Bates and Anna on Downton Abbey

I have never watched this television show.

I noticed that as the years went by Bates' limp got less and less.

And Siobhan Finneran was the best part of that show. When she left, it all went to hell.

This character was initially based on Alan Bates' role in 'Gosford Park'.

But his plotting became so tortured that I lost interest.

Liked Bates at first, then started hating him

OP = Worse Than Hitler

And for this he left "Larkrise To Candleford"? We were just getting to the storyline where I seduced him away from that bitchy wife of his.

I didn't like Bates either but did like Anna. Just found him creepy.

Also noticed his limp went from one extreme to the other, at first causing him to drop trays and not be able to carry luggage or serve at meals to the opposite extreme of being able to walk around prison yard without a cane and even to be able to lift a paralyzed Matthew into bed, lol.

I grew to dislike Anna later on. She became too whiny. Some of that may have been the writing, but she had no grit to her.

I think he really did kill his first wife. Whether or not she had in comin. And Anna thought so too. I agree with R7. He was creepy.

I think he did too, r9. I hope they hang him in the movie.

[quote] OP = Worse Than Hitler

I did a search, cunt. Where's the other thread?

R10 You did not include VV in your poll slut

Gruesome Twosome

I can't answer this poll because there are not enough choices. The possibilities should include "hated him, loved her", and, I suppose, vice versa, if there is anyone who actually liked Bates but disliked Anna.

I love Anna. She is my favorite servant in the Downton household, except perhaps Thomas, but that's only because Rob Collier-James is so handsome. On the the hand, the air went out of any scene where Bates' dour, martyr-complex presence was felt.

I another who thinks Bates killed his first wife. He's not a psychopath, but he's capable of dreadful things.

He looked like he had been molested

I think the problem with Bates is that he is one-dimensional: all virtue and no badboy. Every other character has depth or contradictory aspects to their personalities . That's why it's appealing to think that Bates is an actual murderer.

Thomas was more of a psycho than Bates.

I QUITE fancied Bates.

R2, you are so right! O'Brien was great. Still, I loved how Bates got her in the end.

Anna and Bates would have been shown the door without references by any family in whose service they found themselves!

Julian Fellowes is like the Prince of Wales. He envisions Great Britain as the Golden Age Society where downstairs doffed their caps and deferred to their betters upstairs, and upstairs looked benevolently and paternalistically on those downstairs. All lived in harmony in the village and countryside tied to the estate with the Great House in the park!

All Bollocks!

R18 Did you notice the equal time and more sympathetic characters given to the Downstairs cast?

Fellowes was giving the customers (especially American customers) what they wanted.

He was asked to do a 12 hour version of 'Gosford Park' which was long enough to run 12 minutes of advertising per hour.

He was asked to do an upmarket soap giving equal time to 20 characters which catered to the 20 different personality types who'd watch the show (with its attendant advertising).

Psychological consistancy of the characters (as in all soaps) was to be given a very low priority.

R18, probably not all bollocks. Probably part bollocks and part true - but either way, isn't it a pretty picture? Why not have such a pleasant myth about the past?

Yes, Bates was insufferable, but when he was younger he could have fucked me into oblivion

^ That young guy does look like my fantasy vision of the late Alan Bates.

Bates has a giant cock.

R19 and R20, I loved "Downton Abbey," and I loved "Upstairs, Downstairs." I've watched both series multiple times. And I fell hard for Tom Branson, Mr. Drewe, and Charles Blake (and the actors who played them). I realize artistic license is needed.

And there are many details both series got right, for example the repressed sexualities of men and women of the Edwardian and Interwar periods.

"Gosford Park" better reflected reality.

The reality for those below stairs was quite different than portrayed in the series. Their work for the most part was drudgery. They were poorly paid and subject to abuse. My beef is that Julian Fellowes like the Establishment today in Britain looks back at the halcyon days of yore. There's another British tradition that is not often known to American audiences. That tradition is one of protest and thumbing your nose to hierarchy and paternalism.

If you want to see that, go see "Peterloo," when it is released here in the States. Or the films, "Pride," "If...," "This Sporting Life" (great male nudity at the beginning btw), or "Winstanley," to name a few.

Is anybody here planning on going to see the movie? I wonder if Bates and Anna get any kind of story? I hope not.

[quote]I wonder if Bates and Anna get any kind of story?

I bet they'll have kids in the movie.

I had enough of Mr. and Mrs. Bates during the series, I hope the movie focuses on the characters who didn't get a proper wrap up in the finale. Branson needs a wife, Barrow needs a boyfriend and I want to see if being a "Lady" has changed Isobel at all. I do suspect the movie will end with Violet dying after the King visits. That will clear the way for them to jump forward in time with any future tv specials or movies.

[quote]Branson needs a wife

Branson needs to step away from the food table.

If Anna or Bates end up in prison in the movie, I'm walking out. I wonder what Branson would look like slimmed down. Those tight suits they had him in looked uncomfortable. I hope Jimmy, the footman, makes a return appearance.

I fast forwarded thru all the "help" scenes. I find the underclass triggering.

Yes, R30. There were more dull characters downstairs than upstairs.

One month from today, 9/20, the U.S. premiere of the movie. Looking forward to it, I've missed the Crawley family. I don't even care if the story isn't that great, I'll just be happy to see them all and their new clothes.

Let's face it, Anna/Bates story was beat to death and corny. They dipped them in sugar and made them the truest, most trustworthy, most deeply in the truest love...but yanked apart over and over by the pesky, nar do well justice system. Lock em up and move on already...I got so sick of the angst and longing. Hard slaps to both of them.

Bates was an ugly troll, thus I did not like him. Servants on such shows must be delicious or kind and rather invisible old gays.

I liked them at first but then they dragged their story to death and beyond. From episode to episode. From season to season.

This series MADE me hate them.

While Thomas was just happy to show up and clean a clock.

And the severity Bates' limp came and went like Thomas' service ending hand injury.

Everything about Downton Abbey was drawn out. I stopped watching after someone was raped downstairs. I suddenly felt like it was shit writing and I began to see the rot showing through in the real, current shabby state of the house they filmed in.

I hated Lady Mary. And I still hate Lady Mary.

Could not help wondering if Matthew hadn't aimed for that tree.

I never liked them. I only watched the show for Maggie Smoth who is a Global Treasure. I didn't like that Bates skipped out on the last season of Lark Rise to Candleford.

I got tired of both of Anna and Bates being martyrs, hiding terrible secrets and suffering for no good reasons. Those story lines involving being in jail and being unjustly accused were tedious. The rape of Anna; Joanne Froggatt (actress who played Anna) won a Golden Globe because of that.

Julian Fellowes (writer) must have really liked Brendan Coyle and/or the Bates character. Bates is the first character you see in Season 1, Episode 1. Fellowes used the name "Coyle" for an off-screen character as well.

I liked the Anna character a lot. After a while, I was wanting her to kick Bates to the curb already.

I liked Upstairs Downstairs better than Downton Abbey. I liked how the cheeky footman Edward was completely changed by the war. He had shell shock and never returned to the sunny, optimistic, fun character he was before the war. He wanted to go out on his own. He realized that if he was good enough to be tormented and die for his country then he had the right to live above ground, not in a basement. But there was a depression after the war and he and his wife ended up impoverished on the streets. They were hired back because Mr Hudson had a soft heart after all, but both of them were dissatisfied with the way life had turned out for them. They knew that hard work wasn't really getting them ahead in life.

R40, remember the episode where Edward broke down because of his shell shock and was comforted by Richard Bellamy.

Very moving.

[quote] Why not have such a pleasant myth about the past?

Obviously your ancestors never worked as servants.

It's only a pleasant myth if you imagine yourself upstairs.

[quote] Why not have such a pleasant myth about the past?

--R20

SMFH

I'm with R37 in that I could not stand Lady Mary. Way too uppity and cruel to Lady Edith just for fun. I really wanted Edith to bolt upright from the dinner table, snatching her own earrings from her lobes, and scooping a bit of butter from the dish to slather on her face for protection before giving Mary a helluva beat-down as Granny Grantham shouted "BEAT THAT BITCH'S ASS!"

^ Ebonic language doesn't belong in the Crawley household!

My local PBS station did a Downton Abbey movie pr thing last night. Maybe other PBS stations got it too. I don't want to be too spoilerish but it sounded like there will be good things happening for Thomas.

The first two seasons had a nice story arc. If it had ended there, it would have been great. A lot of British shows are like that-- Shamless is another.

[quote] I don't want to be too spoilerish but it sounded like there will be good things happening for Thomas.

Well, the trailer shows a very attractive man kiss Thomas, rather than Thomas being the one to make the move (that has ended so badly for him in the past).

What the story needs now is a heavy push toward the Brideshead Revisited, lost halcyon days theme. Robert Crawley is the 7th Earl of Grantham and Viscount Downton. George (Mary and Matthew's son) would have been born in 1921-ish. That means that in 2019, we're probably on George's grandson as the 10th Earl of Grantham. George's son would have been among the first of the post-WWII baby boomers. What I'd really like to see is a final scene that brings it all to the present day.

bates was annoying

I hated that whole show. The only thing that was any good was the Dowager Countess.

The whole show was stupid classist racist bullshit.

“Do you see how much more civilized the world was when white gentlefolk ruled with noblesse oblige? Sure they got half the maids pregnant, but at least they dressed for dinner.”

Fuck it.

[quote]The reality for those below stairs was quite different than portrayed in the series. Their work for the most part was drudgery. They were poorly paid and subject to abuse. My beef is that Julian Fellowes like the Establishment today in Britain looks back at the halcyon days of yore. There's another British tradition that is not often known to American audiences. That tradition is one of protest and thumbing your nose to hierarchy and paternalism.

Your version of the past is just as wrong. The fact is that there were households that treated staff horribly, others that treated them with kindness, and the majority were somewhere between. Just as there were servants that protested and thumbed their noses at the upper classes, others that believed in deference, and the majority that just wanted to get through life as best they could. It is the same issue I have with depictions of the US South during slavery. For the most part, it wasn't the moonlight and magnolias of Gone With The Wind nor was it the nihilistic world of Django Unchained, but somewhere between. Sadly, the entertainment industry finds it hard to depict the past with any nuance. Everything is depicted as either wonderfully encased in amber or a hellscape.

Wasn’t there a rumor that they reduced the appearance of Bates in later seasons because the actor was a raging drunk?

[quote] Branson needs to step away from the food table.

The actor was on WWHL this week looking hot as fuck. Looks like he gained control of his weight.

Psssssssst OP, Bates and Anna aren't real.

Bates was likeable on Lark Rise to Candleford. But the hairstyle on Downton didn't suit him and he gained weight & aged poorly. And yes, he's a drinker.

Bates as Robert on Candleford was a socialist stonemason. He was basically a good person but he had a bit of menace as well.

I hated both their fucking faces.