When it comes to original programming, Amazon Prime Video has hits and misses, from the tremendously popular series Reacher to the disastrously expensive Citadel. Overall, a lot of the best shows on the service are licensed from elsewhere, including the opulent British period drama Downton Abbey. This ITV show took the world by storm in the 2010s and created a franchise that ended for good only recently. If you have access to Prime Video, you can easily see what the fuss was (and is) about.
A genteel British epic
My word, really
Downton Abbey is set in the Yorkshire county estate of Downton Abbey in the early 20th century, starting around 1910 and running through the middle of the 1920s. We follow the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their domestic servants as they fall in and out of love, deal with finances, and grapple with the changing times.
Downton Abbey is a melodrama first and foremost. For the first few seasons, one of the driving plots is the on-again, off-again romance between Mary Crowley (Michelle Dockery) and Matthew Crowley (Dan Stevens), who are fourth cousins. Matthew is part of the middle class, but because of the arcane laws of English inheritance in effect at the time, stands to inherit Downton Abbey, which is why Mary — who as a woman is ineligible to inherit — considers marrying him. They don’t like each other, they like each other, they get involved with other people, they find their way back, and they do it all while fabulously dressed and trading sharp British witticisms.
Another ongoing melodrama involves Mary’s younger sister Edith (Laura Carmichael), who at one point has a secret child has a secret child who gets moved around hither and thither over the seasons as more characters find out about her parentage. Downstairs, we check in on the various servants and valets as they scheme, fall for each other, and try to find happiness.
None of the drama in Downton Abbey is particularly high-stakes, but that’s one of the selling points. This show washes over you like a warm bath. It’s comforting, beautiful, and easy to watch.
Downton Abbey vs history
On TV, history is relative
Downton Abbey engages with real history. In the second season, Downton Abbey is temporarily converted into a convalescent hospital for officers during World War I. One character dies during the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic. Characters brush up against major events of the 1920s like the Teapot Dome scandal and the Beer Hall Putsch.
All that is interesting, and Downton Abbey does labor to get the aesthetics of the period correct, but it would be a mistake to consider the show a serious historical drama first and foremost. It doesn’t just recreate a period of history; it has a perspective on it. Downton Abbey remembers post-Edwardian England with a kind of fuzzy warmth. It’s nostalgic for a time when landed families like the Crowleys were able to live lives of luxury with grateful domestics happy for a chance to serve such an illustrious bloodline. It presents a fantasy version of the past, and it’s easy and fun to get sucked into the fantasy.
This is not a dig. Most historical fiction shows have a questionable relationship with actual history. The question is what kind of period piece you want to watch. If you want a great show that remembers English history as violent and difficult, you could go with something like The Last Kingdom on Netflix. If you want a show that lets you imagine what it would be like to spend your days having politely scandalous conversations in gorgeously apportioned rooms, Downton Abbey is what you’re looking for.
Three cheers for the Dowager Countess
If Downton Abbey were a person
Downton Abbey is best enjoyed with expectations properly in place: you’re not getting a rigorous historical drama; you’re getting a lush historical fantasy, and that’s okay.
The character who represents the best of what Downton Abbey has to offer is Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham, played by the late Maggie Smith. Violet engages in some serious plotlines over the seasons, but mainly exists so she can sit on the sidelines in gorgeous delivering witticisms (an example: “Principles are like prayers; noble, of course, but awkward at a party”) as only a trained pro like Maggie Smith can deliver them. She’s fun, she’s pithy, she is the spirit of Downton Abbey, and fans wouldn’t have it any other way.
Downton Abbey, cont.
This is the most underrated show on Amazon Prime and it has four fascinating seasons waiting for you
There should be a lot more sitcoms parodying the excesses of big tech.
After Downton Abbey wrapped up on ITV, the cast and crew went on to make three movies: 2019’s Downton Abbey: The Movie, 2022’s Downton Abbey: A New Era, and 2025’s Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale. Unfortunately, none of these movies are available to stream just for the price of your Prime Video subscription (although you can rent or buy them for an extra fee), but it goes to show just how popular this franchise has been.
If you’re looking for more of what Downton Abbey offers, creator Julian Fellowes went on to create a show called The Gilded Age for HBO. The Gilded Age is essentially an American version of Downton Abbey. Set in the late 1800s, it follows old money American families in New York City who are put off by the arrival of newly rich families who actually had to work to make their fortunes. It also has opulent production design, melodramatic plots, and a fuzzy fondness for a time when wealth was way less evenly distributed than it is now. It scratches the exact same itch that Downton Abbey does, and is only one of several solid historical dramas on HBO Max.
