In spite of its success, Downton Abbey has been maligned by critics on both sides of the Atlantic this year. Some of it is just criticism -- Season 2 had an awful number of poorly done plots. But much of it has been directed at this firestorm of controversy asking -- why do we love such a classist show? Isn’t it a bad thing, to be nostalgic about it? And aren’t we bad for liking it?
I can only speak from personal experience, but I will say that I did not decide to start watching the show, or start loving it, because it was glamorous. Glamor is all very shiny, but it has to have a heart and soul. And however much the cares of the characters at Downton can sometimes feel trivial, they represent something deeper that we all care about. Sure, to change clothes three times a day, to wear a tux or a custom-made dress to dinner every day seems superflous. But don’t we spend a lot of time buying our clothes or perfecting our appearances? Perhaps the Earl and Lady Grantham’s reaction into losing their half their spacious home to soldiers seems overblown -- but don’t we all value our personal space? For the Grantham ladies, fighting the entail is not trivial, it’s fighting an unjust law that regulates their future.
To answer the first question, we love it because it is, for the most part, a really good story. The cast is large, and we manage to care about them each in our own way -- to hope for Gwen’s employment, to cheer on Anna and Bates, to boo Richard Carlisle, to wish for Matthew to stop tormenting himself, to hope for Daisy’s independence, to shake our fists at Thomas’ schemes, to laugh at the Dowager Countesses’ quips. 
