Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale ☆☆☆ 1/2

Starring: Hugh Bonneville, Laura Carmichael, Elizabeth McGovern, Michelle Dockery, Jim Carter, Lesley Nicol, Joanne Froggatt, and Brendan Coyle

Directed by: Simon Curtis

Downton Abbey has been saying goodbye for almost a decade now. Premiering in 2010, the critically acclaimed show ended in 2015 after six seasons. But in 2019, the series came back with the first film, Downton Abbey, then again in 2022 with A New Era — both of which ended on what could’ve easily been final notes. But now, 15 years after the original show premiered, Julian Fellowes’ world is finally saying goodbye, and it seems for real this time, with Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale. It’s in the name, so it has to be, right?

For fans of Downton Abbey who just want another taste of the Crawley family in whatever form they can get it, The Grand Finale is another satisfying hit. But with so many endings to choose from at this point, I couldn’t help but wonder if this is the best ending for the series, as maybe one of the prior finales would’ve been a more satisfying conclusion.

Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale takes place two years after the events of A New Era and the passing of Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham (Maggie Smith). In those two years, the mother of Cora Crawley (Elizabeth McGovern) has also passed, leaving her brother, Harold Levinson (Paul Giamatti), to take care of their mother’s affairs, and in the wake of the stock market crash, no less. However, Harold has come to Downton with bad news about the financial situation that Cora entrusted him with, and brings along his financial advisor, Gus Sambrook (Alessandro Nivola), to explain to the family what happened. After several poor investments, it seems like it could be the end of Downton.

Meanwhile, Lady Mary Crawley (Michelle Dockery) has recently divorced in secret, which means it doesn’t take long before the whole town knows.

With Mary’s news out in the world, the upper-class people who usually invite the Crawley family in have turned their backs on Mary, making her a social black sheep. Amongst all of this, Mr. Carson (Jim Carter) and Mrs. Patmore (Lesley Nicol) are both retiring, Anna (Joanne Froggatt) and John Bates (Brendan Coyle) are expecting a child, and pretty much everyone else in the show gets a final moment to shine before the book is closed on Downton Abbey for good.

“With the last few seasons of Downton Abbey and the previous two films, this franchise has relied on light, breezy, simple drama, such as a royal visit from the King and Queen of England or a movie being filmed at the Crawley home. Yet this is a show that began with moments of deep melancholy and calamity, starting right after the tragedy of the Titanic, in which the Crawleys lost family members. ”

With the last few seasons of Downton Abbey and the previous two films, this franchise has relied on light, breezy, simple drama, such as a royal visit from the King and Queen of England or a movie being filmed at the Crawley home. Yet this is a show that began with moments of deep melancholy and calamity, starting right after the tragedy of the Titanic, in which the Crawleys lost family members. This show has never been the heaviest of dramas, for sure, but those early seasons were full of longing and loss in ways that made them feel much weightier than what would come later.

The Grand Finale attempts to capture some of that uncertainty by leaning into the one thing Downton never wanted: change. Robert Crawley (Hugh Bonneville), for example, has always feared that things might not stay the same forever, and here, he’s forced to reckon with the fact that the times, they are a-changing. The Grand Finale shows that Robert has come a long way from where we started with him, particularly in how he trusts the next generation to take over once he’s no longer the head of the estate.

But it’s also a big note of change for all of these characters, who worried about a telephone being brought into the house, or jazz music being played in Downton. As one character says, our lives are lived in chapters, and there’s nothing sad about one closing. As this story supposedly ends, this group is forced to deal with change, whether they like it or not. We can see the immense growth that has occurred over these 15 years, but also a love and admiration that now exists amongst these characters.

Directed by Simon Curtis, who also helmed A New Era, and written by Fellowes, The Grand Finale knows exactly what its audience wants. Each character gets a nice tip of the hat, there are plenty of references to the early seasons and jokes, and the drama is still, for the most part, fairly light. Even though it’s a big moment for this house and these characters, some of the main sources of tension are whether Robert and Cora might move into a flat after leaving Downton, if a local party will go off without a hitch, and if Mary will be accepted by this community again. Considering that we’ve spent so much time on this estate and with these characters, these things may be silly, but it does provide an emotional heft that has us believe that their world might entirely flip upside down based on these trivial matters.

The Grand Finale also doesn’t rely quite as much on new characters to craft this conclusion. Nivola’s Gus has a fun role, which shakes up the family for a bit, and the introduction of Noël Coward (Arty Froushan) is another wild real-life person brought into the orbit of the Crawleys. Simon Russell Beale also gets a funny role in which he butts heads with Isobel Grey (Penelope Wilton), but for the most part, The Grand Finale sticks to the key cast, and at this point, it’s a smart choice not to bring in too much fresh blood to expand this story even further just when it’s ending.

And yet, is The Grand Finale the best way to say goodbye to this series? A New Era gave us a fitting conclusion by putting these characters exactly where they should be, and crafted a beautiful farewell for Maggie Smith two years before she passed. This isn’t to say that The Grand Finale isn’t also a wonderful sendoff, especially the last scene, which does mirror the end of A New Era in some ways, but it does feel a bit like we’ve done this before, and now we’re just gilding the lily. Yes, this is probably the end for Downton, but A New Era brought this all to a close in a tighter way than The Grand Finale does.

There’s absolutely no doubt that if you’ve stuck with this series for these 15 years, The Grand Finale will give you what you want from more Downton. The Grand Finale tries to bring some weightiness back into this world, and, for the most part, it works with a fitting conclusion to this universe. Now, let’s hope that Julian Fellowes decides to close this chapter finally and move forward to the next.

– Courtesy: Collider.com

Rating system: *Not on your life * ½ If you really must waste your time ** Hardly worth the bother ** ½ Okay for a slow afternoon only *** Good enough for a look see *** ½ Recommended viewing **** Don’t miss it **** ½ Almost perfect ***** Perfection