Abbey alert! Get ready for Downton Abbey Season 3 . . . and lots of high jinx

The wait is (almost) over.
PBS Distribution will be releasing the highly-anticipated Masterpiece: Downton Abbey Season 3 on DVD and Blu-ray on January 29. The sets feature the original U.K. edition of Season 3, more than two hours of bonus video and will be available a little less than three weeks prior to the airing of the finale on PBS.
For those who have been wrapped up in those rabid reality shows: The Great War is over and a long-awaited engagement is on, but all is not tranquil at
Downton Abbey as wrenching social changes, romantic intrigues, and personal crises grip the majestic English country estate for a third thrilling season. The returning cast includes Hugh Bonneville, Dame Maggie Smith, Elizabeth McGovern, Dan Stevens, Michelle Dockery, Jim Carter, Penelope Wilton, Joanne Froggatt, Brendan Coyle and a host of others, joined by Shirley MacLaine, who plays Martha Levinson, the very American mother of Cora, Countess of Grantham. Years earlier, Cora rescued Downton Abbey with her riches by marrying Robert, Earl of Granthaml now, new world and old world are about to clash as Cora’s mother locks horns with Robert’s redoubtable mother, Lady Violet.
Last season closed with the reluctant heir to Downton, Matthew Crawley, recovered from his war wounds and ready to tie the knot with the eldest of Lord and Lady Grantham’s daughters, Lady Mary. Meanwhile, Mary’s youngest sister, Sybil, eloped to Ireland with the political-minded chauffeur, Branson, and is expecting a child.
A tantalizing glimpse ahead: Lovebird servants Anna and Bates face new ordeals in their star-crossed marriage. Downton’s impeccable butler, Carson, breaks in a new footman, who happens to be the nephew of the scheming lady’s maid O’Brien. Following Matthew and Mary’s engagement, Robert sticks to his duty to maintain Downton more firmly than ever–even as other great houses are crippled psychologically and financially in the wake of World War I.
Stay tuned!