My bad. Gosford Park was 10 years or more ago. But the fact that Downton and Gosford have the same writer isn't relevant to what I was saying, which is, in essence, that the Downton doesn't have the weight or context of Gosford.
To pick up on one or two of the other posts, I'm not even saying that it should, if people like it for what it is.
But it then stays at a less ambitious level of costume melodrama, rather than more impactful drama.
Because the writing is, to at least to me, so far one dimensional, I don't really care about the marital fortunes of the girls in the same way that one does in say, Jane Austen. It is just romantic escapism, whereas it could have been that and then some.
The other thing that occurs to me is that, despite dealing with a gay character, Downton is short on good looking guys, which is never a good thing.
)
