R.L. Stine Was None Too Pleased With A Certain Event in Downton Abbey‘s Season Finale

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The season finale of Downton Abbey aired on Christmas Day in Britain, but it made its way to TVs in the U.S. just last night. The ending was, er, rather shocking. And author R.L. Stine didn’t like it, no sir. Two more (spoilery) Tweets are after the jump.

Also, beware probable spoilers in the comments. Don’t read on if you haven’t seen or don’t already know what happened in the finale, basically.

In an interview with EW showrunner Julian Fellowes explains why he killed Matthew off in the final episode: actor Dan Stevens didn’t renew his contract, they wanted to keep the character around for as long as possible, and they couldn’t have him leave the show some other way without getting rid of Mary, too, which they didn’t want to do.

What do you think? I personally don’t mind Matthew’s death that much. Wait, that sounds bad. It was emotionally gutting, to be sure. But I don’t share Stine’s viewpoint that they shouldn’t have done it. The constant Mary/Matthew drama was starting to wear on me. Mix it up, I say. Downton is high-drama British TV, and which of us haven’t been given ample feels by British TV already? That’s how it goes. (Doctor Who, Merlin, Sherlock—looking at you) And I dislike it when characters are recast. But that’s just me.

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