May 25, 2022 3 min read

I was flipping through the television channels one evening last week and was surprised to happen upon the movie Downton Abbey. I squealed with delight and my fiancé looked at me like I was crazy.

“I love this movie,” I exclaimed, to which he replied, “Ugh… I don’t like any of that stuff about royalty.” I proceeded to explain to him that the British period drama series really wasn’t about royalty… and then remembered the movie plot was about a royal visit to the English country estate. Still, I said, look at all of those lavish costumes, the gorgeous real-life castle they filmed the series in and those vintage automobiles! He looked doubtful but agreed, yes, he likes the clothes they wore back then.

A few minutes later, he chuckled at one of the famous one-liners the writers always give the Dowager Countess (played impeccably by Maggie Smith) to deliver. Then, he asked me who was the Earl of Grantham? Which daughter married the chauffeur? Why was the butler acting upset with the footman? I kept having to stop and start the playback again and again (thank goodness for modern technology and my cable box). The next thing you know, a half-hour had gone by, and he was as engrossed in the soap opera shenanigans of the privileged family and their staff as I was. I laughed and said, “See, I told you it was good!”

During the commercial breaks, they kept running ads for the next Downton Abbey movie, which just opened last weekend. “Oh, I will have to see that,” I said. He seemed a little more interested and at least didn’t roll his eyes. Once the movie ended, I checked the TV listings and saw they were running a Downton Abbey marathon of all of the episodes from the six seasons it aired on PBS. “Oh, now I’m in trouble,” I sighed as I realized this meant I would have to record and rewatch all of them. I managed to watch the pilot episode, then left for work, happy in the thought that my DVR would be full of plenty of British humor and drama when I returned.

The next day, I came home from work to find my fiancé working away at his computer in his home office. He welcomed me home and then started laughing and pointed at the TV. “Guess what I’m watching?” I turned around and rather than the television being turned to the usual business channel or ESPN, there were my favorite butler, housekeeper, and member of the Crawley family in all of their glory.

Don’t look now, honey, but you’re binge-watching Downton Abbey! We both burst out laughing. “I really got into it now,” he said. “It’s really good!”

He’s about one season ahead of me, so now I have some binge-watching of my own to do to catch up with him!

Kristin Emery can be reached at kristinemery1@yahoo.com.