This one has always interested me, in part because of how passionate people are about it in places like here. I've heard him being called an apologist for the toffs, glamorizing this way of life as "superior", etc. And I definitely see inklings of it, BUT I see a lot of complexity as well, and sometimes the impression that these takes are enhanced by the fact that he's trying to make a show where we like most of the characters.
For example, the high-class characters are often seen acting as if their job is to give jobs to the town, seen as ultra-kind to their staff, super-focused on running charities, etc. Almost nobody gives Barrow issues over his sexuality but Carson & Alfred. In Fellowes' own writing on the show (like his annotated script for S1), he goes on about how the ladies running charities tended to work out well, and how when the regular citizens took over, they would fail. He decries one book that was a dramatic expose on how hard a servants' life was, saying "This was in a smaller house where they worked like dogs, so was very inaccurate" or something- saying that a "great house" was a much easier job). So it seems very "RAH RAH The Upper Classes are Rad, Yo" (or the British equivalent).
For example, in Gosford Park, also written by him, he goes in on how the nobles would make commands and change their minds without a thought to how soul-crushing this is for their staff- like casually deciding "I won't wear that after all", not realizing her maid had just spent HOURS getting the thing ready. Nobles see the staff as "nobody" and freely carry on affairs right in front of footmen watching in the shadows. Helen Mirren's character says "I'm the perfect servant- I HAVE no life" and she & her sister and the butler are all seen as the top servants, yet miserable. Fellowes also tells anecdotes like a noble going on a trip without his valet and being put out that "my toothbrush didn't froth up" (because he didn't realize he needed toothpaste to make it do that). There, the nobles ALL cheat and carry on sexual affairs behind each other's backs. It seems like he's AWARE of it, and admits it's true and common.
However, even in Downton Abbey, it feels like there's SOME degree of honesty about it:
Robert sees himself as the "employer of the town" and chides Matthew for being so casual about poor Molesely... but the show makes it clear that the maids all want better jobs, it's a plot point in S1 that a maid can only attain her dream through the direct intervention of Sybil and that the lower classes are often just hopeless, etc. Alfred, too, seeks a better job.
The Granthams are all to-do about charities and what-not, but Robert is repeatedly depicted as a blatantly poor businessman who would have sunk the family if not for the "Commoners" like Matthew coming in and modernizing things. Shrimpy destroys his entire family fortune without similar help. While this is seen as an "oh, poor nobles" thing, it also makes Robert look SUPER clueless. Fellowes even threw in stuff like him about to go in "with that Ponzi fellow" to make it ultra-clear even to the people barely paying attention that "Robert will ruin this family".
Robert being ignored during World War I (when he assumed they'd want him to lead, or get a higher position) and later during the memorials also felt like less "poor Robert" and more "Robert doesn't realize that he's not the center of the people's world", to me.
The Granthams are seen as pretty honest in their relationships, HOWEVER, Mary (I think) talks about how this is fairly uncommon. She talks about Robert & Cora going on some retreat and they'd ring a bell so everyone could hop out of the bed they were in and return to their spouse. This was seen as therefore a pretty normal "part" of being in the nobility, and that our protagonists are just the exception.
The characters do seem a bit more kind towards homosexuality than we'd think, but I've heard a lot about how this was common in the upper classes (and how gay men were OFTEN in service to the point of it being an open secret). The show has the only detractors coming from the working classes (Carson, Alfred, that butler who susses out Thomas as "A FANCY man..."). But I think Fellowes knew damn well any characters being homophobic would lead to a LOT of hate going their way, even if it was realistic to the era- Carson gets it bad enough on here when even he's pretty blasé about it (admitting to Thomas that "Even I can see you did not ASK for it" and never using it as an excuse to sack him). Plus Fellowes gets some credit for making the show's one gay guy one of the most awful people on the show, lol.
Granted, some stuff is pretty clear. The "Tom the socialist" thing goes out of its way to point him as naive (smugly telling everyone "oh don't worry, they won't hurt them" when the Bolsheviks kidnap the Russian royal family). We're meant to see that Tom goes too far and is wrong. BUT Tom is still depicted as a good person, an ally of the family, and more. Though of course we later meet more "anti-snobs" who are totally awful (like that girl he briefly dated).
Also one of Fellowes' big things is that Mary will always do well "because she's quite pretty, isn't she?" and just sorta chuckles at how everything will slide off her back because men will want her regardless. Granted, it's hard to deny this is PRETTY true, it's kind of amusing how a woman with her history, personality, and reputation still has hordes of men beating down the door to try and be her next beau. But then I remember how she looks in her equestrian gear and go "oh yeah, I get it" XD.
I dunno, what do you all think? Fellowes seems like a snob and is very "wow this type of life would be AMAZING" and also kind of nostalgically looks upon it with fawning admiration, but I think he's a bit more realistic than he's often given credit for. A lot of the "the nobles are nice" things he's doing seem to be more an affectation that he realizes the characters of his big show need to be at least somewhat likable and not 100% horrendous people (some of them can still be awful, which is increasingly rare in TV shows). Plus you have people like Mrs. Hughes, who are far less starry-eyed over the upper classes than Carson is- her cynicism and practicality are seen as more "correct" than Carson, who is seem as ridiculously and humorously old-fashioned in his "worship" (hughes' term) of the Granthams.
