Downton Abbey quietly premiered in the U.K. In 2010. At the time, no one could
have expected how successful it would be on both sides of the Atlantic. In its early days,
fans wanted Downton to last forever. However, here's why it ran its course after 6 seasons.
Downton Abbey is a show built around an ensemble cast of characters. Even so,
certain members of Downton take center stage: Mary Crawley, Mister Bates, Branson, and, of course,
the Dowager Countess. The Crawley matriarch was truly the heart of Downton. Without Maggie Smith
as the Dowager there to dole out some wisdom and gossip, the show wouldn't be the same.
"How you hate to be wrong. I wouldn't know; I'm not familiar with the sensation."
In an interview with The Sunday Times, the Downton star announced she would leave the
show after its sixth season — before PBS announced it would also be the show's
final season. Smith complained that her role on Downton ruined any shred of privacy she had,
noting that she could no longer leave her home without being recognized:
"What's sad is I've gone through my whole life without any of that.
I could go round galleries and things on my own and I just can't do it now."
While Smith announced she'd be leaving after the sixth season as the fifth came to a close,
show creator Julian Fellowes was telling outlets that he didn't know
if Downton Abbey would be canceled or not, according to Vanity Fair.
Throughout the show's run, the abbey faced all sorts of issues. Lord Grantham blew
all of the estate's money in a bogus railway investment, failed to keep up with modernization,
and, at several points, pondered shutting down Downton and moving his family altogether.
In 1926, when Downton's final season takes place, the United Kingdom's General Strike led the
working class to fight back at the aristocratic system that depended on them for cheap labor.
This, coupled with the fact that World War One opened up more opportunities for women,
led estates like Downton Abbey to lose their workforce. Adrian Tinniswood,
author of The Long Weekend: Life in the English Country House Between the Wars, told Time:
"These houses were designed to be served by an army of cheap labor
and certainly by 1930, there's a problem in getting domestic staff for a house."
And, if keeping staff wouldn't be difficult enough for the Crawleys, estates like Downton
Abbey became more and more expensive to operate due to increasing taxes. Filming
this decline would've made for vastly different seasons, if Downton Abbey hadn't been canceled.
"I know, we are merely the caretakers of Downton. But Papa, some things have to change."
For the first five seasons, fans of Downton Abbey watched diligently as the characters navigated
complicated personal lives while doing their best to save their perpetually-at-risk estate.
After so many years, however, there's only so much an audience can take of Mary juggling suitors,
Edith facing setback after setback, or Downton being on the brink of disaster.
By the end of Season 5, many of the characters' struggles were on the verge of resolution.
Edith escaped to London to finally live with her daughter. Mary said goodbye to the two suitors who
never stood a chance, and Anna and Mister Bates were finally reunited. Everything that happened in
Season 6 was simply icing on the cake. Arguably, the show could have ended after the fifth season.
The Downton Abbey fan base became accustomed to — and perhaps grew to love — the chaotic
storylines that seemed to grow more absurd with each new episode. But there's only
so long a show can go on without tiring out its audience with what are essentially
the same storylines with a fresh coat of paint.
In a letter to American fans of Downton Abbey published by PBS,
show creator Julian Fellowes admitted that,
"The series is ending and that decision will not be reversed. [...] We wanted to leave while
we would still be missed and not wait until everyone was dying to see the back of us."
In the first three seasons, fans watched Mary and Matthew Crawley go from hating
each other to falling in love, getting married, and having a baby. However,
Matthew and Mary's happy ending was short-lived. According to Town And Country, actor Dan Stevens,
who played Matthew, chose not to renew his contract after the first three seasons.
That same year, Downton Abbey also lost Jessica Brown Findlay, who played Sybil Crawley. According
to Fellowes, Findlay was upfront from the beginning about her intention to stay for just
three seasons. After both Stevens and Findlay left, Downton Abbey did find
its footing once again. However, when Season 5 ended, two more characters said their goodbyes.
Downton executive producer Gareth Neame told Deadline that the departures of Allen Leech,
who played Tom Branson, and Lily James, who played Rose MacClare, left the door open for an eventual
return. Still, losing four main characters in just five seasons is a lot for any show, so it's
no wonder the showrunners knew it was the right time to close the curtain and cancel the series.
Downton Abbey, the movie, was a long time coming. In a goodbye letter to
fans after the series ended in 2015, creator Julian Fellowes revealed,
"There may be a movie — I hope there will be — and there may
be a stage play or a musical. I have heard all of them mooted."
Right he was.
About two years after the series ended, the Downton Abbey movie was set to begin
production. At the time, Michael Edelstein, NBCUniversal International Studios president,
said the movie had been, quote, "in the works for some time."
So, while the series may have ended after six seasons, it was clearly never really the last
fans would see of Downton. With a show that focuses on its characters
and setting just as much — if not more — than plot, there can always be another story to tell.
In 2012, Downton Abbey said goodbye to stars Dan Stevens and Jessica Brown Findlay,
who played Matthew and Sybil Crawley, respectively. As if those losses weren't enough,
show creator Julian Fellowes hinted that a new project could pull him away
from Downton Abbey in an interview with The New York Times conducted just a year later.
Fellowes said that while he hoped not to have to begin work on the NBC
series The Gilded Age until Downton was finished,
it wasn't realistic for him to do both shows at the same time. Fellowes explained,
"I would hope that by the time all the hurdles have been cleared,
the timing makes it so I can then concentrate on the new series.
And if Downton goes on — of course that's not my decision — then it would be with other writers."
While handing over the reigns of Downton to other writers was a very real possibility
Fellowes faced, he did explain to The New York Times that he'd, quote,
"prefer to do everything on [his] terms." Luckily for Downton fans,
Fellowes' project didn't pick up steam until well after Downton Abbey ended.
In its early days, Downton Abbey focused on the intricate details of everyday life at Downton,
like the mystery of a missing wine bottle or frequent bouts of sisterly tension.
But, in Season 2, all the minutiae started getting tossed aside in favor of
larger-than-life plots that felt out of place in the slow-moving world of English aristocracy.
According to The Atlantic, the show seemed to lose its footing once the
main characters settled into their respective relationships,
as that's when some of the more convoluted storylines were introduced.
Throughout the course of the show, characters were forced into situations that grew
increasingly unrealistic. Mr. Bates and his wife, the sweet-to-a-fault Anna,
are both accused of murder and Matthew Crawley miraculously recovers from being
paralyzed from the waist down. Later on, Edith has a baby with a man who goes missing while
trying to divorce his wife. Despite all this, fans tuned in season after season.
In an interview with The New York Times, Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes said,
"My own belief is that these things have a life. And one of the tricks
is to recognize when it's time to come to an end."
After six seasons, it was Downton Abbey's time.
According to the Downton Abbey page on Rotten Tomatoes, the show was generally well-received
throughout its entire run. However, after an astounding 100 percent approval rating
for Season 2, the show lost its way. The convoluted storylines aren't just the
opinions of one or two scorned reviewers who had a bone to pick with the show.
In Season 3, critics agreed that the show's plots became unsatisfactory. The fourth season
of Downton Abbey earned a 73 percent, proving a souring of critical opinion.
Season 4, however, proved to be Downton's lowest point as
the fifth and sixth seasons received an 82 percent and 91 percent rating,
respectively, showing that if anything, the show definitely ended on a high note.
Downton Abbey is cemented in a very specific place and time:
an English aristocratic house in the early 20th century. The setting alone presents an
issue faced uniquely by historical dramas. That is, a race against the progression of history.
"Well what else could we drink to? We're going forward to the future, not back into the past."
"If only we had the choice!"
The Crawleys' way of life was very much on the way out in the real timeline of historical events.
The show spanned 12 years, beginning in 1912 and ending in 1924. Had the show continued
on past its sixth season, the Crawleys would have been taken well into the 1930s,
at which point it would have been difficult to believe that Downton, as an estate, would
have survived at all. Given the struggles the fictional estate already faced, combined with the
Great Depression that lasted from 1929 to 1933, it's unlikely Downton would come out unscathed.
In fact, Time reported that many places like Downton were completely demolished,
as staffing and maintenance became at best, difficult, and at worst, downright impossible.
Unfortunately, historical dramas like Downton Abbey are just not meant to carry on for
ten or more seasons like shows with modern settings. Inevitably, time passes them by.
Though Downton Abbey was a widely beloved show, it wasn't without its critics — some
of whom pointed out that the show presents an idealized version of a time in history when
the division between the aristocracy and working class seemed absolute.
One reviewer wrote in The Guardian that Downton Abbey presented the
world of early 20th century English aristocracy and servitude as amicable
and even "pleasant," and completely ignored the harsh truths of the period.
"He still does not deserve to be addressed in that manner by a footman."
According to one expert the reviewer spoke to, the servants who worked at Downton Abbey would,
in real life, be covered in sweat and grime from working all day and never would have had
the time to carry out the subplots laid out for them in the show. As for the Crawleys,
their kindness, understanding, and generosity towards the people who worked for them were a far
cry from what those relationships were apparently often really like.
After six seasons, the story of Downton Abbey was simply finished.
When viewers said goodbye to the show, every character was seemingly done with their journey.
According to Time, Edith finally found love, Mary met her match in Henry Talbot,
Carson and Mrs. Hughes got married, and the Downton estate was comfortably modernizing.
With all of that settled, what more could the show have done?
According to creator Julian Fellowes, not much at all. He told Deadline,
"What happens in the end with any serial drama is there's a limited number of things that
happen to human beings. [...] And I think, if you stay too long, you start to repeat.
Basically: are we happily married? Do we like our job? Are the children doing well?
Are our parents OK? I mean, this is all our lives. When you've explored all of
those for all the characters, then I think it's time to say goodbye."
And so, with everyone at Downton settled, Fellowes decided it was time to say goodbye.
According to The Guardian, that goodbye came with a happy ending for nearly every primary character.
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