One friend whose judgment I respect says the first season is actually better than the second--more subtle (wouldn't be hard, with the war front and center in the second).

If nothing else, I think it would become a very different kind of show. Are they planning on continuing as far up in time as the characters can plausibly go?

The Four Feathers sounds excellent.

I actually think it deserves its reputation as a classic, not just a historical curiosity. I wasn't sure when I started watching.

I didn't know about the white feather thing until, coincidentally, it showed up in the first episode of season two of Downton Abbey.

I can't remember where I learned it first. Quite possibly from The Magician's Nephew:

"I hope," said Uncle Andrew presently in a very high and mighty voice, just as if he were a perfect Uncle who had given one a handsome tip and some good advice, "I hope, Digory, you are not given to showing the white feather. I should be very sorry to think that anyone of our family had not enough honour and chivalry to go to the aid of—er—a lady in distress."

I may just have read a lot of books about the war.