Downton Abbey

Downton Abbey (2010) 

I consider myself a left-wing liberal, but the first seasons of Downton Abbey enchanted me with its old-fashioned conservatism of the noble estate, where respect for traditions and natural authorities are not taken for granted, and after five episodes, I eagerly awarded it 5 stars. However, the second season followed, and it somehow declined in my eyes, and I more or less endured the third season. When I attempted to watch the fourth season, I began to feel an immune reaction in my body and gave up on it. It's not so much about the usual illness of TV series or a decline in the quality of the screenplay, but rather my political beliefs were being triggered, and the conservative idyll started to irritate me immensely. On such a large scale, any false note naturally becomes apparent, and I have to agree with the notion that Downton Abbey seems like a grandly staged soap opera for snobs. The on-screen events could be easily parodied. When you look at it closely, I always wondered how the cursed and despised genre of soap operas would look if it were filmed not as we know it from Czech or Latin American soap operas, but with careful attention to quality casting and directing, and in the case of Downton, I actually managed to find out. At first glance, it works, and one can admire the acting of the participants, the beauty of the women, the nobility of the men, and the scheming of the villains, but at the same time, one must not think too critically and must delicately turn a blind eye to some of the actions of the characters on TV. If I evaluate the series as a whole, I would give it a mere 2 stars and a 45% overall impression. If I were to evaluate only the first season, I could possibly consider giving it 4 stars. (08.03.2015)