Downton Abbey & Twitter interventions

You’d want to have your head stuck in a bucket of treacle not to have heard about the TV Series ‘Downton Abbey’.

It’s been wildly successful since it first hit the screen back in September 2010. According to the well known online encyclopedia website ‘Wikipedia’, in 2011 :

‘it entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the “most critically acclaimed English-language television show” for the year, becoming the first British show to be so recognised’

It’s not the sort of programme I’d watch normally, but my chance to see what the fuss was about came via DVD recently.

I didn’t want to like it. I tried not to like it. I picked holes in the very first episode. “This isn’t how aristocrats behaved back then. They were complete and utter bastards and wouldn’t be so friendly with the servants. People are watching this & getting a distorted view of history.” I was told to cop on, and that it’s just a drama – no on thinks this was how life was back then. I’m not convinced of that but secretly I couldn’t wait for the next episode.

Roll forward 2 weeks and 15 episodes later and it’s safe to say that I think it’s a well crafted series and very enjoyable to watch. I don’t think Series 2 was quite as good as the first one (for a variety of reasons), but still very watchable all the same.

Series 3 is due in September and it will be interesting to see how the storyline will develop and whether or not the viewing public will suffer from Downton fatigue.

I do know that if I watch it on broadcast TV this time, I won’t be Twitter hashtagging my way through it using the #dowton tag. I saw a huge amount of this hashtag on Sunday evenings (during my non Downton watching days) and thought to myself it’s an odd thing to do.

I can understand hashtagging a light entertainment show like X Factor or the Late Late, but a drama series? Surely the point of a programme like this is for pure escapism & relaxation. It doesn’t require any brain power. It’s an hour of putting your feet up at the end of the week and shutting out the world for a little while and going back in time to the imaginary world of benevolent aristocracy that Downton portrays so well.

If you’re sitting there constantly tweeting during a show like this, I think a Twitter intervention is needed. It’s impossible to really enjoy it with one eye on a computer screen. I’m quite sure the Countess wouldn’t approve. Although I reckon she’d be a great one for the Twitter if it was around back then.