I watched the first episode Downton Abbey and this is | UK News

I’ll admit, I wished to love Downton Abbey. Everyone talks about it and I know it is regarded as one of, if not, the best period drama ever. Unfortunately, it wasn’t for me. Maybe it finds its footing in later episodes, but after the first I wasn’t hooked. It opens with the sinking of the Titanic, but while some appear devastated by the unspeakable tragedy, abruptly everybody’s speaking about inheritance legal guidelines, distant cousins and useless fiances. 

It appeared a lot of plot threads have been being established at once and I wasn’t even 20 minutes in. There was apparent class tensions, marriage propects and the scheming servants and at least two mysterious arrivals at Downton. Of course I perceive it is laying out the groundwork, introducing us to this big upstairs-downstairs forged. Upstairs, there’s pressure between the sisters and who they’ll marry. Downstairs, the servants have their own secrets and techniques and conflicts.

It felt like the show wished to tick every box of period drama clichés in the first episode. But my main issue – too many characters have been thrown at me at once.

There was no time to join with anybody before they moved on to the next particular person. I could not fairly work out who was associated to who and which characters I was meant to like and sympathise with.

Half of them have been whispering in hallways while others have been screaming because they’d forgotten to put one thing on the chicken. With so many storylines unfolding at once, it was exhausting to know which character I must be following. Was it Mary’s? Lord Grantham’s?

Then got here the big reveal about Philip Villiers being homosexual, therefore ruling him out as a potential suitor for Mary, but I cannot be the only one who noticed one thing like that coming? Somewhat too predictable for my liking.

That big twist just fell a little flat for me sadly. There was one apparent standout for me, and that has to be Maggie Smith’s Violet Crawley. The Dowager’s sharp wit and biting humour stored me enticed when the relaxation of the episode felt slow.

But with the 100 other characters included in the collection, the minimal presence of Violet Crawley just is not enough to keep me watching. I can perceive why people get drawn into this world, but for me, it just did not land. 

It’s not that it was unhealthy, it is just merely that the first hour didn’t give me a lot of a cause to stick around.