TV

‘Downton Abbey’ debuts dramatic trailer for season 4

Anyone worried that “Downton Abbey” would start playing it safe can rest easy, as the trailer for the upcoming fourth season shows that the series hasn’t lost its flair for the dramatic.

“You have a straightforward choice,” Maggie Smith’s Dowager Countess says to Michelle Dockworkers Mary at the beginning of the clip. “You must choose either death or life.”

Over the course of the minute-long trailer it looks like the British soap opera will be choosing the latter, the clip exhibiting a much more buoyant tone than last season when death was constantly around the corner.

Though the show lost two of its original cast members last season, it looks as if the new additions will be subjected to all the same drama that audiences have come to expect from Julian Fellowes’ beloved series.

While the show’s fourth season won’t air on PBS until January 5,the show hits British airwaves later this month. The series’ third season is up for 12 awards at this year’s Emmys.