Introduction

For three seasons, Downton Abbey (2010–12) has enticed its record audiences with the possible romantic union of Lady Mary Crawley (Michelle Dockery) and Matthew Crawley (Dan Stevens), featuring sequences that reveal the couple's rising affection. ¹ In episodes leading up to Downton Abbey's post—Season Two Christmas special, the show's camerawork features heavyhanded stylistic choices that foreground Matthew and Mary's physical attraction; sweeping crane shots mimic their chaste yet desirous dancing, for example, as if to invite our subjective experience of their chemistry. Sensing that the plot mechanisms were pushing toward a climactic declaration of love, I wondered how Downton Abbey might mobilize its overdetermined moving camera or frequent point-of-view shots into a style that befits the gravity of this long-awaited plot event. Mindful of a long aesthetic lineage of romantic narrative closure imbedded within climactic style, I wondered at how this union might manifest as style.