Downton Abbey: FILM CORNER

FILM CORNER, Philosophy

Written by Rachel Jeong

Welcome to the film corner. 

Frequently made with lower lexicon and colloquial teen language.

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Julian Fellowes is the creator of the Emmy, Golden-Globe, and BAFTA-winning masterpiece of a series, Downton Abbey. 

Downton Abbey has proven to be my favorite TV show of all time. And before you find it strange that a seemingly mundane British historical drama where people die of the Spanish flu should be preferred over The Office, let me tell you why I think this series is the best. 

Downton Abbey manages to piece and weave together five or six stories into one, cohesive flow–all in one episode. And within those, there are connections. See, what I think is so great about this series is its interconnectedness. Not only does Downton Abbey provide social commentary on privilege, class, global politics, and death all in early 20th century, war-time Britain, but it manages to create a complex, nuanced argument by presenting it through incredibly inter-reliant relationships. Each episode is filled with interrelated communications, provided aid, and causation for conflict through these very relationships: servants with other servants, servants with Lords, doctors with middle-class families, the list goes on. The show unfolds hundreds of subplots connected to another plot, secretly driven by a side character, and does it all without you thinking there is too much going on. To perhaps best demonstrate this, take season 3. This season revolves around relationships and connections between groups of people that shouldn’t be related at all. Jane, the new maid, has an affair with Lord Grantham, the head of the household; Ethel, Jane’s predecessor, struggles with the consequences of liking a high-ranking sergeant; Sybil, the youngest Grantham, causes a hurricane within Downton by saying she wants to elope with Branson, the chauffeur. The relations between these different groups of people highlight just how distinct they are, and create tension–a revolutionary, attractive tension. Downton Abbey gives people of all different types screen time, and puts them in English historical context, although not completely realistic all the time. If you are going to try to be as inclusive as you can in a show, at least do it gracefully like Downton Abbey, rather than whatever Bridgerton, Season 3 was. 

Overall, Downton Abbey manages to seamlessly and realistically unfold what interconnectedness of the human experience looks like, through subplots and storylines. 

Laud to Julian Fellowes.

IMG Credits: Vanity Fair, we own no rights to this picture.