It started out as a good show but then I find it became too much. Sort of like in any show for teenage girls like The OC or One Three Hill. When all credibility's gone, you don't really care about the 3rd car crash of the season and the 4rth time somebody's baby dies. But it's hard to blame them. They could of course have made it more realistic and pay more attention to details and symbolism,but why bother? They would have ended up like Mad Men with everyone complaining the show is boring and too slow. Mad Men is not that bad of an example, they are pretty successful and are always nominated for a bunch of awards. BUt they have about 2.49 mil viewers for season 6 which is nothing compared to Downton Abbey's 9.5 mil in season 4. Numbers matter... They are exactly what they want to be (a teenage drama for housewives) and it works great.
I disagree. I think what set it apart at the beginning was a commitment to well-written characters and a structure that rewarded emotional involvement. I think they could have maintained this despite all the cast changes if they'd been committed to it, but instead they just went for melodrama. "Oh, Mr. Bates is in prison! Now he's not! Wasn't that exciting?" There was a lot more care put into moving the pieces on the chess board which went out the door when they ended up with the game in a position they weren't sure how to extricate themselves from. Breaking Bad famously took a year off because "the scripts weren't good enough." They doubled down and said "you know what? Good enough isn't good enough." I think if Downton Abbey had been more committed to quality and continuity, they could have continued at the same level of excellence they started.But it's hard to blame them. They could of course have made it more realistic and pay more attention to details and symbolism,but why bother?
Probably. They started off pretty well. No doubt they could have made it into a great show if they would have put in the effort. But they didn't. Obviously they have reasons for what they did. Great quality content requires lots of tradeoffs in deadlines, costs, effort etc. They probably were in a position where they decided "good enough" WAS good enough. It's too bad :( But honestly, I feel like TV has been much more willing to make these tredeoffs lately. In past couple of years we really got lots of great TV shows: Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Sherlock, Game of Thrones...