“Downton Abbey” was released on September 20. The movie, a sequel to the hit television series of the same name, brings back most of the main cast, The movie takes place in 1927, two years after the series finale of its television counterpart. 

The plot revolves around the cast at the manor as they prepare for a royal visit from King George V and Queen Mary. Aside from the royal visit, the movie delves into the state of Downton Abbey as well. 

While the owners of Downton are excited for the royal visit, the workers of Downton have their hands full with the invasion of Buckingham palace workers. Throughout the two hour run time, we see the dynamics between characters playout in a beautifully designed period drama. 

If you’re like me and haven’t seen the series prior to watching the movie, then it’ll be a bit difficult to understand most of the plot. It doesn’t waste any time in catching up the audience to what happened in the television series. You are placed in the middle of everything, with absolutely no context of what previously happened.

 This was a reasonable decision to execute, because the target audience is fans of the television series and they would rather spend the run time on the main plot than having to waste run time recapping for the few people who haven’t seen the series. It felt like this movie was fan service, and not for the general audience. 

Although it was hard to understand the plot of it at first, I slowly started to understand what was going on. It was enjoyable to see how the characters interacted with one another. They express wit and charm that I enjoyed throughout the movie. I liked watching these characters in their environment, and having characters adapt when an outside force comes in and usurpers control. 

While I enjoyed the cast of characters, some of them rarely had any screen time or appeared in a few scenes and never showed up again. Aside from that, I also enjoyed the sets and clothing as well. The sets were well thought out aesthetically pleasing to the eye, and the costumes were very accurate in depicting the 1920’s look and style. 

“Downton Abbey” is a remarkable film that gives the well-loved series a final goodbye to the cast and crew who helped bring the series to life. Even though I didn’t watch the original series, after watching this movie, I might try to watch the show. The movie convinced me that the relationships in the movie run very deep, and in order to  understand how these came about, watching the series would help understand these relationships.

 It was an overall enjoyable movie that was aesthetically pleasing, funny, and bittersweet. Aside from lack of screen time of certain characters and a nonexistent recap of the series, it still held up to the hype that surrounded it before and during its opening weekend.