A farewell to 'Downton Abbey'
Here's how Downton Abbey won't be ending: In the middle of a Journey song, with an abrupt cut to black.
Here's how Downton Abbey won't be ending:
In the middle of a Journey song, with an abrupt cut to black.
Fans have weathered a nasty surprise or two over the last six seasons, but Sunday's two-hour series finale, airing at 9 p.m. on WHYY, is as tidy and richly appointed as only a great house with a staff of servants could be.
Which doesn't mean you shouldn't keep tissues handy.
The Masterpiece British import that became the highest-rated drama in the public network's history has always been a period potboiler, its airs and graces supported by a plot structure that, like the class system it depicted, weakened over time.
One servant suspected of murder? Unfortunate. Two? Wearisome.
How many times could Lady Edith (Laura Carmichael) have happiness snatched from her before the show's creator began to seem meaner than Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery)?
Downton Abbey, the estate that may have been the true object of creator Julian Fellowes' affection, had as many close calls as its characters.
But it's those characters who kept us coming back.
Upstairs and downstairs, they were changing with the times, always reaching for more but staying essentially themselves.
With the finale, the show will have covered the time from the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 to the eve of 1926, but so much of what drove the show was in its first episode.
There we saw the first spark between the new valet, Bates (Brendan Coyle) and the head housemaid, Anna (Joanne Froggatt), met the scheming footman Thomas (Rob James-Collier) - who kissed, and attempted to blackmail, a duke! - witnessed the Marcia-Jan dynamic between Mary and Edith, and, of course, felt the sting from the tongue of the Dowager Countess (Maggie Smith), for whom most of the best lines would forever be reserved ("No one wants to kiss a girl in black").
Robert (Hugh Bonneville) and Cora (Elizabeth McGovern), the earl and countess of Grantham, were established as a couple who'd married for reasons other than love but had nevertheless found it, while at the very bottom of the pecking order, Daisy the kitchen maid (Sophie McShera) toiled like a fretful Cinderella.
Cora, the American heiress whose fortune first saved Downton, probably doesn't get enough credit (or blame) for her freethinking daughters, who, when they weren't entertaining suitors, having scandalous premarital adventures, or running off with the chauffeur (RIP, Sybil), were showing interest in estate management, publishing, and politics, enriching the series.
I mean, who didn't love the episode where Lady Mary rescued pigs?
Fellowes could be ruthless with characters whose actors wanted out (RIP, Matthew), but he also knew good characters when he saw them, finding reasons to keep actors like Allen Leech, who played Tom Branson, the chauffeur-turned-son-in-law, and Kevin Doyle, whose Molesley eventually figured in one of the show's most inspiring stories.
They'll both be there Sunday, along with a host of others, to see the old year out in the style, and with all the tears and laughter, to which we've become accustomed.
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