Movies - TV
Every Downton Abbey
Season Ranked Worst To Best
By GINO ORLANDINI
7. Season 4
Season 4 is when Downton really starts looking to the future. It's a make-or-break season for Downton's younger denizens, who realize that they must embrace change or perish, and it's all a bit declinist and dour: While cousin Rose injects the footloose energy of the roaring ‘20s, the English aristocracy continues its grim waltz into oblivion.
6. Season 5
"Downton Abbey" Season 5 is all about second chances at love. The absence of Dan Stevens as Mathew Crawley is never felt more than during this season. Despite actor Matthew Goode's best efforts, his character's romance with the widowed Mary Crawley just doesn't have that will-they-won't-they sizzle.
5. Season 6
Happy endings are bourgeois, so that's exactly what viewers needed from the last batch of episodes of "Downton Abbey." The show isn’t like real life, and its climactic season delivers a grand conclusion where the people fans care about are taken care of like Lady Edith, who finally finds a purpose as a publisher in London.
4. Season 3
One of the elements that makes "Downton Abbey" work is the generosity of Lord Grantham, who despite his stature is a gentle figure. For Grantham, rules are rules, but people always matter more — even the unpleasant ones like the footman Thomas Barrow — and it's this generosity of spirit that is a defining trait of this beautiful show.
3. The Movie
The "Downton Abbey" movie gives audiences the chance to see the splendor of aristocratic English life in the early 20th century. The film is shot in a gorgeous widescreen aspect ratio, creating a stately, nostalgic vision, replete with drone-filmed sunrises, sharp contrasts, long shadows, and beautifully slanted beams of volumetric light that fill all those marvelous rooms.