When it comes to watching television, I’m usually 2-3 years behind whatever’s popular, which explains why I just recently finished watching the first season of everyone’s favorite period drama, Downton Abbey. Like most people, I enjoy watching spiteful, vindictive Britons navigate first world problems while ruining each other’s lives. I thought Downton Abbey was fantastic.

What sets Downton Abbey apart from other shows about the British aristocracy is that, while it’s most mostly concerned with the pettiest of grievances, Downton Abbey occasionally gets incredibly dark. One moment characters are arguing about the most proper way to arrange seating at dinner and the next thing you know someone has a hatchet buried in their skull. To help illustrate this, I thought I’d recap all of the first season.

So, spoilers.

Overall, my biggest complaint is I didn’t find a way to shoehorn Rose Leslie into saying “Winter Is Coming.”

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