‘Downton Abbey’ season 4: Is spoiler philosophy more ‘Mad Men,’ ‘Game of Thrones’?

“Downton Abbey” is currently in production for its fourth season, but if you looked at what most of the actors were saying on social media or doing out and about in the United Kingdom, you would hardly know it. There are closed sets and spoiler-free zones, and then there are series so guarded that they almost look like CONTROL from “Get Smart.”

What has been interesting moving into the production of this season would be seeing how the show would respond to its even greater success, as well as the increased demand for plot details around the world. The show has always been secretive, as they had to use creative techniques to hide such events as a farewell party for Jessica Brown Findlay. Now, the most you get out of a cast member involves them either being in the trailer or walking around the show’s set.

So is this a great thing for the series? It depends on how you look at it. While some showrunners (see Kurt Sutter of “Sons of Anarchy”) choose to share frequent updates and progress reports to keep fans engaged, even without giving away major spoilers, others manage to be equally successful without sharing anything at all. “Mad Men” is long known as the most notorious spoiler-free show, as you often do not even know casting prior to episodes airing on TV.

You could refer to the “Downton Abbey” strategy as the British “Mad Men,” but the more applicable comparison is HBO’s “Game of Thrones.” The ITV series was at least kind enough to announce some new cast members, which is what the fantasy adaptation also did during its season 3 production last year. This gives fans enough to speculate on, but not enough to where they would actually guess anything.

Even if “Downton Abbey” was airing spontaneously around the globe, we still have a feeling that this show would still be just as tightly-guarded as they are. Hugh Bonneville, for example, makes a point to not talk about hardly anything related to the show’s story on Twitter, citing the fact that many countries are even further behind than America.

We can’t say as of this time that there is a verdict on if “Downton Abbey’s” no-spoiler policy is effective or not, since you could give away a few more details here and there without ruining the story (which the majority of fans would not want), you could say it is a form of overcompensation. After all, American viewers will likely be spoiled on all sorts of things when the show premieres in Britain this fall, and they don’t want to exacerbate the issue. From a personal standpoint, we like being left in the dark here as long as possible, even if it does mean fewer pieces for our site.

What do you think: should “Downton Abbey” be more willing to share details on the new season, or do you prefer it better being completely surprised? If you want to see some highlights revolving around some cast members, you can do so over here.

Photo: ITV