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Interesting speculation!
I immediately fell in love with "Downton Abbey" and have bought each of the 3 seasons on Blu-ray, and it's hard to put one on without moving on to the next and the next and the next.
I think that some here have unjustly criticized Dan Stevens for leaving the show, a move that troubled me too, because he was one of the principal reasons I watched it. But he's a professional actor, fairly young, and didn't want to forever be tied to his role as Matthew Crawley, which is understandable, although it would have made him enough money to never have to work again. Obviously his career was more important than the easy money from "Downton." And I think that it was, in the long run, better for the show -- now the writers can take Mary in a number of different directions with different love interests and not just have to make silly conflicts like WILL Matthew or WON'T Matthew accept the inheritance from the family of the woman whose heart he broke.
I happen to adore the soundtrack for "Downton Abbey" by John Lunn and was amazed at what a good job they did when they produced it, although I can do without the extra songs (except the ones based on Lunn's music, which I DO like). I ended up also buying the follow-up soundtrack "Downton Abbey -- The Essential Collection" even though so much of it are repeats of themes on the first one. But there's enough good stuff on it to justify the expense, although the main soundtrack should be quite sufficient for most.
I used to collect interviews of the cast, such as when some of them visited New York City (had enough of Jim Carter's story about the fan of his eyebrows, which he told during too many interviews -- remember him as the barman/actor who played the Nurse in "Ethel And The Pirate's Daughter"?) and then transferred them to DVD. It was nice to see that the young actor who plays Thomas is quite personable and not at all the monster we just hate on the show!
Someone mentioned that he was quite surprised when Matthew was killed, but news items about Dan's decision to leave the show had been popping up on my screen for months, so it didn't come at all as a surprise to some of us. But he was simply perfect for the role and I must have cried every time I watched the proposal scene in the snow at the end of season 2.
Re: "It's a triumph for Hugh Bonneville, among others." Ahhhh ... Hugh Bonneville, Lord Grantham and the father in the series. Yes indeed. A few months ago I saw him in an early movie of his career where he was this overweight fop who made me cringe, or when he played Samuel Pepys in the Claire Danes/Billy Crudup movie "Stage Beauty" about the end of not allowing women to play women on the stage (no, NOT "Shakepeare In Love"!). Bonneville has aged quite well since then, now just perfect for lords of the manor!
And thanks for the musical links to Julian Ovenden, who sounds terrific and looks like he'll be an interesting addition to the cast of this fine series.
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Amazon just emailed me that "Downton Abbey" season 4 is now available!!!!!!!!!! Well, actually it's available for pre-order, with it not coming out until 1-28-14, just like the last season, which I received about midway into the PBS broadcasting of season 3, and watched the complete season in about 2 days, which I'll probably do again in about 4 months. 4 months for season 4. Can't wait.
Warning to those who have not seen the entire 4th season: There are some spoilers below that AREN'T marked as such, especially on page 5 of these postings, so be careful if you don't want to learn too much.
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Loved the season opener. After the hiatus it wasn't long before I was totally absorbed in the story again.
In retrospect it's good for the story that Matthew's gone. Now there's all the intrigue about who's going to run Downton, and I'm sure Mary is going to be confronted with a host of suitors.
I was hoping Thomas would be nice this season, but NO!
Like the proverbial broken clock which is right twice a day, he "guessed right" on the nanny though, and did DA a big favor. (I won't say how, for those who are waiting to watch episode one on their TIVOs.)
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So I guess I'm going to be the lone naysayer -- so much of it was "ho Hum" for me, although they HAD to get through the heartbreak felt by Matthew's mother and widow, and successfully did so for both, setting them up to move on. But I was troubled by the return of the woman Earl Grantham almost had an affair with, worrying that it could be straying into typical soap opera territory, and the nanny turned out to be quite a vile stinker. And it's obvious that there will now be great conflict between Mary and her father over the running of the estate. To a degree, that will all, in the end, be just exposition to get us to the REAL meat and potatoes -- romance for both sisters. And it looks like the young ward is now going to have her own temptation with a lad (Julian Ovenden?) from the lower class. I didn't hate it, but can't help hoping it gets more interesting for me -- BEFORE my Blu-rays arrive at the end of the month!
Follow-up: It looks like Julian Ovenden doesn't make an appearance until the 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th episodes, so I guess he WASN'T that lad from the dance hall last night.)
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eriknelsonf: And in previous years, when my Blu-rays arrived a few weeks after the show started on PBS, some of MY friends thought that I was cheating by watching the rest of the new season in a weekend while THEY had to wait several weeks to see the rest of it!
Incidentally, was I the only one who felt that they seemed to accentuate the music last night? I had it hooked into my surround system and the score seemed more prominent throughout than I had remembered it from past seasons. Frankly, the audio seemed more like it is when I'm playing the Blu-rays.
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