‘Downton Abbey’ season 4 spoilers: Fuss over Rose’s arrival already
If nothing else, you have to give “Downton Abbey” and its writers credit for one thing: being unafraid to shake things up. While it may be a little over-the-top to (spoiler alert from the season 3 finale!) have a pair of characters in Matthew Crawely and Lady Sybil each die within the span of a single season, the truth of the matter is that it is incredibly unrealistic for a residence to not experience some turnover when it comes to the people living and working there.
Already, we have seen a number of characters come and go from the Abbey, with some of the arrivals towards the end of season 3 being servants Ivy and Jimmy. So why do they arrive without much fanfare, and the sudden news that Rose is set to have a larger role cause great pandemonium for many?
The move to make Rose a larger character has caused people to utter the words “Cousin Oliver Syndrome,” which is a reference to “The Brady Bunch” trying to add a young character in its final season in an effort to give viewers some of what they loved in the earlier seasons all over again. This is actually the same thing that “Glee” did earlier this year with Marley and Jake, and that “Scrubs” did for its ill-fated final season.
In the end, though, we don’t quite see it that way. Rose is much more rebellious of a character than Sybil, Mary, or Edith were in their younger days, and seems more representative of the turning tide in the 1920s than some sort of attempt to travel down a familiar road again. One character we think is more apt here is the arrival of Megan Draper on “Mad Men”: not everyone loved her, but she is a different character than Betty, and a reminder that two unhappy people are not going to just stay together for the sake of the show. Things change, and Rose living at Downton is hardly unrealistic given her desire to be nearer to the hustle and bustle of the city.
There will likely be some other additions made to “Downton Abbey” season 4 over the course of its filming, but we will likely not know about many of these for some time given the show’s strict no-spoilers policy.
If you want to get a few more details on the future for Mary moving forward on the series, you can do so over at the link here.
Photo: ITV