I think that Doctor Thorne was more a light-hearted period piece than anything else. It was Downton Abbey lite, with fewer characters and complexities. For a book/series title Doctor Thorne, this adaptation was less focused on the titular character than anything else. Or maybe it was because there wasn't so much heavy drama with him, and more on the other characters (Mary, Frank, and the other titled people).

Frank is very naive when it comes to many things. He just seemed so very, very young. On the other hand, Louis was near 30 and he too acted as if he were 10 years younger. Cheesy and expected as it was, I did enjoy Lady Arabella's reaction when she learns how much poor Mary Thorne is actually worth.

I looked up the series on Wikipedia and saw what the future is like for everyone. I wonder if they plan on adapting more from the books or is this just a one-off?