I think I read somewhere that they wanted Season 5 to be the last but fans clamored for more so they decided one more season. All good things must come yo an end....sigh.

If Mary doesn't end up with Matthew Goode and Edith with Bertie then I'm never watching it again :- ). And Bertie better be a secret titled something or other to trump Mary.

I was disappointed we didn't get MORE of a reason. DD2 brought the first four seasons home for spring break. We watched them ALL. I now have been able to see episode one and two of season 5 on line. I am waiting for them to post the rest. It is driving me crazy. I LOVE LOVE LOVE recurring characters in books. What is it about soap operas or good books we hate to let go of these people as if they are people of importance to us? I sure would like to have some PRE-Downton Abbey story lines. We know the Earl married for money but HOW did it work? Why did Cora marry HIM? The closer they get to "modern" times the less interesting the class differences are for me. I want the series to go the other way!!

Yea for Arcy!! Quick, get Jullian on the line! I want them to go back, too. IMO, the series moved TOO quickly through time. I wanted more of the olden days, lol!

I'm ready for Mary to have her comeuppance. I was resigned to Season 5 being the last, and they did not tie up the stories as I wished, so I would like a few minutes conversation with Mr. Fellowes as well.

It is really unusual in the UK for a period drama to be more than one or two (or at the most, three) seasons. And usually not more than three or four episodes in each season. The only two I can think of at the moment are the old Poldark (anyone watching the new version currently on BBC one?) and The Forsyte Saga. So the actors must REALLY be tired of what they initially saw as a pretty standard, fairly short term commitment. The only very long running drama besides true soaps in he UK was Upstairs Downstairs, and when they did the remake it was much, much shorter--- by probably a hundred episodes!

WAAAAAAAAAAH, I don't want DA to end. I think Violet is the most interesting character so I can see why they would want to end it.

I do agree that it is getting less interesting now that we are in more modern times but I'm still not ready for it to end. Great idea to go the other way....to earlier times.

From what I understand, it was not unusual in those days for "poor" royals to wed wealthy Americans...he got the $ to continue to live as a royal, she got the status of being married to one.

You would have thought when Sybil died Mary would have tried to forge a bond with Edith but instead she is colder than ever to her....guess it's a good conflict for the storyline.

Would be brilliant for Fellowes to do a prequel, even for the first few episodes.

Spoiler alert, for those who haven't seen the last season!

Some day Mary will be foiled because she'll be planning for
George to marry an even richer heiress, but George will call off the wedding the day before it's to take place, finally realizing that he's in love with Marigold--not knowing that she is actually his parallel cousin, not just his Aunt Edith's ward.

Edith, I'm sure, will at first take some measure of comfort in Mary's angst at George's calling off the wedding, as she should be allowed to, after being jilted at the altar herself, with no sympathy from Mary.

George will try to elope with Marigold, but then one of the servants will let it slip that it's Marigold who is the object of George's undying love, and Edith will have to come clean. Can you imagine how angry Mary will be when she finally hears the Big Secret? Mary and Edith will have to
work together to prevent the cousins from marrying and making a huge
mistake, ruining their chances to make suitable matches elsewhere. Poor Edith will have to track down the lovers and convince them to give up their plans, just to keep Mary from murdering her in her sleep.

Unless, because it's Great Britain, where historically, it's been fine for cousins to marry (especially royal and aristocratic cousins), Mary and Edith finally accept that they'll never be rid of each other, and resign themselves to living happily ever after, sharing grandmotherly duties.

I'm seeing a reunion show in the works. Julian, call me--I'll be happy to collaborate.

joaniepoanie, Cora was a Dollar Princess,which was not uncommon in the Gilded Age. Lord Grantham got her money, and she got his title.

I think we know HOW things were done but I for one want to know WHY in this case was Cora interested? Was America so bad? Was she running from her crazy mother? A title I get--never returning to America I do not. There is a story there! I want to know of the Dowager PUSHED her son into it or was she fighting the union? I want to know more about her husband and how their relationship went. Where was SHE from? Maybe the Dowager and her husband were cousins!! I really am not interested is seeing more of Mary and Edith. Frankly the actress isn't pretty enough or appealing in general for me to believe these men prefer her over Edith. That particular nuance has been lost on me from day one. I am soooo ready to move on from them. When Mathew fell for her I wanted to vomit. It was just never believable. If he had lived he would have come to his senses and been unhappy like the Scottish Uncle. I am ready for the present families saga to end but I sure would like to go back to the beginning!!

Mary really is a nasty woman, isn't she? Edith is portrayed as the victim, but in my mind, she's worse. Way worse.

What she did to that woman who loved her little girl as her own was unforgivable. Tacitly, she used her money, power and position to inflict unbearable pain.

arcy - I think Cora was willing to cast her spousal net far and wide - remember she was (half?) Jewish, the daughter of a tradesman and from Cincinnati (no offense Ohioans) - so she wasn't exactly at the top of the Social Register.

The following is from Wikia.com. The site gives a fairly detailed synopsis of the series.

...............................

"Born Cora Levinson in Cincinnati on July 18[citation needed], 1868[1], she was the only daughter of the dry goods multi-millionaire, Isidore Levinson and his wife Martha Levinson, and had an Aunt.[2] Cora has a strained relationship with her mother[3].

As a young woman, she was brought to London in 1888[4] for her first season by her socially ambitious mother, in order to marry a member of the British nobility. During the season she met Robert Crawley, Viscount Downton, the future Earl of Grantham. Much to Robert's mother's chagrin, Cora became engaged to him and the two of them married on 16 February, 1890.[5] As part of their marriage contract, Cora's fortune was tied to the family estate to prevent it from going bankrupt."

I echo the sadness of DA ending. It's been such a great show. I love Violet and her hilarious words of wisdom, Maggie Smith's delivery is brilliant. I too saw that the actors have other projects they want to do so it's understandable, but they have such long breaks in between seasons, can't they just do them in between filming? Did anyone else see that Lily James (Rose) is playing Cinderella in the new Disney movie?

I have to say that most of The Masterpiece Theater and Mystery Theater programming have become some of my favorite things to watch. The last Mystery series Grantchester was pretty good too.

And Daisy is one of the wicked stepsisters.....barely recognizable except for the freckles and dancing eyes!

The Buccanneers is an 1990s period drama that features wealthy American girls trying to land titled English husbands in 1870. Its appeal for me lay mainly in the stunning costumes, but it does provide a bit of insight into that era and the motives of the various parties. The mini series was adapted from the book by Edith Wharton by the same name.

This season, I think I spent more time reading amusing recaps of the show than watching the actual show. It was the NYTimes writer Louis Bayard, The Atlantic had three writers, and the third source was a pbs channel website (the exact one escapes me at the moment). They were all very funny, very clever, and as enjoyable as the show. I liked Bayard so much, I might start watching whatever show he reviews next just to read what he writes about it.

Spoiler alert:

This year, I thought the friendship between Violet and Isobel was lovely. I loved how Cora ended Robert's behavior about the almost affair. And seeing Mosely become less of a sad sack was nice.

Thanks marie_cate, I was unaware of the story on Cora. I will have to look up this Wikia. Many this is our issue. A book series would have so much more detail and would not jump so far ahead the way the series did. Here I am showing my lack of information, was this series by chance a book first? I do remember the Upstairs Downstairs book from years ago. Maybe I will have to revisit it.

ahhhh!!! I didn't know that!!! I like the Daisy character and direction the show has let her morph. Might just watch the movie to see them in somthing different. Maggie Smith was in a rerun of Grown Ups last week and it was so odd seeing her in normal garb.

There's an interesting series hosted by Elizabeth McGovern on the Smithsonian Channel called Million Dollar American Princesses.

MamaGoose that was hilarious, thanks for that.