I'm a regular visitor to Downton Abbey.
If that sounds like an admission of guilt, perhaps it is.
As hunters gathered round Saturday to warm up after spending their morning in the Arkansas deer woods for the start of modern gun season, I doubt the men folk spent any time comparing notes on whether Lord Grantham's family will save the abbey from the march of modernization.
In other words, watching the drama about a British earl, his family and their dutiful servants in the early 1900s doesn't scream manhood quite as much as field dressing a 10-point buck. Does it count that there are some hunting scenes in the show? OK, fox hunting in formal wear probably doesn't help dig me out of the hole, does it?
Well, I'm not going to dress it up as something it's not. Let the ridicule begin.
Blame the movies. Until recently, my wife and I used the monthly pass option at a local movie theater that allowed us to see pretty much as many movies as we wanted for a price less than paying for two movies the regular way. For months, the previews included scenes from the coming attraction of Downton Abbey, the motion picture.
I'm late to the craze. The show aired in the United States on PBS from 2011 to early 2016 but is available through streaming services. The previews at the theater drew me in, sparking an interest in watching the series before seeing the movie.
It's astonishing to me I find it so interesting. The show certainly isn't action packed. Most of it is shot inside a real castle about 65 miles west of London. The regal setting is as much a star of the show as the actors. Most episodes are focused on conversations between the characters as they navigate the sweeping changes brought on by world war, the decline of the landed gentry and modernization such as cars, radios, telephones and toasters.
Naturally, I'm a sucker for the tendency to think anything said with a British accent sounds far more noble and interesting than if the same were said with our American accents. But the writing on the show is full of wit and wisdom. It is undoubtedly a fantasy version of what it must have been like back in the day, but the show reminds me how people had to be adept at real, thoughtful conversation back before we all became absorbed by electronics, whether it's television or smartphones.
The show's reverence for honor, decency, conversation, respect between people of all classes and the wit-filled banter of conversations is pure escapism from the cacophony of conflict so abundant in our world today. And no, that's not just a development attributable to President Donald Trump. It's been with us for a while.
Downton Abbey is just feel-good television with a touch of historic appreciation thrown in. And yes, perhaps I appreciate the era it portrays because people voraciously read newspapers and actually wrote letters to one another frequently. When is the last time you got a meaningful personal letter from someone, or wrote one? Wouldn't it be fun to receive one, on paper instead of as an email attachment?
Some of the things we give up as time marches past represent a loss, not a gain. But maybe the qualities I see portrayed in Downton Abbey in some cases have just taken other forms.
I suspect as you read this, there might be some deer hunters sitting around a cabin or a campfire, enjoying tradition and carrying on the art of face-to-face conversation, just without the services of a butler.
Commentary on 11/10/2019