• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, 7 hours ago

Anyone who watched the original run of “Downton Abbey” in the heyday of its fame will watch it the second time with a sense of foreboding that was not possible the first time around.

Last month, PBS started to run the series from the beginning with Episode One, Season One, on May 17. Season One was first seen on U.S. television on PBS in September 2010. 

Such was the show’s high quality that it became a phenomenon seemingly in the blink of an eye. 

At various points during its original run -- six seasons that ended on PBS in March 2016 -- everyone you knew was talking about its plot twists and its heartbreak.

The experience of watching “Downton” for the second time is different from the first. We know what is going to happen to some of the characters, but that only makes the experience richer.

Back then, we were stunned by the deaths of some of the characters. This time, we are saddened by that knowledge, as we see them so full of life in these initial episodes, knowing what is to come. 

One of them will be particularly poignant. For this plot turn, credit goes to the writing of the character and even more to the person playing the role. The same can be said for every plot turn in the entire show.

When thinking about “Downton Abbey,” it is easy to wonder how the show caught on so quickly, and how the stories of its characters became so important to so many of us.

It is a story of an aristocratic family in England and their service staff -- people from a long-ago era whose lives somehow resonated with the rest of us.

Beginning in 1912 with the sinking of the Titanic, “Downton Abbey” starts just as the system of lords and manors was reaching a turning point to its slow demise.

Three of the first season’s episodes have aired so far on PBS in the manner in which many of us first saw it -- a single episode on Sunday night.

“Downton Abbey” can be binged on Netflix, Peacock and PBS Passport, but rewatching it where it belongs in weekly installments on Sunday nights has a poignancy all its own.

So much has happened in television since the debut of “Downton” in 2010. The show raised the standards of quality for TV to a level that has not since been equaled (in one man’s opinion).

Like the world depicted in the show, “Downton Abbey” plays now like something from a bygone era too.