Downton Abbey Season 6

DVD Wholesale Quick Overview:

The year is 1925. Momentous changes threaten the great house, its owners and its servants, while past scandals continue to loom. Return to the sumptuous setting of Downton Abbey for the sixth and final season to discover what will finally become of the Crawley family, and the servants who work for them, as they face new challenges and begin forging different paths in a rapidly changing world.

The year long wait for the new Downton series always seems like an age, especially this year as we knew that it would be the last ever series. It seems perverse that such a successful series has had to end, however, as the incomparable Maggie Smith said, if you work it out I should be about 110 years old by now! A slight exaggeration, but you can see where she is coming from since Downton has run from about the time of the Titanic disaster in 1912 all the way to 1925.

The TV series has now finished in the UK and for those of you waiting for the North American showing or DVD, it was an absolute cracker and if you enjoyed the first five series of Downton, you are not going to be disappointed with the final series. As would be expected, there was a certain amount of tying up of loose ends, but not to an excessive extent. However we still have the Christmas Special show to air at the end of next month so everyone is waiting in suspense for the final conclusion. Incidentally if you are impatient to see the last series, although the UK issue is released this month, that will not contain the 2015 Christmas Special whereas the later North American release will.

It is difficult to single out the outstanding performances in series 6 as all the regular players had significant roles. It was good to see Tom back, and others such as Mrs Patmore, The Bates, Barrow, and Daisy below stairs and, of course, all the Crawley family are in the thick of things. Maggie Smith, as the Dowager is very much in evidence and her priceless sarcasm includes many a memorable line. Overall, without dropping in any spoilers, there was romance, tragedy, blackmail, suspense, joy and sorrow. In other words exactly what you would expect from Downton!

-Brett H

This series concentrated on story and drama instead of lurid, graphic content, leading some to find it boring and uninteresting. It gives a glimpse of what the world of the English aristocracy of a century ago was like. Getting to know the characters takes more than one episode. The series is much like a classic novel. It will take an investment of time and a leap of faith to commit to a few episodes. From that point, the show’s story quality and character development keeps the viewer engaged. If you’ve been a follower of Downton Abby, you’ll be happy to see the final season’s neat closure of many of the varied elements from the previous seasons. My only reservation is that they ran everything out to the final episode, making an extended episode where everything concludes a little too quickly and neatly. Otherwise, the show’s writing and production were well above average. For an Edwardian soap opera, I found it very entertaining. I’m sorry to see the series draw to a close.

-Bill Porter

DVD Wholesale Main Features :  

Actors: Hugh Bonneville, Laura Carmichael, Jim Carter, Brendan Coyle, Michelle Dockery
Format: Multiple Formats, NTSC, Widescreen
Language: English
Subtitles: English
Region: Region 1
Number of discs: 3
Rated: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: PBS (DIRECT)
DVD Release Date: January 26, 2016
Run Time: 510 minutes