Like Mr Carson, I emerge from my 'retirement'.
You know I have to chime in to leave my 2 cents regarding Thomas Barrow after the second Downton movie ...
Like, I don't know. Thomas is finally free of that damn house and this seems kind of liberating, but everything that was built around his character, his storyline in the series finale and in the previous film - it all kind of gets completely negated and turned into dust.
He was made Downton's butler at the end of the last season but we never really saw him do any proper 'butlering'. There was no real payoff for him being put in that position. I guess every prospective butler is doomed to remain in Carson's shadow (which does make sense, but also why even attempt to put someone else in that spot in name only, if you're not even going to try?).
He was given a potential love interest with Richard in the last film and that's all out the window now, like it never existed.
I'm kind of happy and surprised that Fellowes set Thomas free, but it just seems like we've seen three different endings for him and each new one is a 'correction' of the previous one and nothing means anything anymore. There is no room for the audience to grow attached to new characters because even the characters themselves don't have the time to develop proper relationships with other characters.
My final thoughts are that I'm tired. The series are Downton's golden age and nothing will change that. The movies are just there. They're fun, but the cashgrab and piggybacking off the title and the nostalgia just totally kills the whole experience for me.
