I liked Downton Abbey as well, but now I also wonder how much of it is a part of whitewashing the British Empire. It was not only genocidal abroad (more or less completely whitewashed) but even at home the conditions for a large portion of the working class were apalling. It is possible that rural areas like those depicted in Downton Abbey were much better than the cities though.
The British Empire, like the French, like all empires, was brutal, genocidal, and pro-slavery. In the series, which is a romantic comedy, of course, we don't see this reality; that's not its goal, but rather to make us "feel" what life was like for aristocrats, with their minor and major dramas, their money problems, their love affairs, their marriages, etc. The beauty of the places, the beautiful forests, the horses, the dogs, the cars, seem like part of another world, outside of time. The reality was quite different, even if we can sometimes glimpse the misery of the times. This isn't a superficial series; we see human beings caught up in their time, their status, their situation. Love is important, as is friendship, life, death, disappointments, failures, and successes. And that's true at the top as well as at the bottom.
The British Empire killed millions of people in India and Africa, and we don't see that in the series, even though some characters tell us that the system is cruel. We do see characters who represent those who fought to improve the living conditions of the poor. The series ends in 1925, the "Roaring Twenties," and soon comes the Crash, and then World War II and the end of the British Empire in India. But that's still a long way off in the series. What this film emphasizes is the British spirit, myth or not. And not all British people were aristocrats.
If you have a keen eye, you can also see that the series pokes fun at the rich, their artistic ignorance, or simply their ignorance of their past. With kindness, of course.
I'm not a fan of series, but this one grabbed me by the throat, if you can call it that. Aristocrats or not, the themes of the series touch us: family, parent-child relationships, family relationships, work relationships, couple relationships. An important subject is the commitment we have in our lives, in everything. I reflected on my relationship with my parents, on the one with my sister. I think that's what I liked most about this series, that beyond people's statuses, we see human beings who try to live as best they can, like all of us.
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It's hard to find something as good as that! One of the things I loved the most about is the stories of the all the family members and as you say, the hate and love and how they solve their dramas (or not). It's beautiful, really.
