Greetings, Gentle Readers, to another episode in our current season of the Telly Visions podcast, a Downton Abbey Rewatch with Lacy Baugher Milas and Sophie Brookover.

Our third episode covers the first four episodes of Downton’s second season, taking us from roughly July 1916 to July 1918 and most of the Great War. Lacy and Sophie enthuse, observe, and analyze the many changes wrought by The War, from the overarching, long-term effects of the five-month Battle of the Somme to the death of beloved young footman William Mason.

Some of the changes that come with the second season are pretty expected, like the shift towards romance in Sibyl and Branson’s relationship, while others left us scratching our heads. Why is Isobel Crawley, as Lacy puts it, acting like “a shrewish, drunk with power interloper,” all of a sudden after being introduced in the first season as a breath of sensible, class-bridging fresh air?

No matter what, she can never be the Bad Guy because the true villain of the season is The War itself, and all the havoc it wreaks on the British way of life.

We marvel at Mary growing up and consistently trying to become a better person; are touched by Mrs. Patmore and Miss O’Brien’s surprisingly compassionate perspectives on PTSD and desertion; and can’t help but laugh a little at the presentation of William and Matthew’s respective injuries (to say nothing of the quasi-magical realism of Mary and Daisy being able to feel the horror Matthew and William face as they go over the top hundreds of miles away).

As for the Bates vs. Bates storyline, we simply shan’t stand for these plot crimes against the great Maria Doyle Kennedy. We know we are stuck with this infernal plotline for another season, but we do not have to like it or engage with it in much detail.

Since this podcast renaissance is something of an experiment, we are currently running a special subscription tier for it, priced at $48/year (or $4.88/month) for 12 episodes. Your subscription dollars – for which we are eternally grateful! – will help fund future episodes. The more listener subscriptions we have, the closer we get to a regular biweekly (or, dare to dream, weekly) podcasting schedule.

The 12-episode podcast (two episodes per season) will span most of this year and take us into 2027. Masterpiece is rerunning the entire series, soup to nuts, on Sunday nights at 10 p.m. ET; Seasons 1 through 3 will air back-to-back, starting Sunday, May 17, and running through mid-September 2026. As always, we will follow the airing schedule. The debut dates for Seasons 4 through 6 have not yet been announced; once they are, we will follow accordingly.

(By our math, even if Season 4 starts in mid-September, the series will run until February or March 2027.)

Downton Abbey Seasons 1 through 3 are re-airing this summer, from mid-June through mid-September 2026, at 10 p.m. ET on most local stations and on the PBS app. All six seasons are available to binge on PBS Passport for members and on the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel.

Stay tuned for our next installment, which will cover Episodes 5 and 6, plus the very sad, then very celebratory, Christmas Special. Comfort and joy for [mostly] all!

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‘Return to Downton Abbey’ Episode 3: The Great War