dowager for pithy.
Downton Abbey is rather exhausting, after a fashion, and I’m not just saying that out of a willful desire to speak in a more English manner (which every episode of Downton Abbey makes me want to do. With lines like “I love you so terribly much,” how couldn’t you?).
I spoke extensively last week about the show’s problem with proportion from week-to-week, and though this week was better than last, the problem with proportion is likely still going to be an issue with the show as we move forward.
That said, I’ve reconciled myself with this fact, and came to enjoy this episode quite a bit, even while it attempted to spread the proverbial stick of butter over an inch of bread, to use a tortured analogy.
The episode opens with a gorgeous shot of Matthew (Dan Stevens) and Mary (Michelle Dockery) inside their new car, driving up towards Downton in the far distance. The cinematography of this show is rarely as lauded as it should be, and sequences like this are precisely why it should receive a helping of acclaim, adding to the richness of the narrative as it does.
The party ends up being a total disaster (the stove is busted, Robert’s shirts are stolen) before Martha swoops in for the save, organizing an indoor picnic where the guests essentially make their own meal from a selection of finger foods, and eat wherever they want while touring the house.
This is beautifully filmed, with authenticity and societal values inherent in both script and acting. The story weaves in and out of two layers of society -- the masters and the servants -- giving us glimpses into the power struggles occurring on each level, and the colourful characters who inhabit both.
I particularly enjoy seeing the large-scale production involved in taking care of a household of this magnitude, and the care taken with all the details.
Downstairs, Carson was having kittens in the pantry, over Branson calling his new sister-in-law Mary – the cheek of the man! – and the new footman’s ‘hotel ways’, while Anna turned steely-chinned Miss Marple in her efforts to find justice for her husband.
Mr Bates didn’t have much to do this episode, except to keep smiling gratefully and falling out with his cell-mate, so I hope her work’s rewarded soon.
Trickling along in this first episode was Lord Grantham’s ill-concealed worry – nobody does a furrowed brow like Hugh Bonneville – over the family’s dwindling fortune, until lovely Cora told him what surely any financial adviser would advise: have a massive blow-out family wedding and never mind the silver. Invite everyone. And make that another crate of champagne, please. Delightfully decadent, like any self-respecting aristo-paupers in waiting.
But everything had to stop for another swishing arrival on the Downton forecourt. This was the much-heralded Martha Levinson, Cora’s mother, aka Shirley MacLaine with a wonderful set wave, unsettling support for Branson and a turn of phrase to rival the Dowager for pithy.
Downton Abbey is rather exhausting, after a fashion, and I’m not just saying that out of a willful desire to speak in a more English manner (which every episode of Downton Abbey makes me want to do. With lines like “I love you so terribly much,” how couldn’t you?).
I spoke extensively last week about the show’s problem with proportion from week-to-week, and though this week was better than last, the problem with proportion is likely still going to be an issue with the show as we move forward.
That said, I’ve reconciled myself with this fact, and came to enjoy this episode quite a bit, even while it attempted to spread the proverbial stick of butter over an inch of bread, to use a tortured analogy.
The episode opens with a gorgeous shot of Matthew (Dan Stevens) and Mary (Michelle Dockery) inside their new car, driving up towards Downton in the far distance. The cinematography of this show is rarely as lauded as it should be, and sequences like this are precisely why it should receive a helping of acclaim, adding to the richness of the narrative as it does.
The party ends up being a total disaster (the stove is busted, Robert’s shirts are stolen) before Martha swoops in for the save, organizing an indoor picnic where the guests essentially make their own meal from a selection of finger foods, and eat wherever they want while touring the house.
This is beautifully filmed, with authenticity and societal values inherent in both script and acting. The story weaves in and out of two layers of society -- the masters and the servants -- giving us glimpses into the power struggles occurring on each level, and the colourful characters who inhabit both.
I particularly enjoy seeing the large-scale production involved in taking care of a household of this magnitude, and the care taken with all the details.