aggiemom09121416

I'd like to know why he wrote her as this annoying shrew myself! I have to trust what's he got in store for us (and Tom..and Edith, lol)...we fans always want the 'happily ever after' for all our beloved characters..that's not how life works. Shows would be really boring if everyone was always so freaking happy all the time.

(on another subject, while watching last week's DA series 5 episode, hubby walks in and starts watching it. I made him leave, told him he might see something (or NOT see someone that should be in the episode)...he got mad at me. LOL (hey, he doesn't know about the bakery truck incident..be sorta hard to explain ol' Tony, huh?)

My daughter watched several seasons of DA before she went back to school. She said Sybil and Anna are her fav characters. I was hoping we'd watch Sybil's birthing episodes, I wanted to see my daughter's reaction to THAT. (I know, that's mean). lol

CarrieAnn

I so agree. It makes me cross when people moan about nasty characters or sad endings. That's life.

L i N d $ @ y

It's the opposite for me. Since life is always so dramatic and stressful, I want a happily-ever-after when I watch TV to escape reality. BUT I also like angst, in fact I enjoy it more when SLs are problematic. I do agree that it's boring when everyone is happy. I guess they can reserve that kind of ep for the show's season finale.

Andorra

I have enough "sad ending" in my own life. It would make me happy to see a good ending for a TV character that I like. It would have given me hope to see a good ending for Tom.

As it is, after series 5, I'm hopeless.

CarrieAnn

You've got a point, Lindsay and Andorra. At the moment the news is so bad too, with terrorist attacks and epidemics and extremist jihadists.

I think that is why people love Downton, its an escape to a gentler age with storylines about love affairs etc. Its nice not to see murders, terrorists etc on there. However the rape of Anna last series was very jarring with an unsatisfactory conclusion IMO.

But I think storylines where you're not sure what is going to happen are more interesting than everyone just being nice to each other and happy all the time.

Andorra

There I agree. But a storyline with a sad ending for a beloved character or - in my case - no ending at all is just disappointing and sad. I lost all enjoyment of a show that I once loved.

Last year around this time I was happy, because I knew it was the week where the actors get their scripts, I was happy that they would they have their reading in 2 weeks and then start filming again. It was exciting and something to look forward to. Just a small thing, but this year there's nothing to look forward to any more.

carrie.suze

Feeling sad for you Andorra, but that's the problem if there's just one character that holds your interest, I like Tom but fortunately there's other people on the show I care about, otherwise I would have stopped watching when Matthew and Sybil went as well.

CarrieAnn

I agree, that is a shame. I hope you find something to make you happy

Andorra

He wasn't the only character that held my interest. I liked many characters (almost everyone actually). But the disappointment is just too big. I've been disappointed once when Sybil died, which was awful, awful, awful.

Nothing had prepared us for it. Every newspaper showed the picture of the happy parents and we all were so happy and had a chat that day, wanting to "celebrate" the "Branson Baby". And then she died. I was so shocked and I couldn't sleep for a whole week afterwards, because I couldn't get rid of the pictures in my head.

Then I stayed for two years despite my disappointment and sadness and trusted Julian Fellows not to hurt me again and to give me SOMETHING nice instead as a little compensation. I thought after what he put the Sybil and Tom fans through, he would give them something positive and would let Tom find happiness again. And now this. On Christmas day.

No, I don't trust him any more and I've never been more disappointed in my life. I feel betrayed and robbed. They took my money and milked me like a cow. I bought the DVDs (in English AND German), I bought all books, I travelled to Highclere and Bampton to see where the show was filmed. I put energy, love and enthusiasm in a stupid TV show, because I thought it would bring me joy. And I need it.

Instead it gave me nothing.

CarrieAnn

Yes, Sybil's death was horrible, I cried over it. I think there were complaints to ITV about it.

Whereas Matthew's death was so ridiculous it made me laugh. So badly written and abrupt.

Andorra

Luckily I was spoiled about Matthew's death. Dan Stevens had projects lined up that were filmed in America and during the Downton filming and also Ausiello hat reported that Dan Stevens didn't sign for season 4 of Downton.

So even though many fans were in denial, it was pretty clear that Matthew was going to die.

Then a trailer from Norway appeared on tumblr and it showed him driving and then the lorry driver running.

So we were very sure what was going to happen. I was sad for the Mary/Matthew fans. Although I never was a M/M shipper, I liked Matthew and I knew that the fans would be devastated.

But at least the Mary fans know she will be happy one day and not just leave without anything good happening to her.

L i N d $ @ y

Just a reminder that this is the S5 Episode 3 discussion thread and some U.S. posters here have not seen the rest of the episodes yet. I am aware that most of us here have also seen the rest of S5 but it's best to talk about multiple episodes in the general S5 discussion thread here. Thanks!

That's pretty much how different both deaths are. Yes they're both horrible and you can't really pick which one was justifiable (because it isn't) but the feelings that you got from watching it are what sets it apart. I was distraught with Sybil's death. With Matthew, I was angry.

CarrieAnn

I kind of knew he was going, but to have a sad episode like that? On Christmas Day? Not good. I kind of think JF was saying 'well, if you want to leave, Dan, here's a rubbish exit line, do your best and good luck to you.'

He could have written it better e.g. Matthew finding his paralysis coming back, not telling Mary then crashing because his foot is paralysed.

What I wanted was a murder mystery- who killed Matthew? Was it Carlisle, trying to get Mary back? lol.

L i N d $ @ y

I know right. And car accidents? Just how many die with car accidents that time?

CarrieAnn

It must have been about 1 a year, lol!