If you watched the whole of Downton Abbey please can you answer me this...

[bimmyboo]

During the 2010's when Downton was really popular I was in my partying years and entirely missed it save for a few Christmas specials round at my parents. Fast forward to now and my DH and I are parents to a small person and our social life looks veeery different! We have been binge watching this show. Very very late to the party of course.

We just had Lady Sybil's death which was truly awful and so terribly terribly sad. I know that Mathew Crawly is going to die on the way back from seeing his new baby as I recall watching that in a Christmas special and it was awful even to someone who hadn't watched the show. (I haven't hold my DH this is going up happen).

What I want to know is, !!!!!!without spoilers please!!!!!!! Will the show get nicer to watch or will there be lots more of these awful tragedies?! Since being a mum I can't cope right now with the sadness of it all! I'm finding it all so emotional. But I love the show and we are both hooked. So looking to prepare myself with the general outlook but no actual spoilers please! 🙏

The Anna bit was so incredibly sad it's definitely on par with Lady Sybil and Matthew's death!

I skip over it when I rewatch.

I’m also binge watching second time around. I don’t think it’s aged well but I’m still enjoying it .

The worst ever thing to happen to any character of Downton is poor Anna having to do the deed with Mr Bates. 🤢 Apart from that and the things you’ve mentioned the whole show becomes sort of a caricature of itself. It’s still absolutely brilliant apart from a slow season around season 4 I think it is.

For me, Lady Sybil’s death was absolutely horrible, especially for a Christmas special! It stayed with me for a long time actually.

Then there is the Anna thing already mentioned.
Downton is unusual I think, some touching moments, some ridiculous 🤷‍♀️

Thanks for that explanation. This is one of those phrases that I've only ever seen on MN and never really understood!

There is also a really shocking scene where Lord Grantham falls ill during dinner and it's really quite horrible.... I'd been watching with DD and it made her scream and run from the room. It was very sudden and out of the blue.

I think the good outweighs the bad so would encourage you to keep going.

I don't remember Nigel Harman being in it! I hated the wartime stuff, found it boring.

If you love Isis the dog, I have bad news...

Yes they regretted naming him that and had to get rid.

It was a beautiful name. I knew a child born several years before named Isis. She was the goddess of love

Just avoid the episode where an opera singer goes to Downton. Other than that nothing else really horrible. The episode where Robert is ill has warnings before every part so it shouldn't be a shock (the warnings were so repetitive that I was convinced that a child was going to die, but it's nothing as terrible as that).

Don't worry those are the worst moments really so you'll be all good from now on

Oh I love it! Don't worry, the two awful deaths you mention are the worst and it's full of heartwarming stuff.

Every Bates storyline is relentlessly awful so I skip him entirely. The rest is mostly lovely despite being a bit silly.

Despite asking for no spoilers you seem to have been landed with big spoilers!
Yes there are a few more difficult times to come, as is life. But I'd say generally the tone becomes more uplifting as the series' progress, and particularly with the films, and I think that also reflects the tone of real life going from post-war through the 20s/30s. I do really wish they had made further series' going into the 1930s and then the WW2 era.

Downton Abbey is a really top quality production, it will always be a classic watch (an re-watch). And if you haven't already seen it, look up the film Gosford Park. It was the original inspiration for making Downton.

There is one more death to deal with, they didn't have many lines but were in most scenes. Was very sad
Keep with it op, it is one of my favourite series

Forgot about that. I usually fast forward that scene it's grim. I also fast forward the Anna storyline because yet more misery is just boring.

@fortnumsfinest who else died? Can't think of anyone.

Yeah that was a shocker!

OK, this juxtaposition made me laugh:

Oh that's marvellous 😀

The storylines involving Jimmy Alfred Ivy and Daisy can be quite comical at times as can Mrs Patmore’s comments on them all . Series 6 is a bit silly but probably the happiest series of them all

And then Jimmy's Dad later on ...

Mrs Patmore's cataracts or lack of them might be frustrating if you're an optometrist or work in a similar field