The Unfettered Critic – May 2022

“Downton Abbey! Have you heard it’s coming back?”

A voice called from across the street, not far from Jacksonville’s historic downtown. We looked around, and realized it belonged to a neighbor whom we hadn’t seen for two mask-obscured years. We recalled that she was a Review reader familiar with our humble column, and that she shared our fondness for the “lifestylings” of Dowager Countess Violet Crawley (Dame Maggie Smith), and the extended Crawley family, on the much-loved series Downton Abbey.

Like us, she’d heard that a Downton sequel is about to debut—a new motion picture. Where and when? We’ll get to that shortly. But first, how about…why?

We love period pieces, particularly romantic ones imported from Britain. Traditionally we’ve found them on television, where they seem to run endlessly, parsing out tantalizing bits of plot, episode after episode.

At the moment, we’re wallowing in an embarrassment of riches that we like to refer to as the Tons. They were inspired, of course, by the very successful Downton, which ran for six seasons on PBS, followed by a motion picture sequel in 2019. (You can still find reruns of the television series on Netflix, by the way.)

Meanwhile, two other Tons have jumped over the pond. Sanditon, on PBS, is an adaptation of a sadly unfinished novel by Jane Austen, the master of the craft. And over at Netflix, there’s Bridgerton, adapted from a series of historical romance novels by modern writer Julia Quinn. These shows share—in addition to the Tons—a staple of fascinating-yet-flawed characters draped in spectacular costumes, while dealing with life’s many dramas and traumas. Passion swells within each of them, and viewers, alert or not, might even catch a “glimpse” of skin (quite a lot of it in Bridgerton’s Season One. Whew!).

Sanditon is traditional PBS Masterpiece Theater fodder, bearing all the hallmarks of Britain’s Regency era, which followed the dethroning of Mad King George III. It’s comfort food, through and through. Charlotte Heywood, a young, innocent, independent-minded woman, arrives to spend the summer in the seaside town of Sanditon as the guest of the Parker family. There she meets Mr. Parker’s younger brother, Sidney, handsome and arrogant enough to suit the genre’s requirements. You can predict that Charlotte and Sidney will kindle an attraction, but will the flame stay lit? The series was cancelled at the end of the first season in 2019, but perhaps spurred on by the huge success of Bridgerton during the height of the pandemic, it was uncancelled, and is now in its marvelous second season.

Bridgerton, a spunky reimagining of the Regency period by veteran television writer/producer Shonda Rhimes (Gray’s Anatomy), features multiracial casting and wildly colorful interpretations of wigs and costuming. Each of Quinn’s books focuses on one of the Bridgerton clan as he/she stands on the cusp of matrimonial entanglement. It’s not the Britain we’ve ever imagined (except perhaps after a few pints), but it’s a Britain we’d love to visit. And revisit. Netflix certainly did. Its debut marked Netflix’s highest-rated show ever. It’s still the second highest-rated, topped only by Squid Game. But honestly, who wants to be seduced by a squid?

Which brings us back to Downton Abbey. Yes, a new movie is upon us. Titled Downton Abbey: A New Era, it opens in theaters on May 20. Huzzah! The film’s trailer reveals that the Dowager has inherited a French villa from a man she knew long ago. Wait—did she say that she knew him—or that she knew him? Nudge, nudge, wink, wink. Know what we mean?

Say no more!