I’m something of a whimsical television watcher.
Even when I was younger, I pretty much ignored the shows the other kids my own age were excited. I didn’t watch “The Man From Uncle,” “Mission: Impossible” or the original “Star Trek.”
I have had my own favorites, but very few of them are ones I have watched all the way to the end. In recent years, the only show I watched week after week from season one to the end was “Madam Secretary.” I loved it and someday I’ll watch the 5 1/2 seasons of it all over again.
But there are plenty of well-regarded shows that friends of mine love that leave me cold. Shows like “Breaking Bad,” for example.
One show regarded as wonderful that I never even tried until recently was “Downton Abbey.”
It just didn’t seem like my proverbial cup of tea. Life among the minor British nobility in the years around the time of the Great War? With the exception of Maggie Smith and Elizabeth McGovern, most of the actors and actresses in it are people I’ve never heard of. It took me a really long time to get around to it, but when I realized I had quite a few unused points on Amazon, I used some of them to order “Downton Abbey.”
It arrived the other day and I have been binge-watching it since. I don’t know whether to be happy or disappointed, but even though it lasted six seasons, there are only 52 episodes.
Lord and Lady Crawley
The show is essentially a descendant of PBS’s classic Masterpiece Theatre. No car chases or gunfights (other than WWI), no nudity or much in the way of foul language. The show begins with news of the sinking of the Titanic and its effect on the family at the center of the story.
I’m nearly through two seasons now and we’re up to 1919 and the Spanish Flu.
Still enjoying it.