If you didn’t tune into PBS on Sunday Nights for Downton Abbey, you’d better have a good
excuse. Were you flying a plane? Performing open heart surgery? Vaccinating
children in Papua New Guinea? Surely there must be a good reason! The season 3 finale attracted over 8 million viewers and was
the subject of 80,000 tweets the night it aired. Though season 3 ended
tragically (Matthew!), it also left us with a few lessons to ponder over the
next year as we wait for season 4. In an effort to steer clear of the drama
that our fictional friends endured this season, here are a few hard lessons
they learned for us:
Have a Great OB/GYN
Poor Lady Sybil. You know you were standing on your couch
screaming, “Go to the hospital already! Forget what that pompous doctor Sir
Philip says! Take your hot Irish husband and GO!" Sybil’s family doctor, Dr.
Clarkson, knew that she was suffering from eclampsia while in labor, but in the
end he couldn’t convince the family or their famous doctor pal Sir Philip that
she was in grave danger. Lady Sybil died from eclampsia shortly after giving
birth to a daughter.
Lesson learned:
Choose a doctor you trust, have a birth plan that they support, and make sure
you have an advocate who will make everyone stick to the program.
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| "Sybil, I love you more than green beer, but I'm totally going to let your dad make every medical decision for us." |
A Man is Not a
Financial Plan
Viewers can deduce from season 3 that Cora, known downstairs
as Lady Grantham, married Lord Grantham for his title and he married her for
her money. Fine, we can say they were in love too if it makes you feel better.
Lord G invested Cora’s fortune into a doomed railway scheme and ended up losing
it all and putting the estate in jeopardy. They were almost going to have to
move to “Downton Place” and live with fewer servants- egad! Good thing the
Downton Abbey heir, Matthew Crawley, has the best luck ever (for now) and inherited
money from his dead x-fiancée’s father. He reinvested it back into the estate
therefore saving them all from having to brew their own tea.
Lesson learned: Don’t
rely on others to make your financial dreams come true. Whether you help bring
home the bacon or not, it’s smart to have an idea of what state your finances
are in.
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| "Where should I invest Matthew's newest fortune? A balloon factory? Time travel research? Garbanzo bean farming?" |
It’s Good to Have a BFF
When Mrs. Patmore isn’t whipping up a kidney soufflé or making
snarky remarks to her kitchen maids, she’s chatting it up with her BFF Mrs.
Hughes, the housekeeper. When Mrs. Hughes had to go see Dr. Clarkson about a
lump in her breast she took along Mrs. Patmore as moral support. When Mrs.
Patmore was being wooed by the raunchy spice salesman at the country fair, Mrs.
Hughes told her that he’s a lecher and only after her crazy awesome cooking
skills.
Lesson learned: You’ve got to have good friends who will
look out for your best interest and aren’t afraid to tell it like it is. Also,
beware of creepy men who only ask you about your cooking skills.
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| "Does this hat make my butt look big?" |
Money Can’t Buy
Happiness
Even though the aristocratic Crawley family has so much
money that they actually pay people to button their shirts, they don’t seem to
be terribly happy. Take Lady Edith. She’s continually bullied by her older
sister, jilted at the altar by a geezer with only one working arm, loses her
younger sister to eclampsia, and at the end of season 3 was being pursued by
her newspaper editor who is married to a “lunatic” and cannot get a
divorce. It’s like watching post-Edwardian
Jerry Springer.
Lesson learned: Having a lot of money does not make you
immune to difficult times. Happiness is a choice.
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| "How can I be happy when I have a name like Edith?" |
Stand By Your Man
Anna, who works as a ladies maid to Lady Mary, fell in love
with Bates the valet, but they were only married for what seemed like five
minutes before Bates was convicted of murdering his x-wife Vera and then thrown
into prison. Don’t worry- Vera was absolutely horrible and nobody liked her. Anna made it her business to prove that Vera
had actually killed herself, that Bates was innocent, then succeeded in getting
him exonerated, and did it all whilst tending to the ubiquitous needs of Lady
Mary. Well done, Anna!
Lesson learned: We all need someone in our corner that will
cheer for us and defend us when nobody else will. That Tammy Wynette really
knew what she was talking about.
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| "Oh hey. While you were in solitary confinement I used all your dry shampoo. My bad." |
Wear Your Seatbelt
Remember Matthew Crawley’s good luck? It ran out at the end
of the season and he was killed in a car accident (actor Dan Stephens wanted
off the series). Of course the show’s writer Julian Fellowes had to pull at our
heartstrings and make the crash happen immediately after Matthew’s wife Lady
Mary gave birth to their son and heir. Darn you Julian!
Lesson learned: Wear your seatbelt and keep your eyes on the
road.
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| "La la la la la. Okay, the instructor said to keep my eyes on the trees. No- the fluffy clouds. Or was it the..." Photos courtesy of pbs.org. |
