“I Hate Mr. Bates” ( Ian Thomas Malone）

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Written by Ian Thomas Malone, Posted in Blog, Downton Abbey, Pop Culture

今天看到的一篇文章，值得单拎出来，让我高兴高兴：吾feel不孤。

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.

一开始我也没讨厌贝茨，但比这作者早一季，第三季的监狱戏，我第一次看时，就开始烦了，所以这么多年来，看这么多遍以后，贝茨在狱中各种冲突的来龙去脉、他到底怎么就出来了，我都不太清楚、也没兴趣弄清楚。每次镜头切到他一脸深沉地在监狱走圈，我必定有冲动去抓遥控，而且十有八九控制不住这冲动。

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.

这作者让我很共鸣的话：第四季，狗血的Mr Green故事线，“Mr. Bates is terrible”，真是不能同意更多。Anna演员凭这季表演居然得奖，可见演艺圈如今“政治正确至上”流行到什么程度，所谓“淋漓尽致“的表演方式（与狗血过火仅一线之隔）多么甚嚣尘上。而Mr. Bates追问自己心爱老婆的好几处镜头，我家teenage娃儿看了几眼，立下定论，”what a bully!" 老外Coyle粉在那儿HC，“啊，他的眼睛会笑会说话”，我心话，看看他pressing Anna时的表演，那爱和关心，在哪儿呢？

这作者也是后来加入Thomas阵营的，他的力挺我太同意了：It's not about who's the most morally alturistic person. It's about who's fun to watch." 戏剧人物的道德评判，必然次要于展示出人物的人性一面、在各种社会现实矛盾中的冲突和表现，要让人看到人物内心的逻辑轨迹，看到人物行为举止在“各该当时”的合理性、连贯性；从戏剧人物分析角度，贝茨，太苍白了！编剧导演到演员，都对一个人物的塑造负责，贝茨演员，Brendan Coyle，已经在英伦演艺圈确立了地位（爱看英国迷你period drama的我，在至少两部大剧里见到他演主要角色），甚至编剧一开始构思唐顿时就把他考虑进来创造角色，可他对人物的掌握和表达，给我感觉，相当不走心，演得非常惯性，各季、各集之间，缺联系和发展链条，很孤立地一个个镜头去演。

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.

所引文章作者，抱怨剧集里贝茨先生一直sad，编剧没有其他事情给他做，总是把困苦扔给他。但是他也承认，这是很惯常的制造冲突从而塑造人物的手段。我们很惯于“越爱越虐，越虐越爱”的主人公，往往让母性爆棚的粉丝如我，很轻易地被编剧带沟里。但贝茨先生不是沟，是座圣人山，在还没root for him时，抛在他身上的艰难困苦，入不到观众心，感觉是很人为刻意的矛盾，没有真实感。Coyle先生惯性的老神在在、自信满满的表情和肢体动作，doesn't help at all.

As a character, Bates lacks depth. Even his romance with Anna seemed a bit rushed. More importantly, he doesn’t make for good television.

看这文章对我最大的启发，就是这句：As a character, Bates lacks depth，“缺乏深度”。他的塑造很表面；编剧偏爱他，不舍得给他一点点缺点，即使他对Thomas的刻薄，因为前期对Thomas小人反派、贝茨圣人大正面的铺垫，都让观众觉得Thomas活该，而忽略了贝茨其实不那么nice的事实，这事实，其实与剧中人对他的评价（人设），是有矛盾的，于是他的人设也显得是“披上”的了，他那些特别圣人的举动——尤其是帮助Thomas、帮助Molesley，不符合他一贯表现出来的人物的常情，有点儿太过，于是显得刻意和假。

特别特别喜欢知乎上一位知友的评论：老爷贴身男仆的人设多好啊，让演员给演崩了（刘玉）。

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哭了！！！

唐顿里，Thomas的刻画几乎是我最喜欢的表演（不算granny），Bates是我一直没看进去、心里褒贬不断的；可是RJC（Thomas）却盛赞Brendan Coyle（Bates），“an actor's actor"，说从他（和章鱼婶）身上学到最多。叫我这种粉丝情何以堪啊？？？！！！

……but the ones that impressed me like BrendanCoyle, who played Mr Bates, I mean he’s done loads of contemporary stuff, is unbelievable.He’s what I call an actor’s actor. So maybe to my friends who watch the show, characters who are bigger, they come off the screen more they’re not as subtle as Brendan are their favourite characters, but this is the guy who, like you said, completely still, everything comes from the eyes. Pathos, the lot and he’s got a sort of sadness behind how he portrays Bates which is just beautiful. You sort of get it if you’re an actor and you’re like wow how do you get that, and I don’t think you can nick that of him. I don’t think you can train to do that. I think that’s something Brendan has in him and we don’t wanna know why because if he does know why he might lose it but its special.

（RJC Act on This 采访2017.4 笔录， https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TMyAlsO1DErDu03-E7fnGEkXUAWK2QXS/view ）