tv + media

This show is merely a fancied up soap opera. I hope no one takes it as any kind of serious history. So often those who don't care to think too deeply look at historical dramas like this as factually correct and come away with a lot of false impressions. 'Downtown Abbey' is not a substitute for legitimate inquiry into WWI, it's just light headed entertainment.

The scripts, language, and diction are not period. The original 1970s "Upstairs Downstairs", "The Pallisers", and "The Duchess of Duke Street" are far more superior than "Downton Abbey".

I agree. I know it's nearly sacrilege to say this, but while Downton Abbey is OK, I don't get all the enthusiasm. I think it may be that so much American TV is either so badly produced and badly written (with actors who all look like catalog models) or so full of distasteful situations that Americans are hungry for a drama about a more restrained era with characters who look more like real people (a strength of British TV--their characters tend to look less like models and more like ordinary people). I liked the original "Upstairs Downstairs" much better than its contemporary remake or "Downton Abbey."

Oh! For goodness sake... what a bunch of bah! humbugs. Downton Abbey is far superior than countless American series. What I am livid about, and I blame the British film makers, is that they cut out Matthew and Mary's wedding completely. What do they think we are, a bunch of idiots? Mean spirited people who like to give America a good jab. Shame on Downton Abbey's film makers and all those who decided to deprive us of this long anticipated ceremony.

It's a good show and highlights a segment of British history that many of us don't know much about. This is the same as real doctors complaining about the TV show ER and military crime investigators crabbing about NCIS. I could watch a documentary about the same time period but the story of Anna and John Bates makes DA appealing in my book.