'Downton Abbey: A New Era' Review: A New Level Of Fan Service

Downton Abbey has made a habit of defying expectations. The series was not supposed to be a big hit for Masterpiece; edited down to four episodes from seven and exiled to the doldrums of January. The first film, distributed by indie studio Focus Features, was viewed as a niche offering at best. The sequel, Downton Abbey: A New Era, is similarly seen as having an uphill climb, fighting to bring older audiences back to theaters after the pandemic has kept them home for two years and counting. But if the new film fails to beat the odds after more than a decade of surprising the industry, it won't be for lack of trying.

Fellowes understands what the Downton audience wants. It's not looking for the old Upstairs Downstairs, but it doesn't want to stray too far from that formula. It doesn't want a movie to feel different from a regular episode, just run a bit longer, with a slightly higher budget. And after years of lockdowns and masking, it wants an escapist European fantasy and to have cathartic laughs over in-jokes.

In that, Downton Abbey: A New Era isn't much different from its most significant competition at the box office, the Benedict Cumberbatch-led Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Both films have plots bordering on complete nonsense and happily acknowledge it with a wink. They bring back faces from earlier installments in surprise cameos; their emotional climaxes work better if the audience watched previous installments. Most notably, they rely on audiences having behind-the-scenes insider information to fully appreciate it. It's as if Fellowes studied Marvel movies and why those films get audiences to fill theaters while everyone else falters, took copious notes, and then overlayed the formula on the Downton world. Crazily, it works.