Showing posts with label shirley maclaine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shirley maclaine. Show all posts
Thursday, 24 January 2013
Tuesday, 8 January 2013
Record Breaking Downton Abbey Scores Almost 8 million Viewers in the US (CONTACT MUSIC)
British sensibilities often don't really translate in the USA, the humour doesn't cut the mustard when coming out of an American mouth, which is why Skins, The Inbetweeners and The Office (okay, it's good, but without Gervais or Sheen... close, but no cigar) haven't been quite as far reaching as their UK counterparts. However, Downton Abbey has captured the American imagination's version of England; posh toffs, big houses and lots of tea. Because of this, it's extraordinarily successful.
The show airs on PBS and as Reuters reports: "[T]he ratings for season 3 [of Downton Abbey] quadrupled the average viewings for PBS primetime shows, which usually is 2 million viewers, and nearly doubled the premiere of the second season, which kicked off with 4.2 million viewers in January 2012." The most recent episode to air on the public network saw the wedding between Matthew and Lady Mary Crawley... finally! The romance had been burgeoning for the first two seasons, fans loved that they finally tied the knot.
READ MORE: http://www.contactmusic.com/news/record-breaking-downton-abbey-scores-almost-8-million-viewers-in-the-us_3437027
Monday, 7 January 2013
DOWNTON ABBEY, SEASON THREE, ENTIRE EPISODE ONE (MASTERPIECE)
Watch Downton Abbey Season 3, Episode 1 on PBS. See more from Masterpiece.
MASTERPIECE CLASSIC: http://184.73.200.164/wgbh/masterpiece/watch-online/full-episodes/downton-abbey-season-3-episode-1/?elq=60111ffbea9a4d478958894eeba872ab&elqCampaignId=492
Sunday, 6 January 2013
‘Downton Abbey’ Season 3: What Early Reviews Are Saying (WALL STREET JOURNAL) (WARNING, THERE ARE SPOILERS IN SOME OF THE LINKS)
By Barbara Chai
Read some early reviews of the show’s third season, which has already concluded in the U.K. Warning: some reviews contain spoilers.
“Let’s talk Shirley MacLaine, because it’s not every day or night you come across a pair of Oscar-winning actresses — [Maggie] Smith is actually a two-time winner — sharing the small screen, even when that screen frames one of TV’s most celebrated series.” [Verne Gay, Newsday]
“Season 3 of Downton is a return to form for the show, recapturing the dazzling wit and sweeping romance of the now-classic first season.” [Jace Lacob, Daily Beast]
“Though Season 3 of “Downton” is somewhat stronger than Season 2 — which made “90210″ look like a model of narrative coherence by comparison — there are still times I mutter darkly about the drama, I must admit.” [Maureen Ryan, Huffington Post]
“The good news is that most of the crazy plot twists and soapier elements have vanished. Fellowes has a stronger hold on telling the individual tales of his well-drawn characters, and that pinpoint focus utterly redeems the series early on. That’s not to say things won’t get a little sudsy as the season unwinds, but Downton is nearly as ship-shape as it was in season one and seems as confident and as winning as it did then.” [Tim Goodman, Hollywood Reporter]
“As sweet as treacle tart, the third season of Downton Abbey arrives reasonably fresh and warm. The Downton property — that gigantic pile of stones — may be chilly, but the upper-floor twits and the lower-floor underclass can still be counted on to provide a lot of good fun.” [Ken Tucker, Entertainment Weekly]
READ MORE: http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2013/01/03/downton-abbey-season-3-what-early-reviews-are-saying/
Read some early reviews of the show’s third season, which has already concluded in the U.K. Warning: some reviews contain spoilers.
“Let’s talk Shirley MacLaine, because it’s not every day or night you come across a pair of Oscar-winning actresses — [Maggie] Smith is actually a two-time winner — sharing the small screen, even when that screen frames one of TV’s most celebrated series.” [Verne Gay, Newsday]
“Season 3 of Downton is a return to form for the show, recapturing the dazzling wit and sweeping romance of the now-classic first season.” [Jace Lacob, Daily Beast]
“Though Season 3 of “Downton” is somewhat stronger than Season 2 — which made “90210″ look like a model of narrative coherence by comparison — there are still times I mutter darkly about the drama, I must admit.” [Maureen Ryan, Huffington Post]
“The good news is that most of the crazy plot twists and soapier elements have vanished. Fellowes has a stronger hold on telling the individual tales of his well-drawn characters, and that pinpoint focus utterly redeems the series early on. That’s not to say things won’t get a little sudsy as the season unwinds, but Downton is nearly as ship-shape as it was in season one and seems as confident and as winning as it did then.” [Tim Goodman, Hollywood Reporter]
“As sweet as treacle tart, the third season of Downton Abbey arrives reasonably fresh and warm. The Downton property — that gigantic pile of stones — may be chilly, but the upper-floor twits and the lower-floor underclass can still be counted on to provide a lot of good fun.” [Ken Tucker, Entertainment Weekly]
READ MORE: http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2013/01/03/downton-abbey-season-3-what-early-reviews-are-saying/
Saturday, 5 January 2013
'Downton Abbey' Season Three Cheat Sheet Your couple-by-couple guide to the upstairs/downstairs drama Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook
By Sean T. Collins
January 4, 2013 11:00 AM ET
Ready to reenter the world of the classiest soap opera in television history? When Downton Abbey begins its third season here in the States on PBS this Sunday – it's already aired in the U.K., leaving the entire Internet a spoiler minefield more dangerous than a World War I no-man's-land – it's set to make television a more beautiful place pretty much singlehandedly, with opulent sets and costumes, gorgeous cinematography, a cast that's restrained and rock-solid from top to bottom, and a rapturous theme song that makes fans of Edwardian romance drool like Pavlov's dogs.
But it also brings with it a cast as sprawling as any on TV, from the Crawleys – the aristocratic family who dwell in the huge country house that gives the show its title – to the many servants who keep both the house and the family afloat. Add a marriage, a pregnancy, and a visit from the Crawley kids' American grandmother (Shirley MacLaine) on the way this season to the show's trademark breakneck twists and turns, and things will only get more complex.
Now's the time to sort out the daughters, suitors, butlers and dowagers that make Downton the most popular public TV drama of all time, so we're pairing off the characters to give you a couple-by-couple breakdown of who's who and what they've been up to. Whether you're new to the Abbey or a repeat visitor in need of a refresher, couple up and read on.
Lord Robert and Lady Cora: Land-rich and cash-poor, Robert Crawley, the Earl of Grantham, took the sleazy way out of potentially losing his family's ancestral home, the sprawling estate called Downton Abbey: he married American heiress Cora Levinson for her money. But eventually they fell in love and became the patriarch and matriarch of Downton's entire miniature society: the "upstairs" segment, consisting of them, their three daughters, and Robert's mother, Lady Violet, the Dowager Countess; and the "downstairs" servants who keep the household running – maids, cooks, footmen, housekeepers, and more.
Both Robert and Cora pretty much radiate reassurance and warmth when required, but the outbreak of World War I strained their relationship in Season Two. Relegated to the home front, where all he can do is polish the brass on his uniform, Lord Grantham grows disillusioned with the system that gives him such power but none when and where it really counts. Meanwhile, Lady Grantham throws herself first into the conversion of Downton into a convalescent hospital for wounded soldiers, then into the relationship woes of her eldest daughter, Mary. Robert briefly falls for Jane, a war widow recently hired as one of Downton's maids, before recommitting to Cora, who narrowly escapes a potentially fatal bout of Spanish influenza. Now their main concern is the well-being of not one, not two, but three scandal-plagued members of their household, to which Lord Grantham has proven surprisingly, endearingly understanding.
Read about the rest: http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/downton-abbey-season-three-cheat-sheet-20130104#ixzz2H7BDVISj
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook
Friday, 4 January 2013
Downton Abbey Used Mr. Bates as Bait to Lure Shirley MacLaine to the Series by Julie Miller (VANITY FAIR)
Earlier this year we learned that Shirley MacLaine, who guest stars on the forthcoming season of Downton Abbey as Cora Crawley’s mother, was introduced to the period drama by her hairdresser. “I walked into my hairdresser lady in Malibu, and they were talking about [Downton Abbey],” she told a group of reporters in July. “I thought, ‘What do they mean?’” Shortly after the enlightening hair appointment, MacLaine received a call about playing Martha Levinson and agreed to meet with the show’s creator, Julian Fellowes—not, it seems, because she was addicted to the series after binge-watching it for a full week but because, like many of us, she was particularly taken by the Crawleys’ honorable valet. She explained in an interview with The New York Times:
I think I wanted to meet Bates [played by Brendan Coyle], basically. And of course Julian, being so wily, arranged a lunch at which nobody else was there but Bates. I guess he was seeing if he was cougar-able. Or something.
READ MORE:http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2013/01/downton-abbey-third-season-shirley-maclaine
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