When Lady Mary finds herself at the center of a public scandal and the Crawley family faces financial trouble, the entire household grapples with the threat of social disgrace. The family must embrace change as the staff prepares for a new chapter with the next generation leading Downton Abbey into the future.
| My Thoughts
Ooh, the characters. The changes. Their changes. The journey.
The drama. The comedy. The aches. The love.
The story. The memories. The fashion. The familiar music themes. The very heartbeat of it all.
Ooh—my very heartbeat as I watched it. Remembering and imagining and looking forward.
Rhythm and Flow
In case you couldn’t tell by my disjointed opening of this review: I love me some Downton Abbey. A whole much.
Granted, some of the characters’ early conversations in this film didn’t strike the most natural note to me. It was like the actors hadn’t quite gotten back into the Downton rhythm and flow yet. Or perhaps the need for them to start filling in so much information from the get-go made it a little impossible for the actors not to sound like they were relaying various details aloud to each other for the sake of the audience.
Packing It In, Getting It Done
Indeed, with so many characters and storylines from over the years that needed to be explored somewhat—or touched on, at the least—this film did have a lot to pack in. Without much breathing room between its beats.
Also, regarding a key character who doesn’t return this time, I feel that the way the film handles that character is pretty obviously for the sake of creating a needed conflict and making the ongoing story work. Whether or not the conflict completely fits the character’s development from the television show and the previous two movies.
But something had to be done, on that score. So. It was done.
Beautifully Bittersweet
The jam-packed quality of this film makes for much to savor as the curtain falls. After so many years of this saga.
While I can’t say that this third picture makes as spectacular an impression as the preceding two, it doesn’t have to. We didn’t need the monarchy or Hollywood cameras or some higher scale of glamour and grandeur to descend upon the Abbey at this point. It seems the finale isn’t about making an impression as much as it is about leaving one.
The Gilded Age: Season Three (2025) Rated TV-PG and TV-14
| Description
• Historical Drama Series
Ambition and scandal collide as the Russells take their place at the head of society, while the van Rhijn household is thrown into chaos, and the Scott family has a reckoning with the past—and the future.
| My Thoughts
I mean, seriously, I wasn’t sure whether to title this post with “all the feels” or “in our feelings.” Because if you’ve been a fellow member of The Gilded Age audience since Season One (particularly if you began watching back in 2022 and had been waiting since 2023 for the release of this third season), then it’s very likely that you’re in your feelings about the show as much as I am.
It’d be so much for me to try to comment on absolutely all the things. So I’ll do much like I’ve done before: revisit a couple of reflections I had after Seasons One and Two (S1 and S2) and now add my Season Three (S3) sentiments.
The Scotts
S1: I want to point out how glad I am that this historical drama doesn’t leave out the Black Elite of the place and period… [Black people don’t] exist on the fridge of existence somewhere [but are] whole people with real stories right in the center of life.
S2: I’m not exactly a fan of the way the show essentially does some backpedaling from critical developments in Peggy’s story from [Season One] to smooth her into a rather convenient position for [Season Two].
S3: Oh, my! Peggy Scott’s story, and that of the Scott family, hits quite a stride in this third season! And I’m not saying that only because of Peggy’s moment of pure magic in the season finale. Even when a new, critical conflict involving the Scott family (and the Kirkland family!) comes to a head in this season, it’s brilliantly handled.
In case you haven’t heard, Peggy Scott’s character is largely inspired by the real-life Black American journalist and civil rights crusader Ida B. Wells. I recently read a novel about Wells’s young womanhood: Ida, in Love and in Trouble by Veronica Chambers.
A recap of where Peggy’s story begins…
I’ve also got to mention that while I liked Dr. William Kirkland well enough from his first appearance in Season Three, it wasn’t long before I needed more than simply “nice, polite, dignified guy” vibes from his character. I needed more evidence of the underlying fire and grit a man in his position would need to have. So, it’s good that we eventually do get to see more sides of Dr. Kirkland. And more of his professional expertise as well.
Getting Personal
S1: I didn’t get that emotionally attached or invested in any particular characters.
S2: My emotions certainly did get more involved at some key moments… [Moreover,] the “downstairs” groups and their stories in both the Russell and van Rhijn houses also develop further and become more interesting [in Season Two].
S3: In addition to having emotions about the events in general this third season, I think I can say the show has become more personal for me and that I’ve become emotionally attached to a few particular characters:
Peggy Scott
Dorothy Scott, Peggy’s mother
Jack/John Trotter, inventor and van Rhijn household footman
Jack’s continued journey is what the “downstairs” aspect of this show really needed this season: a breakout story. I’ll admit I’m nervous about how green Jack is concerning the business world. But now I’m not just watching what happens to him; I’m really rooting for him, wanting him to press onward and upward! (And hoping a certain Miss Bridget gets to be a positive part of that. 😉 )
A clip of Jack from Season Two
I also have to say—I got closer to getting attached to Marian Brook. My respect for her as a woman of purpose went up last season, and some more this season. Plus, the readiness and downright mettle she shows during a high-action, critical Season Three emergency is fire!
But, alas, I feel like this season tries too hard in giving her an “imagine the worst and stubbornly refuse to seek a full explanation about what really happened” situation. Granted, I understand why, in this case, Marian isn’t as levelheaded as such a smart young woman could be. But I think her stubbornness here goes beyond what would feel more natural for her character at this point in her journey, to force heightened drama into the plot and to contrive and stretch out a “will they, won’t they” scenario.
Maybe better luck next season, Marian?
A recap of where Marian’s story begins…
Can You Feel the Feels Tonight?
Now, I could go on (and on!) about all that I think and suspect regarding the abundantly wealthy characters George and Bertha Russell. I’ve seen plenty of the show’s fans who are #TeamGeorge and plenty who are #TeamBertha this season.
On that front, I’m #TeamNeither. I’m not personally rooting for or emotionally attached to either of them. But do I have feelings (and convictions!) related to the conflict in their story this season? Definitely! Too much for this one blog post—though if anyone reading the post wants to comment on the matter of the Russell couple and their children, especially Gladys, we can talk. 😀
But a key thing that really strikes me is this: Although so many of us audience members don’t share the same feelings about each of the characters and what’s happening on this show, we have feelings.
The Gilded Age is making us feel. Not just about a bunch of fictional characters, but about the real-life issues the show is tackling through story. And I’m here for it.
If you want to get on The Gilded Age train, do start with Season One. And know that the show gets better as the train chugs down the tracks from one season to the next.
| Content Note
The series has an overall TV-MA rating, but that’s apparently on account of one scene in Season One that shows a woman’s bare chest. Otherwise, The Gilded Age is free of profanity and onscreen sex, and the occasional violence isn’t gratuitous.
Marianne Dashwood likes one Colonel Brandon well enough but wishes not to encourage any affections from him, given his mature age. On the other hand, Marianne sees no need to conceal her feelings when she falls in love with the charming John Willoughby, ignoring her older sister Elinor’s warnings about being impulsive. Elinor, who’s sensitive to social convention, struggles to conceal her own romantic disappointment, even from those closest to her. How might the sisters find personal happiness in a society where status and money govern the rules of love?
| My Thoughts
First off, though I enjoyed the read well enough as an interesting classic, it was never my favorite of Jane Austen’s novels.
Mismatched Affections?
For one thing, maybe the biggest thing, I’ll never be all for the Colonel being so into Marianne. He kind of seems like a noble, gallant older man reliving (or trying to relive/redo) a past, tragic, probably immature love of his, as he’s now getting stuck on a young lady who isn’t his match.
But anyhow.
Previous Adaptations
I’ve watched the 1995 film with Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet enough times to become rather attached to it.
I didn’t, however, like the 1981 miniseries—with its brand of old-fashioned British television that makes you feel like you’re watching something that was videotaped in a somewhat drab little box.
Onward to 2008
I figured this newer television miniseries wouldn’t have that same little boxy feel. But I wondered if the story might feel a tad slow this way, due to my indulging in the 1995 film so much. My brain would inevitably make comparisons.
As it turns out, there are some aspects I like better in this miniseries. Of course, it has the benefit of bringing a little more to the screen via three episodes than the film has time for in its 40 fewer minutes. And I quite enjoyed the musical score in this TV adaptation.
Handling an Imperfect Story
I like the film better on the whole, though. Several of the actors in that one make more of a dynamic impression, in my estimation. (Even if, I think, I actually prefer Dan Stevens’s Edward, here in this miniseries, over the other Edwards I’ve seen.)
Still, I think both the 1995 and 2008 adaptations succeed in doing what they can, and doing so rather well, with an imperfect story.
Amidst political and religious upheaval in 1600s England, a young farmer, John Ridd, falls for a young woman, Lorna—not realizing she’s from the family of brigands he has sworn never to forgive for murdering his father.
| My Thoughts
I’ve eaten the shortbread cookies. I’ve heard of the classic novel. But I didn’t know of this miniseries’ existence until the day I watched it.
On the Tamer Side of War Flicks
After seeing the “PG” rating and watching the first few scenes, my thoughts were, “Oh! So it’s a somewhat Braveheart-ish kind of picture, without the swearing and sex.” This one is violent and sometimes bloody but not as blatantly gory as, say, Braveheart either, as at the moments that would be the goriest, the camera finds someplace else to look.
Oh, the Villainy
Now, there’s a minor level of corn here, largely due to the main villain being oh-so-villainous without any mesmeric quality or much along the lines of nuance or contrasting layers.
And I’m never convinced by storylines that purposely let depraved, mad, murderous types go free, for the sake of doing the “noble” thing or what have you. When you’re up against a lawless enemy who’ll stop at nothing to destroy you and yours, acting in self-defense (and others’ defense) against such an enemy isn’t cruel or unjust. And letting bad guys run off in a story makes that aspect of continued/recurring danger feel contrived.
Passion, Politics, Peril
Nevertheless, as a cinephile with quasi-conservative tastes in content, and as a fan of period pictures with love and family, politics and peril, I ate this up.
I’m now interested enough to go beyond the cookies and to actually try the novel sometime.
Prismatic Prospects 