I am so sad that Matthew (a MAIN character!) and Lady Sybil are gone. Just ridiculous...
I heard viewers in the UK share your views... Season 1 is still their favorite.
Hubby and I picked up with "Downton" in Season 2, although we learned most of the back story about Season 1. Now that Season 3 is over, we plan to watch Season 1 DVDs (yes, we know about Lady Mary's Turkish diplomat lover - hard to avoid that one in Season 2).
As an aside, my daughter and I counted deaths, and we came up with 11. Downton definitely keeps Grassby’s funeral home jumping. :p
Eleven... wow! Are you including characters who never appeared on-screen? (ie Lavinia's father who left Matthew his fortune... or maybe Mr. Swire appeared in Season 1?)
Yes, we counted them all, even the baby, but there were SIX bodies shown in three seasons. That is a bit much. LOL