Ah well, such is Downton. It appears that every wrong deed goes unpunished. Right from the get go, the show's been most devilishly immoral. All sorts of dirty doings go either unnoticed or efficiently covered up. Others are just simply forgiven and nonchalantly nodded off in the same manner as one would forgive a footman serving from the right.
We start right away, back in Season One with the scandalous affair between the dashing and young Duke of Crowborough and Thomas, a lowly footman. Thomas finds out that his diddling with the Duke's diddle isn't going to gain him a better position in his employ (and perhaps in bed too...we know Thomas is likely treated as a bottom bitch but he's born to be a trash-talkin', ass-slappin' top) so he decides he'll blackmail the Duke with a stashed away trove of no-doubt salacious letters. Of course the Duke, Oxford-educated and no dummy, finds a way to sneak into Thomas' room and steal away the evidence. (BTW, keep this plot devise in memory...it'll come up again in the finale of Season 4)
Other than having his nefarious plot foiled, Thomas suffers no other retribution. Really? In reality, in those days, the Duke would have seen Thomas for who he was, a ruthless coward who'd stop at nothing to get his leg up in what he probably perceived to be an unjust and immoral world.
This is not someone to simply let go. The Duke would have had some trumped up charge pinned on Thomas to get him out of the reach of "society" even if Thomas only connection only it was as a servant. Any position in any gossip-mongering Stately Home of England would have been too close for comfort.
I guess though, if we're talking reality, it's just as unrealistic to believe that a titled man, let alone one so high up as a duke would get messed up in a romantic relationship with a servant...man or woman, gay or straight. That's what out-of-the-way whorehouses (straight or gay) were for.
In the next episode, Carson, the seemingly beyond-reproach stoic and staunchly-conservative butler is found out to have had a past career that was, in those days, considered unworthy and low for a man in home service...he was an entertainer. When Lord Grantham finds out he takes a modern approach to the news..."like whateves, dude."
Um no. The character of Robert Crawley (Lord Grantham) was already fleshed out to be somewhat conservative himself. Slightly forward thinking socially, perhaps, but still a stickler for tradition and honor. To find out that Carson was employed under what technically would have been a misleading or out-right false curriculum verite as it certainly hadn't informed the Lord of any theatrical or performance work, would have been unforgivable. He would have been sacked on the spot.
Then there's the Mr. Pamuk debacle. Oh brother! Dude croaks naked in unmarried and "chaste" Lady Mary's bed, has to be carted out and dragged across the house to his room in another wing, at least three servants are in the know right away and as the season drags on nearly everyone in the house knows except Papa, of course. And it NEVER GETS OUT beyond that! C'mon!
Thomas, again up to no good, steals wine from the wine cellar and then tries to frame Bates as a snuffbox thief. (Remember this servant/trinket burglar theme as it comes up again in Season 4, ugh.) Is Thomas sacked? Is there anything of it other than the nasty scowls Bates throws at Thomas for the rest of the season?
Oh, O'Brien. Conniving and paranoid O'Brien. With that wet chunky bar of whatever the British equivalent of Ivory Soap was, what a mighty weapon you doth wield. And to the wee lit'le boy (ie. would-have-been-heir) embryo in Cora's womb...Oopsie Daisy, and farewell.
The seasons go on, Bates becomes more criminal-ish, Thomas and O'Brien more devious and plotting with Thomas being doubly snippy now with O'Brien gone. Even the Lord himself succumbed to the house's Air of Gomorrah and bedded a scullery maid for a night. Poor, simple-minded Cora. Oh, and the cast thins out more and more as character after character are killed off. The Great War, The Spanish Flu. Oh, and baby birthing, whether you're the mother or the father it seems, is just too tempting an invitation to the grim reaper.
Does all this nefariousness make Downton any less enjoyable? Oh no, of course not. Not on your life. In fact, at Downton Abbey, it's just too damned good to be bad.