Downton Abbey 3:7

:::Violet's travel suit in all that velvet with that hat was killer.
:::All of the bagpipes!
:::Dear Isobel, no one wants your advice, and your dinners with just Branson are awkward.
:::I hate all new maids. It should have just stayed as Anna and the ginger whom I can't even remember the name of now...
:::Bates got some Altoids for the smoker breath.
:::"My basic fact is that I love you". MUCH better line than any of Matthew's in this episode about seeing someone naked meaning you know how golden their soul is.
:::They are wearing deerstalkers to deer stalk.
:::I want a fancy man. Taking applications.
:::Deerstalker Trail: "You have shot 1400 lbs of meat, but the pack horses can only carry 200 lbs."
:::Lighthearted picnic Bates was nice. Am I the only one that thought Anna dancing was not enough of a payoff for all of that surprising? I mean, I thought she was pregnant, or at least going to get Bates drunk to get her pregnant.
:::There are so many guns and swords in Scotland...
:::Ivy and Daisy being friends, how nice.
:::Carson and a baby. DEAD.
:::Bates watching Anna dance, he's finally got the twinkle back he hasn't had since like episode 3 of season one.
:::I can't tell you how many proposals I've had to turn down because they just wanted me for my cooking.
:::Oh Branson, I will cradle you when you cry...But not in an awful Edna way...and not while I look at you, bc you one ugly crier son!
:::Cora's coat when she's leaving the castle. got to be kidding me.
:::Oh Thomas.
:::As Alicia says, MEN HOLDING BABIES IS POSITIVELY PORNOGRAPHIC! Yes.

So...I knew that Dan Stevens didn't sign on for a 4th season...so I knew he was going to die, and so the entire episode I was waiting for it. So, yes, I am in shock, but not that bad. Sorrynotsorry.

Downton Abbey 3:2

Great article about the girls' wedding dresses, and $200,000 tiara!

:::Mary is SUCH a pill! I think she's forgotten lame, barfy Matthew on his deathbed too quickly.
:::Oh Thomas. What a life you have lead/are leading. Of the all the characters over these 8/9 years I think he and O'Brien are the only ones that actually look like they've aged it. Maybe Mrs. Hughes, but she just up and got sick so it looks like it now.
:::Those hairs are shellacked.
:::Sneaky sneaky Carson. He's had his sneaky footman days I'm sure.
:::I think the gentlemen's makeup is a bit heavy handed lately. Sir Antony looks rather a doll.
:::And why can't Sir Antony keep his hand in his pocket or something? It's so bizarre all strung up that high and in a black sling. He didn't use to have it that way right after the war did he?
:::Dear Isobel, the prostitutes don't care.
:::All prostitutes have frizzy hair. Even Ethel after her client left had the frizzy hair, like they do it up special.
:::Matthew in his grey suit with blue shirt and tie. Perhaps the best ensemble he's every worn? Besides the uniforms?
:::Oh Season 3, you keep tempting us with Robert's slow unbuttoning and losing his shirts. Just release a steamy Lord Grantham calendar and be done with it!
:::The Swires have been ever so helpful and convenient through all of this!
:::All of the hats!
:::I will be Edith. I will find some very old man to devote my life to.
:::When I have all of the wedding things on I will run up and down stairs to billow so nicely.
:::Dear Edith: If your heart really did break that badly there should be less noise and more drooling. Try some hyperventilating, reducing yourself to a crumpled mass on the floor, and when you do start being able to make noise, ensure it's gaspy and/or dragon-like. Just me?
:::I loved the manshake between Matthew and Lord Grantham after they struck their deal. Oh no, hands were not enough, shoulders must be clasped as well.
:::I just think O'Brien or Thomas will just stab the other with a pen knife one of these days.
:::Why does Daisy like Alfred? Sure, he's ginger, whatever, but they seem to have no interaction other than she asking him about being "modern" and "outspoken". You missed the boat with William, Daisy, time to look outside the kitchen for love. Footmen won't do you any good.
:::All of the amazing 20s fashions. woof.
:::FYI: Alfred is 6'4". I know you were wondering.

Cumberbatch and Sherlock win awards

Sherlock won best movie or mini-series at the Critics' Choice TV Awards and Benedict Cumberbatch won best actor in a movie or mini-series. I think with all this high praise Ben should film series three then take some down time to lead at a US regional theatre, and I know of just the one (USF, cough cough).

Also, here's a picture of Cumberbatch and Stevens at Men's Fashion Week looking all sombre and delectable. (source)

Dan Stevens in "The Heiress"

http://playbill.com/news/article/165905-Downton-Abbey-Star-Dan-Stevens-Will-Pursue-The-Heiress-on-Broadway#.T7CIorvDf14.twitter

Are we excited about this? Dan Stevens is going to play suitor Morris Townsend in the upcoming Broadway production of The Heiress in fall 2012. Can I go to there? SO excited! Jessica Chastain is playing Catherine Sloper and David Strathairn is playing her father, woof.

a)American accent (even though he has the poster boy face of England)
b)more period costumes
c)lovey dovey-ness
d)the villain (but who isn't in this one?)!!!

Ug, I love the Olivia de Havilland Heiress. I'd killed to see this one. Maybe I will as a present to myself after South Korea, you know, with all the gobs of money I'll have...

Stevens played Septimus in Stoppard's Arcadia back in 2009, a performance I might have literally killed to see seeing as Arcadia is my favorite play I've never seen and Septimus is a sexy tragic beast. Top of my list for events to travel back in time to see would be the original 1994 production with Rufus Sewell as Septimus. A brunette Stevens would be my second choice.

Matthew and Mary Crawley Baby

No, I have no juicy tid-bits about Mary and Matthew, but it did strike me after I just finished series 2 again that someone should morph their faces together to see what their kids'll look like, bc isn't that just the creepiest thing to do?

I used morphthing.com which will morph pictures into adults or babies. I've used it before for fun and now for the oh so important reason of seeing what the Crawley baby and 2nd in line to Downton will look like.

the baby, cute no?

the morphed adult, strange and very androgynous

 Forgive the stupid formatting, I couldn't get them where I wanted them exactly; this is as close as I could get.

The handsomest weak chins around

Best friend Sarah and I developed an aversion to weak chins in high school, but with the advent of certain favorite ITV dramas (Downton, cough cough) I find that I'm inexplicably drawn to certain men of the weak chinned variety.  Probably bc in my mind weak chins are as inherently British as ice blue eyes and wavy hair.

Dan Stevens

Bradley Cooper

Benedict Cumberbatch

Rupert Penry-Jones

I will say this for these guys, finding photos of their weak chins can be difficult as they seem to know their angles, and Bradley Cooper is hardly ever w/o his stubble, which when well planned can sculpt out a rather nice jawline, as seen below.

Jason Sudeikis

BOOM! jawline.