Would Downton Abbey season 7 had been preferable over movie?
If you missed it, earlier this weekend there was surprising news that we know many people were rather thrilled to learn: A Downton Abbey movie is coming! This is something that has been rumored for a long time, but now seems to be officially out there in the universe. It is certainly something worth celebrating, especially since signs point to it coming out at as early as next year.
Now that we’ve spelled all of that out, this does raise some more questions, including precisely why the producers decided to go with a movie. We imagine that a big part of it had to do with schedules. Given some of the work commitments for the various performers on board here, there may have only been so much time in which everyone could be involved. This also means that the movie could come out roughly at a similar time all over the world. We know that something that fans of the original series often lamented was that the Downton Abbey episodes arrived so much later in America, thanks largely to scheduling decisions that were made by PBS.
Ultimately, we’re sure that the movie will make money and we’re rather grateful to have it, but we personally would’ve preferred this to be either a TV movie or some sort of six-part season 7. Why? There are a few different reasons.
1. Easier access – For many viewers, it’s simply cheaper because they already have access to the programming. That’s especially true for most Americans given that PBS is a network almost anyone with a standard cable package has.
2. Risk factor – Are people really going to pay for something that they were originally getting for free? We do think that this is a fair question to ponder over.
3. Consistency – Ultimately, we just prefer having a brand of entertainment stay in its original medium. For example, we didn’t love Sex and the City going from TV to movies, mostly because that suggests that TV is suddenly not a good-enough medium for your product. Downton Abbey started off as a show and while we’re sure we will go see it, we’d prefer it to end that way.
When do you want to see a Downton Abbey season 7 come back on the air? Be sure to share right now in the attached comments!