I don’t actually mean that Downton Abbey is stupid; that is, it’s obviously an incredibly smart and smartly-crafted show. What I mean when I say it’s stupid is that if you tell someone that the moment you got hooked on this kind of soapy British period drama was when Granny made a courteous gesture at a flower show, it sounds completely ridiculous. My relationship with the show has become a back and forth between “OMG O’Brien, you monster!” and “Wait why are my fists clenched so tightly?” The show has this strange power to rid you of irony and cynicism before you can realize you’re not laughing at how stupid it is anymore. That’s quite a feat if you think about it.
Part of this is that it’s able to poke fun at itself by offering multiple perspectives on the period, which I’ll get to a little later. It’s not a story romanticizing the noble upper class folks of the time, as it may seem from the outside. It’s not a stuffy, melodramatic story offering mere escapism into the nostalgic past. And it’s not an uncritical look at the British class system then and now. It’s also not totally boring when you actually watch it, as hard as that may be to believe. I’ve yet to hear anyone describe it in a way that makes it sound as enjoyable as it is. The only way to tell someone about it is to have them watch it. Everyone I talk to seems to agree, it gets real at the flower show. It’s not as stupid as it sounds!
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