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Come on. I watched the 1st 3 seasons end to end. I could see a pattern. When one of the young rich ladies fell in love with the Irish chauffeur he just had to bring to the dinner table his militant opinions to his hosts. Manufactured tension. The show was making a statement under the guise of a ‘teachable’ moment.

That show came on the heals of Gosford Park and the Remains of the Day. The tensions of the haves and have nots. The ambience and the communication amongst the one percenters was designed to make us feel the lesser as well as the same.

PBS put it out. That’s all you need to know.

Daughter Mary never "grew" as a character. She started out a *itch and stayed one. Elizabeth McGovern's character was insipid and the Irish chauffer suddenly becoming the "Second Lord" of the manor wouldn't have been possible, even if he was Kennedy... (If life had really looked like that, more Irish would have stayed there instead of immigrating to America.) The know-it-all do-gooder mother was insufferable and it is difficult to listen to British social justice preaching from people who knew where their next meal was coming from.

I gave up on the series when the gay butler got a pass. In that time period, homosexuality was against the law (ergo the trial of Oscar Wilde). No Lord, who was the political and moral leader of his fiefdom, would have supported someone who had violated the law in such degenerate manner. If they really wanted to shine a light on homosexuality at the time, they should have found him guilty and shown what happened to gay men.