After six TV seasons (which won 15 Primetime Emmy Awards) and two film sequels, we’ve been told that this third film will be the last time we visit with and peer inside the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their servants at the grand Edwardian mansion Downton Abbey. (If you haven’t seen any of the previous episodes, check out our reviews linked off “Also Recommended” below; you will soon figure out who’s who and what they are each about.)
The TV seasons largely revolved around the “Big House” and the love lives of the various characters. In the first movie, the Downton crew entertain the King and Queen of England; in the second many of them travel to Italy to check out a villa that has been left to the Dowager Countess. Film #3 returns to the familiar goings-on that characterized the TV seasons.
“There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'
It'll soon shake your windows
and rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin."
— "The Times They Are A-Changin' "
by Bob Dylan
Our review of Season 1 opens with these lyrics by Bob Dylan, predicting a theme that runs as a current through the entire series. We’ve witnessed the coming of electricity and the telephone; the arrival of a new heir to the estate, key characters fighting in World War I and the house becoming as convalescent home for soldiers; romances, marriages, broken engagements, surprise pregnancies, and tragic deaths; bad investments and financial challenges which might lead to bankruptcy; and more. By The Grand Finale, many of the servants are ready to retire, and others are stepping into their jobs. All the main characters have gotten married (happily, mostly to each other) and even Barrow, the gay former footman, valet, and butler, has come out of the closet and is traveling with an American actor currently starring in a play by Noel Coward.
There is one hitch in the scenario, however. Lady Mary has gotten divorced from her car-racing husband. This makes her a persona non grata in the Crawley’s social circles. Only when the servants spread the word to neighbors that Noel Coward is attending a dinner at the Abbey, does the situation change.
And that change brings the story full circle. In the first season, Mary as a woman, even through the first-born, cannot inherit her father’s title or run the estate. But now everyone recognizes that she knows best what to do with the house, how to make the estate profitable, and how to keep the family intact.
Perhaps this kind of thing happens today among the 1% as riches are passed on to the next generations. But very few of us will see this happening -- unless we are following and identifying with Downton Abbey’s characters! We wish them well. It’s a story we will miss.