From its first familiar notes to the final sweeping shot of the Crowley family home we all know and love so well, one thing is clear. This next chapter of "Downton Abbey" is no epilogue and it's certainly not going to pretend to be anything more than it is - one super-sized, long-awaited episode (now on the big screen).
And that is precisely what it should be.
Disclaimer (that I feel like I shouldn't need to say, but just in case): If you didn't watch and/or enjoy the TV show, don't go see the movie. There's no "previously on 'Downton Abbey'..." to help you out, not even a grand entrance for the Dowager Countess (but still plenty of zingers for Dame Maggie Smith)...
The story comes in hot and drops us once again right into the middle of the lives of the Crowley family as though we'd never left.
And what a joyous, hectic return it is.
I could tell you what happens, but if you've seen even one of the trailers you know that...
Everything else is the magic that made "Downton Abbey" work so beautifully from the start: The beautifully shot, eloquently spoken, crisscrossing lives (and conversations) of the Crowley family and their supporting cast of footmen, butlers, maids, and housekeepers that keep this house humming.
And also Anna (Joanne Froggatt) who we still don't deserve and definitely knows everyone's secrets...
Above all else, "Downton Abbey" is about change and the things that always stay the same, no matter how much the world around us transforms. And what a gift it was to be reminded of that.
Now, let us all go forth with that joy in our hearts, confident in the knowledge that "Downton Abbey" will always return when we need it most.
...bi-daily smile...
