The 'Downton Abbey' Movie Perfectly Captures What Made the Show Great

The story of Downton Abbey isn't about a family. It's about a house.

The titular character isn't flesh and blood; it's stone and brick, a building that has stood for at least a century or two when fans first lay eyes on it. The Downton wiki does not go into the history of the estate. But if one were to look to the real Highclere Castle as a model, there has probably been some sort of house standing on the estate since the 9th or 10th century. In the world of the show, the current Earl, Robert Crawley, is the 7th of his title, and at one point it is said that the house came into the family's possession under the 3rd Earl. The point is, it's been there a long time, and as Carson observes at one point in the film, it will assuredly stand at least 100 years more.

The show sometimes seemed to forget this. In the early seasons, it was less about the Crawley family as a unit and more about them as a generation passing through, the caretakers during this time of change. In later seasons, as the series got more bogged down in the petty day-to-day drama of the Granthams, this sense faded into the background. But the movie gets back to that feeling, and it is all the better for it.