Period drama shaken up
Downton Abbey’s Dowager Countess of Grantham might not think much of weekends, but fans of the British period drama this side of the Atlantic have long waited for this one.
Tonight, almost a year after Season 2 ended on PBS, Season 3 of ITV’s Downton Abbey debuts.
The show, boasting a title that confuses spell-checkers everywhere, aired its second-season finale last February to 5.4 million U.S. viewers — the public broadcaster’s highest-rated program since Ken Burns’s National Parks debuted in 2009. Following the aristocratic Crawley family and their servants in a Yorkshire country estate, the series opened with the sinking of the Titanic and has scuttled through the onset of the First World War, the Spanish flu outbreak and beyond.
For those who haven’t scoured the Internet for spoilers (Season 3 has already aired in the U.K.), this season sees the arrival of Shirley MacLaine as Martha Levinson, the mother of Cora (Elizabeth McGovern), countess of Grantham. By all accounts, there’s as much friction between Martha and the Dowager Countess, Violet (Maggie Smith), as a starched lace collar on a soft, pale neck.
In honour of Downton Abbey’s return, here’s a quick rundown of the series by the numbers.
92: The score Downton Abbey received in 2011 on website Metacritic, which aggregates critics’ reviews worldwide. The feat landed it in the Guinness World Records for the highest critical ratings for a TV show.
8: Minutes the first instalment of Jimmy Fallon’s Late Night spoof, Downton Sixbey, ran when it debuted last April. The sketch stars Fallon as Lord Grantham of Showbiz, with his joke writers slaving away at the servant’s table.
16: Prime time Emmy nominations Downton received last year, with one win for Smith. The show had 11 nominations in 2011, making it the most nominated non-American show in Emmy history.
2: Official books about Downton Abbey. The World of Downton Abbey, written by Jessica Fellowes, was released in 2011. The Chronicles of Downton Abbey, also by Julian Fellowes’s niece, hit shelves last September.
350: The number of U.S. heiresses who married into the British aristocracy — like Martha did when she wed Robert (Hugh Bonneville) — between the 1870s and the First World War. The couple’s meeting and marriage are the subject of a Downton prequel, which creator Julian Fellowes announced in September. (PBS — 9 p.m.)
The Good Wife sees Louis Canning (Michael J. Fox) try to delay a deposition — and throw a wrench into Will’s new case. Also, Will and Diane lock horns with Clarke. (Global — 8 p.m., CBS — 10 p.m.,)
Homegrown sci-fi series Lost Girl returns for its third season, with Bo (Anna Silk) making a romantic decision — but love’s never easy, apparently, if you’re a succubus. Rachel Skarsten joins the cast as Tamsin, a thrill-seeking Fae who ruffles some feathers. (Showcase — 10 p.m.)