“We wanted to let viewers know there are layers and layers of meaning in the series,” Jessica Fellowes explains.

Once considered fusty territory, it has proven itself to be just as participatory, just as immersive, as the world of science fiction. Nowhere is this more apparent than in literature, where we find reinventions of Downton Abbey in every genre from romances to spy novels.Ī survey of this literature allows all of us - not just Downton viewers - to recognize the world-building potential of historical fiction. “It’s an elaborate mythology, really.”Īnd like other mythological worlds - The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Harry Potter - Downton Abbey has inspired myriad artists to revisit it. “The series created a fictional universe far bigger than what we saw on the screen,” explains Henry Jenkins, a professor of media studies at USC. But few have been as densely detailed, or as expansive, as Downton Abbey. All television drama gives us worlds, of course. This is why we devoured the show, anticipating each episode as we swore that we couldn’t take One More Second of Anna and Bates’s suffering. Over its six seasons and 52 episodes, the series didn’t just give us a story it gave us a world. Then we traveled upstairs to an opulent bedroom where Lady Mary, looking like some disappointed princess, sat atop her bed and rang the bell for service. Hughes, the housekeeper, patrolling the hallways and Carson, the butler, instructing William to iron Lord Grantham’s newspapers. We passed housemaids Anna and Gwen, plumping pillows amid an army of bustling servants. Then Thomas walked into the frame, dashing in livery as he collected glasses from the previous night. Seconds later we were following Daisy, the kitchen maid, as she scuttled through rooms with an ash bucket. Remember how masterfully it transported us back to 1912?įirst, we saw a telegraph machine clicking out news of the Titanic disaster, followed by shots of a train, a village, and a resplendent Highclere Castle. But remember when this wasn’t the case? Think back to the series’s opening. “ Downton Abbey has become Downton Crappy,” pronounces my teenage neighbor. Like many of you, I’ve grown tired of the ludicrous plotlines and engineered emotion. The soul-crushing disappointment I once imagined feeling now seems unlikely. IN ONLY A FEW DAYS, Downton Abbey will be over.

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