'Downton Abbey' review: Lady Oscar faceoff

Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham and lord of the manor (Hugh Bonneville) isn't much concerned with the scandal about to hit the broadsheets because his beloved valet, John Bates (Brendan Coyle), had a death sentence for the alleged murder of his wife commuted to life behind bars; Bates lives and (maybe) will be vindicated, most likely by the efforts of his new wife, Anna May Bates (Joanne Froggatt), head housemaid at Downton.

As the third season begins -- spring 1920 -- the past is the past, and the future beckons. The '20s aren't roaring here just yet, but there is a marriage -- almost a merger, really -- to prepare for, along with the arrival from the States of one Martha Levinson (Shirley MacLaine), the American-born mother of Robert's wife, Cora Crawley, countess of Grantham (Elizabeth McGovern). Robert's own mother, Violet Crawley (Maggie Smith) says of her in-law, "When I see her, I'm reminded of the virtues of the English. . . ."

For her part, Martha sees something in Violet she likes -- maybe a cross-Atlantic reflection of herself. Levinson seems pretty much ripped from the pages of some Henry James or Edith Wharton novel: That crass "new" American who comes to England to get a taste of what real class is, but who, nonetheless, scorns the aristocracy for their quaint attachment to the past. "History and tradition took Britain into the world war," she scolds one of the manor-born. "Maybe you should think about letting go of its hand." MacLaine's Levinson is a little like MacLaine's Coco Chanel from the 2008 Lifetime biopic: She has a hat for every occasion -- usually a wild, colorful, feathery appendage that looks as though a pair of ostriches were sacrificed for it -- and a barb as well. She's gimlet-eyed and tough, and knows exactly what her hosts will be doing before long: Holding out their hands.

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