'Downton Abbey' Proves That Fan Service Can Be A Good Thing
Starring Michelle Dockery, Matthew Goode, Maggie Smith, Elizabeth McGovern, Laura Carmichael, Allen Leech, Joanne Froggatt, Tuppence Middleton, Imelda Staunton, Robert James-Collier…and everyone else
Rated PG
Drama
Run time: 2 hr, 2 min
Directed by Michael Engler
In theaters September 20, 2019
Fan service can be a dirty term lately, considering how everyone felt with the final season of Game of Thrones, but a continuation of the seemingly low-stakes of Downton Abbey is literally the perfect place to show how well it can go. Fans of the show had already seen well thought out endings to the majority of plot lines, and were more than happy to just imagine how the rest wound up. Upon hearing that a movie is coming, the dreams were small: fans just wanted to step into that world again. Hear the Dowager Countess sass someone, see the beauty of the house and check in to make sure our favorite fictional British dynasty is hanging in there okay.
Thankfully, the creator seems to have heard our prayers. The entire plot line of the Downton movie is about a royal visit. They add some heaviness to the stakes that we’d normally encounter (oh my! The king and queen?) and give a baseline story that will give all our favorite characters to come back together. Of course, the whole family would show up for a royal visit. Of course, every member of the downstairs crew - both retired and current - would have a part to play. Of course, we’d have a few new people to keep the story fresh and interesting and to throw some new kinds of interactions into the mix. And honestly, with a world like this, we don’t need much more than that.
Everyone steps back into their roles with the same grace as we had seen for multiple seasons, and it’s a true joy just to revisit them. Granted, there’s a solid chance you won’t get quite as much time with your favorite character since they’re trying to fit a decent amount of everyone into two hours. I expected a lot more of the daughters than we got, but the snippets we got to see of their lives still felt worth it. For a moment, I worried that bringing the royal family into things would take time away from the people we wanted to see, but it instead managed to enrich our knowledge of them that we already had.
I felt like we got exactly what we wanted in this: we see how the family has been getting on (seemingly happy for the most part, at least), how they have grown and how they’ve stayed the same. The swell of the music alone is enough to make a fan’s smile broaden, and the mere shake of the Dowager’s head will fill them with warmth. Granted, there’s only so many ways to wax poetic about how much joy this movie can bring, but it’s impressive how well it was managed. They manage to leave hope for a sequel without requiring it, and I for one wouldn’t mind any opportunity to visit Downton Abbey in the future.