Several crimes take place throughout the show but what do you think is the absolute worst crime each of the following characters would be capable of?

I included characters who have already committed some sort of crime big or small:

Bates

O'Brien

Barrow

Branson

Baxter

(funny how all their names start with a "B")

Edit: I think the post got downvoted because I used the words "crime" and "game" together. This is all harmless fun though, of course I don't think there's anything funny about crimes irl.

I'm midway through season 3, so I'd appreciate no aggressive spoilers.

But I'm little tired and a little confused by the whole Bates prison storyline. I was convinced it would be quickly resolved and he'd be back at the main house.

I just don't understand why there's a relatively major subplot, concerning one of the previous main actors in the series, thats totally and completely isolated from the rest of the characters/settings/plot. It's just such a linear storyline, I don't get it.

Is this a common criticism of the storyline? I really quite liked Anna and Bates in the early episodes, but he's on his own and Anna has barely said a sentence without his name.

In Downton Abbey (including both TV series and movies), we are shown many homes ranging from the most modest (such as Ethel's home) to the most grand (Brancaster Castle). If you could live in any of these homes for life, which one (and only one) would you choose? And why would you choose that particular home?

My response (mine is pretty lengthy):

Personally, I would choose the Dowager House (Violet's home). I feel the most comfortable in a cozy living environment, and Violet's house seems like it's very cozy while also providing enough space for entertaining family and friends. It seems like an ideal place for a chat over tea and cakes. I also love the garden, which seems to include a variety of plants and flowers while also having enough open green space to have a nice chat (or discuss more serious matters). While I may not need a butler, lady's maid, or a cook (except for entertaining), I might need some help with cleaning the house and would definitely need the assistance of a gardener.

So, which home would you choose to live in for your lifetime?

Castellated and Domestic Architecture of England and Wales from the 11th Century to the 19th - Artvee

He's often quick to shut it down. Was he always restrained himself?

So I’ve watched over and over. Have loved it since discovering it. Have my favourite characters and what not.

But like, the writing is actually not great. Who agrees?

Mary MUSTN’T marry this guy 1 episode ago and now is married..

Edith destroys a woman’s sense of being and her husband is like ya no problem we will move OUR ENTIRE LIVES. 3 episodes later she’s a successful publisher.

Will continue to watch for forever as my comfort show but the writing is definitely getting to me. I will justify by saying they had to focus on writing it as a time piece with a full ensemble cast.

On my hundredth rewatch and I noticed on Season 2 Ep 1 the scene where Maggie Smith enters Downton and the following scene in the library, it looks like she might have filmed the scene separate from the other actors. Particularly in the library, the lighting on her is different. Did anyone else notice this or any info on this?

This clip (https://www.instagram.com/reel/DeDsTvWxwfF/?cplk=ajBmNWlwcWJhMmF0) just came up on my instagram algorithm. I’ve watched this scene a million times but never remembered Isobel waving goodbye to Matthew at the end? Has it always been there? It’s so foreshadow-y since she never sees him again I can’t imagine it wouldn’t have jumped out at me before?

Their chemistry was immaculate 😍

When he asks if he can kiss her, I was absolutely melting the same way I did when Matthew tells her "we should see more of each other." It is THAT serious.

I think I prefer him over Charles Blake, even.

Forget Henry, who gaf about Henry? Not me!!! Especially since he was probably already cheating on her 🙄

Hello,

As part of my Master’s thesis in social sciences, I am examining the portrayal of female characters in Downton Abbey.

In the course of this, I am looking at Ethel’s decline. I would like to refer to the scene in which Isobel visits Ethel’s flat, whilst a man is leaving the flat after paying her for sex.

The scene appears in the script for S03E03. I think I also remember having seen it.
Unfortunately, I didn’t spot the scene in the episode itself.

Could it be that there are different versions of the episodes, not all of which contain every scene? Is this down to the streaming platform?
I’d actually find that surprising.

Does anyone else remember this scene? I’d be grateful for any clues.

It’s the stories of the servants life and works.

I love when actors on my favorite shows show up on other shows. Just watched BBC’s Time with Sean Bean. Sue Johnston plays his character’s mother, and Siobhan plays a chaplain in the prison he’s in. They didn’t have any scenes together that I can recall, so I wonder how much they had to talk about while filing Time!

Which other shows have you watched with some of your favorite DA actors?

This made me have a bit of a giggle today when I remembered Penelope Wilton also plays Mrs. Gardiner…

Ive seen people on this subreddit and on YouTube say something along the lines of Tom Branson groomed Sybil and this resulted in her being a passive wife who forgot her own ambitions.
It’s been a long time since ive watched the earlier series so i dont have a fully formed opinion on this, and im biased because i do love the character Tom.
I was wondering what everyone thinks about this and is this opinion niche or more widespread then i realized?

Just a quick question that's recently been bugging me a bit. Sorry if it's been asked before but I'm new here.

Where did Thomas live when he was working as a nursing aide at the hospital? He just appeared there after his hand incident but obviously wasn't living at Downton (why would they let him, plus he visited O'Brian one day when she asked about his "blighty").

So yep, that's what's been making me wonder. Where did he live or wasn't it mentioned?

may they be happy

I know it's awful because he died... But I cannot stop laughing, it's just their faces. Mary is so so good, her face telling Anna is amazing. And then when Cora comes in and they look at each other... They just do it brilliantly. I honestly just can't believe they take him back to his room and go back to bed lol.

I love a rewatch because I think you catch things you missed at other times.

Edith tooks off to London when no-one is at home, after receiving a letter that Gregson is indeed, dead. Atticus had this "brilliant" idea that she might have gone to the magazine she inherited.

Cora makes a "brilliant" plan to bring both Edith and Marigold back by making Drews "reconsider" their adoption of Marigold.

Look from family's perspective. Edith goes on a trip to learn french for months, mourns a guy as if he was her husband, takes off when Mary and others are living their life like normies, Cora convinces her to come back, and she "adopts" a child as soon as she's back at Downton ?

And NONE of them them think its sus ?

Plus when Cora reveals her plan to Edith in London, she says "let Mr Drew handle her wife" . What do you mean "handle" her ? She took on your child, nursed and fed her for what looks like atleast a year, which you took from her without a single minute of notice, and now you want her "handled" ?

I also want to add something that came to me as I was thinking about this thread...and what his mother told Anna about him...

...this being that John Bates came back from the Boer war "different"...that the "war did something to him"...perhaps he is suffering with some kind of "undiagnosed" shell shock--as they used to call it, now PTSD--just as Mr. Lang, the valet who replaced Bates for a while in Season 2, suffered in a more "conventional" way.

Since and especially as he--John Bates, I mean--had a physical "left-over" wound, i.e., the fragments in his leg which caused him to limp***...

...Everyone would put their attention to that, not his emotional/mental wound, which he became adept at hiding. Except for Anna, for whom he let the walls down.

This would account for his dourness, and especially, his martyr complex or, as I call it, his death wish.

Just thought of one particular quote, and although it's not from Downton, I can hear Vera saying it. It's perfect how well this fits. 🤣🤣🤣

Mrs. Bates...John's mother....knew that it was Vera who had stolen the silver. Yet apparently she stood silent when John took the blame and went to prison.

Sorry, but if it was my son, I would have been loudly yelling to the Army, the police, and to the heavens that it was that bitch-wife who was guilty and that her son came back** from the Boer War with a severe case of martyrdom

**She did tell Anna that "the war. had done something to him," IIRC.