I Hate Mr. Bates
Written by Ian Thomas Malone, Posted in Blog, Downton Abbey, Pop Culture
I recently rewatched most of Downton Abbey in preparation for season six, which starts a week from today. Being known for its soap operatic value, one shouldn’t step into Highclere Castle expecting plots that make sense or robust character development. Julian Fellowes doesn’t hit his mark every time, but there’s certainly a reason why the recent trailer tugs at many people’s heartstrings and it’s not just because of the music. It’s because we’ve grown to love these characters.
There’s one man I used to love (as one loves a fictional character) once upon a time, but that affection has vanished. Like many, I started to feel it in season four and that continued as questions regarding his morality surfaced yet again. As you probably gathered from the title of this article, I am, of course, referring to Mr. Bates.
At first glance, he’s a tough guy to hate. Misery seems to follow him everywhere, tracking him by the sound of his cane thumping on Downton’s creaky floors and yet, he’s a pretty decent guy. He gave Molesley some money and saved Barrow from ruin at the hands of O’Brien/Jimmy. So why hate his Lordship’s valet?
The Mr. Green plotline has been almost universally panned. Many articles have been penned about how Fellowes has no idea as to what to do with either Bates. I’ve found that the problem goes even beyond Mr. Green. To put it simply, Mr. Bates is terrible.
I’ve gotten into several arguments regarding the Bates/Barrow feud. People say I’m horrible or contrarian for taking Thomas’ side, usually because they forget what’s important. It’s not about who’s the most morally altruistic person. It’s about who’s fun to watch.
There’s a scene in season five where Barrow acknowledges the simple fact that the two do not like each other. This gave me a bit of an “aha” moment as I realized that I don’t like Mr. Bates either. In season three, I was firmly on team #freeBates. Now when I watch season three, I usually skip his scenes (along with Edith’s, which makes it easier for me to keep watching the same show over and over).
Think about how many episodes of the show feature a happy Mr. Bates. He’s sad when he first gets there because no one likes him. He spends the rest of season one feuding with the O’Brien/Barrow dream team and sad about his leg. We also find out he was in trouble for being a thief, which was the first red flag.
Season two brings even more bad news. We find out he has a wife who he doesn’t like. He has a brief moment of happiness when he marries Anna, but then he goes to jail, where he spends most of season three.
He’s happy for a little bit at the end of season three and the beginning of season four, though we find out that he’s also a forger in addition to being a thief. What a standup guy! He’s also always moody. Sure, he’s had rotten luck, but so has Molesley. Downton’s cricket champion never lets the world get him down.
The reason for this sadness is simple. He has nothing else to do. Fellowes never tried to give him any storyline that didn’t involve horrible things happening to him. It got boring. I left the #freeBates team in favor of #killBates. At least then, Molesley could take his place as valet.
Downton Abbey is a drama. We expect characters to endure hardships. It’s generally considered reasonable to expect to be given a reason to like the character as well.
Bates and Barrow contrast well in this regard. Both are generally pretty moody and we know why. Bates is a crippled creep and Barrow is gay at a time when that was not only completely unacceptable, it was criminal.
Their unpleasantness manifests itself in different ways. Barrow takes his anger out on others while Bates is just a grump. We can probably assume that Bates is the better person (unless he actually killed Mr. Green or more gruesome details about his past turn up), but what does that really matter?
As a character, Bates lacks depth. Even his romance with Anna seemed a bit rushed. More importantly, he doesn’t make for good television.
Reports for season six suggest that not everyone will have a happy ending. It’s hard to tell where Bates will fit into this. One would think Fellowes would throw a curveball and let him limp off into the sunset with Anna on his arm. Problem is, I don’t care.
Honestly, I’ve been rooting for Thomas from the very beginning. He was maybe not the nicest character around, but he was clever, spoke up for himself, modern in his ideas, secretly a great romantic sod and I’d always imagined he had his own tragic backstory, as to why he ended up this way. Thomas was always the underdog of Bates, who was just the bland, ‘tragic’, ‘in love’ good guy who in any way, each time came out of top, because the plot favors him.
First three seasons I still had hope Thomas’ backstory would be explained or he would grow out of Downton, similarly to Victor Colleano in Mr. Selfridge. Or start a revolution with Branson 🙂 But he didn’t. That’s why, in hindsight, among other things, Downton has not been a good show. The ‘good’ characters (Crawleys and Bates) are ‘good’ no matter what, and always win because the plot favors them, which is plainly shallow writing. But that’s my opinion.
wow. so wrong about john bates. Brendan Coyle reading the phone book would make good television as far as I’m concerned. What I never understand is why you went from liking him to wanting him dead. A bit drastic, wouldn’t you say? But whatever. you do you.
I was trying to put words to my feelings of dislike for Bates. It didn’t feel logical, but it was a gut reaction to him. That is was brought me to this post. There is something about him that is boiling under the surface that is toxic. He worships Anna instead of loving her. When she has a miscarriage, he asks “What have I done” not what is wrong, how can I help. Everything is about him and bowing down to her. It is an unhealthy relationship that puts too much pressure on Anna to be perfect. It really disturbs me. Worship is not a healthy thing in a relationship. Mutual respect.
I completly understand what you mean, its like in this bid to make him perfectly humble, perfeclty modest, perfectly frickin perfect, they just sucked all of the charater out of him. He starts to grind a little simply because he doesn’t ever do anything that even remotely edgy and even when he does, (I.e. forging someone’s writing) its always for the greater good and so once again he’s the perfect gentleman and selfless to a fault. I also agree with Sarah Schroeder with the unhealthy relationship he and Anna seem to have. I agree that Anna is a lovely charater but his worship of her just feels so false, every reaction, every emotion he has seems to revolve around her and her happiness, rather than him feeling something for himself. If I was with a guy like that I would get frustrated really fast but within the series its seen as this really wonderful trait that makes him such a good man. It really does just make him bland.
On the other hand you have Barrow, who yes is a right arse through most of Downton, but when things go wrong for him and he starts being completly pushed out by others near the end, I couldn’t help but feel for him. It was because he had character, because he had faults and because he couldn’t fully be himself and express himself because of the constraints of the time. I’m in no way saying I like Barrow, but at least he is interesting and tries to make things better for himself, instead of just laying down and letting things happen to him.
I love Batesy! Coyle is an excellent actor..he can just roll his eyes and I get it.He and Maggie Smith are what make the show so enthralling.The movies were a disappointed though.