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 house it's filmed in used to be owned by the Queens pal Porchy - have you watched The Crown OP? If you like downton you may well like that too.

@Toddlerteaplease I don't want to ruin it for the op, but they didn't have any lines, were in most scenes with Lord Grantham and went missing in an earlier episode due to Thomas's actions

🤣🤣🤣🤣
Brilliant

I think it got a bit silly when Cora had that fling with Carson

And Robert invested in space travel - that was a daft episode

Oh and Edith in her dressing as a man and being called Edwin, phase

Other than that, brilliant

@Tilllly : Oh and Edith in her dressing as a man and being called Edwin, phase

But it all ends happily for her so I can overlook that 😉

I so much enjoy her position at the end vs that of someone who has always been nasty to her.

@Tilllly And Robert invested in space travel - that was a daft episode

You jest, but investment in rocket technology with a view to emergent space travel was a reasonably big thing by 1930. And wealthy aristocracy did invest in it. Just two years after the last movie, so it could be a fun plot point for a third movie!

Which series was that? I missed it unless you mean the second series when she did a bit of tractor driving and possibly fell for a farmer.....

@Aspiringhermit wrote:
“Which series was that? I missed it unless you mean the second series when she did a bit of tractor driving and possibly fell for a farmer.....”

That was in response to Tilllly’s post at 11:23pm 😀 which also mentions Cora’s fling with Carson. But now you remind me about the tractor driving, I wonder… I have a vague memory of Edith in corduroy trousers, but that might be in my imagination.

I was so happy with how the TV episodes ended for Edith. I haven’t seen the second film, but I hope she’s still shining.

Thank you so much for these generalised trigger warnings! I think I've got the measure of it! I don't know why but in recent years I want to know exactly how something is going to make me feel before I watch it.

I got the clues about the dog, and the awful incident with poor Anna.

We have now reached the Christmas special where Matthew dies and will probably watch it this weekend. I have warned my DH that something horrendous is going to happen. After Matthew dies I'm not sure how I'll feel about the show as I really like his character and he smooths out Mary. But I'm sure we will continue to enjoy it.

I didn't watch it when it came out, preferring the revived Upstairs Downstairs.

Watched it all in lockdown and loved it.

I preferred the first three series, which was the original plan and gave an arch of a long lost way of life. In the latter couple of series I got fed up to the back teeth with one recurring storyline to the extent of telling my mate 'I don't care if he or she did or didn't do it, I just want it to come to a conclusion.' I did enjoy the first film and have yet to see the second.

Try The Gilded Age when you’ve finished Downton. Another Julian Fellowes programme and nothing bad happens (one person dies but others get a good outcome from it so all’s good!)

We’ve watched various disconnected chunks but have only recently started from the beginning, so you’re not the only one!

I think those are the worst events of the whole show. Sybil and Matthew Crawley deaths. Lots of good stuff does happen but as often happens with drama series there are a fair few tragedies. I hated both those plot lines in DA though.

"After Matthew dies I'm not sure how I'll feel about the show as I really like his character and he smooths out Mary. But I'm sure we will continue to enjoy it."

Tempting as it is to binge watch everything these days, after you watch that episode perhaps give yourself a week's break before going back. You'll appreciate the drama much more - you'll feel the sadness and come past it naturally. There is about a six month gap in the programme between that episode and the next so if you go from one straight into the next it'll feel weird to you.

I was about the say this. Love the ending to series 2!

Me too! The looks on the sisters’ faces when they realised their positions have changed!

Gilded age is fantastic, similar ending sister wise too.

Ohhhh, that is fantastic! 😂

We watched The West Wing while I was pregnant and through the first few months of sofa feeding endlessly. It's terrifyingly prescient for something so old. And often very funny. I recommend it.

Have you tried Newsroom? Same team behind it and it shows. Brilliant show!