Downton Abbey Dilemma

Rebecca blogged about Downton Abbey here at He Remembers the Barren blog. (Please read her post before reading this. Esther told me I needed to add a spoiler alert here-I didn't think it was spoiling anything because I have seen everything aired so far. But if you haven't seen D.A. up to the point of what has been aired already, and you don't want to find out what happens, don't read Rebecca's post and you may not want to read my post either.)
It all started about a year ago when Ram's mom was visiting us one day when I took the Lambs to the library. Since she was at our library, she asked the librarian to put D. A. and some other movies that she thought I would enjoy on my hold list. Well, I was number 100 or something like that on the D. A. list. Then the Loopers began talking about what a great show D.A. was and I didn't want to wait for 99 other people to get it from the library. Ram's parents give everyone in the family a present on family birthdays so no one feels left out. They gave me these presents last year: Lamb 3's birthday-season 1, Ram's birthday-season 2, Mother's Day-two books about D.A. (The World of D.A. and Lady Almina and the Real D.A.). Shortly after I received the DVDs we watched all of them. Ram's mom and I had some e-mails back and forth as we both enjoy D.A.-I watched Season 1 and 2 on DVDS, she watched them each week on TV. It was interesting our perspectives on D.A.-both different generations watching the show and watching the DVDs vs. watching it on TV. I enjoyed the extras on the DVDs about their costumes etc.
We decided to get a TV antenna so we could watch season 3 when it aired. Ram and I have watched all of D.A. together. He enjoys watching the news and sometimes I watch that with him, but other than that I haven't watched TV since we got the antenna. It will be nice to be able to watch the SuperBowl this year though.
At scrapbooking last month there was one other lady that had watched D.A. before and we had a big conversation about it. Then the other ladies started asking questions about D.A. I told them it was a great show, but warned them that Season one had a scene that I didn't like that couldn't be fast forwarded through or you would be lost in the storyline later. That gay scene effected many characters and was referred to in several different storylines and episodes later. Then when my dad started getting interested in D.A., I e-mailed him and warned him about the gay scene in season one too.
Ram and I discussed this dilemma before season 3. We decided that there were gay people at that time of history and it is not wrong for the producers to portray gay people as part of the house upstairs and downstairs. I do not like this part of the show, but I do think British TV will portray it differently than Hollywood would. I also do not like that Mary slept with someone that she was not married too. I don't think you can pick just the issue of homosexuality to complain about on D.A.
In this sinful world, we have to be careful not to rate some sins as being worse than others. Gossiping may not seem as bad as sex outside of marriage, but a gossip may be what causes someone to commit suicide. In this context there are hundreds of sins going on inside the D.A. walls simply because there are sinners at D.A.
I haven't seen the episode where this upcoming scene is a problem. I did watch the preview of next week's episode, but that doesn't tell me enough of what is going to happen. I don't know where this storyline is going. Perhaps this character ends up in trouble over this. Perhaps the footman that he approaches is not interested. The storyline could go a lot of directions. I don't think we can assume the worst outcome with this. Perhaps it will be part of one episode and have to do with the storyline but not be shown again.
Thankfully my dh watches this show with me and will help me to know when/if D.A. crosses the line so I can't watch it any more. Plus my dad has been watching D.A., not every minute, but a lot of season 3 and he'll say something in his daily e-mails. It has been interesting watching it each week vs. watching it night after night on DVD until the season was finished. During the week I have thought about D.A. some. There are so many storylines that I have thought about much more than the scenes I do not approve of.
At this point I am not quitting D.A. yet. I will be more careful when I talk to others about the show now though. I may have quite the talking to do since many people at church know we got TV again so that I could watch D.A. If I do give up on D.A. I will have a lot of people to tell why I gave up on it, starting with the nice Christian ladies that I scrapbook with once a month.
Our TV is free now with the antenna and when we first plugged it in we agreed this was a trial. If I quit watching D.A. we may unplug the antenna and just plug it in when something important happens that we want to see the news. That is what Ram's parents did for many years while he was growing up-the TV was always in the closet and when something big happened in the news like the space shuttle exploding then the TV came out and was plugged in for a few days. Ram has already warned me about one bad commercial on the Superbowl this year. I expect that on the Superbowl, not during regular prime time TV. I don't watch any other TV shows besides D.A. so I have no idea how far the rest of prime time TV has fallen.
It isn't easy to know where a Christian should draw the line. I imagine this will get more difficult as the Lambs get older too. I did do no TV for the last 4 years. I will be tuning in this Sunday, but stay tuned to this blog to hear what we decide to do after that.