A Return to the Gilded Age of TV: Season 2 of one of The Best Shows Of the Decade So Far

 

 

Those of you who read this column during the first quarter of last year know just how much praise I lavished on HBO’s The Gilded Age. From the start I was instantly drawn to it,  argued it should be at the forefront of the Emmy nominations (it wasn’t) and put it on my list of the best shows of 2022.  I am rarely ahead of the curve and frequently am behind it, but this may be the rare occasion that I have come out in front. The early reviews were good to medium but did not receive the ecstasy I thought this series deserved.

Now after the debut of Season 2 last week, it looks like the rest of the world is catching up with me. Not entirely (TV Guide only gave it three stars…sacrilege!) but the reviews have become generally more of the rave quality, though in some cases they admit they are now surprised. (A reviewer from Slate raved about the show in a backhanded fashion by saying that they were now no longer hate-watching it.) I’ve been theorizing as to why this show, which is loved by a fair amount, is still not receiving the worship that the recently departed Succession did and inferior series like House of the Dragon and Euphoria do. I’ve developed some theories which I’ll share later on but let’s get to the rave part of this.

As the second season begins Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon) is waging her next battle to try and win her p[ace in society. To that end, she’s waging another war that can only make me love the series more. The battle is being thought over trying to win a box at the Academy – the concert hall but Bertha has decided to throw her money behind the brand new Metropolitan Opera. (“You don’t even like opera,’ George says at a family dinner. ) Lady Astor has taken the side of the Academy and Bertha is making a play to try and pick off members of the new guard. This will quickly become more problematic than she will find, but hell, we get to hear an opera performance in the first episode.

George (the wondrous Morgan Saylor) is trying to fight a battle that was becoming an issue in the 1880s and is just as prescient today – organized labor.  In a meeting with the titans of industry (Jay Gould and Andrew Carnegie are present) George starts to show the signs of being the one percent he is by saying they must stand together as steelworkers as for such inconveniences as an ‘eight hour workday’ and ‘Sundays off’. Currently engaged in the battle with the Ironworkers Union, he sends one of this best men to offer him money and power. Asked if he is a man of principle, George says: “That will just make him that much more expensive.” He is surprised when Henderso rejects the initial offer and plans to try and win him over with a party at his house.  George has done little to get his gloved hands dirty the first season; will he get down in the muck at last?

And in what is revolutionary for Peak TV, George and Bertha have a marriage where they are equal partners, good parents and completely supportive of the others needs. (A happy marriage that’s absolutely riveting.  And a century and a half later we get Tom and Shiv. Knocks the hell out of Darwin’s Theory.) They want the best for their children, though they disagree on what that looks like. Gladys (Talissa Farmiga, only the second actress on this series doing her mother proud( is itching for freedom and finds herself yearning for the offer of Oscar who is ill-suited for her in a way all but his cousin Marian knows but will not share.  George wants his daughter to be happy but wants to marry for love, something Bertha might find appalling.  His rejection of Oscar is sad but no doubt the best for both of them. Sadly Larry her brother will have his own problems, as his new career for an architect has led him into the bed of women twice his age. Bertha knows what a scandal this could be for her entire family and it is a matter of time before something comes out.

Across the street Ada and Agnes continue to try and find a new accord, though little has changed (thankfully) from Ada’s perspective. Christine Baranski continues to show (for those who had any doubt) that she is the secret weapon of Peak TV. Every lone out of her mouth is a gem and she’s clearly having the time of her life looking down her nose at everybody. She was appalled when Marian (Louisa Jacobson, Meryl’s youngest) has taken -gasp! – a job, teaching children! It is increasingly becoming the role of Agnes to play peacemaker, something that we see as she continues to show increasingly spine.  Cynthia Nixon shows depth as the shrinking violet who is her sister’s equal and just as insightful.  And we see the sparks between her and the new rector (Robert Sean Leonard, glad to see you again).

The series also continues to expand the range of the middle and lower classes that can give the show spark. Peggy (Denee Benton, the series biggest breakout star) is reeling from heartbreak that the infant child her parents forced to her abandon has died from scarlet fever. Her parents are dealing with grief in their own way and Peggy has decided she can not like under her parents roof.  She has reached out to Van Ryan’s and in another of the signs of her secret progressiveness Agnes welcomes her back and is willing to take her side over the servant who exposed her, Mrs. Armstrong (Debra Monk) There’s a clash in the servant’s quarters between them and I’m curious to see how it’ll turn out. Equally compelling are what goes on in the servant quarter’s and now another wrinkle has been added. Watson the Russell’s loyal manservant revealed last year that he was the father of one of the Russell’s colleagues -  a truth that nearly came to light when he was forced to wait on her in the season premiere.  His exposure seems imminent and he has shared his secret with the loyal Bannister (Simon Jones). This seems to be another bomb waiting to go off.

Every moment of The Gilded Age is a joy. It’s sumptuous and lavish in a way that only shows like The Crown are. It has one of the greatest assemblage of actors I’ve seen on any series since The Good Wife debuted. In addition to the incredible actors I’ve already mentioned, in smaller roles we have Nathan Lane chewing the scenery, Kelli O’Hara as Oscar’s mother, Michael Cerveis as Watson and Audra McDonald in a recurring role as Peggy’s mother. (My God, if there was a musical version of this no dubbing at all would be necessary!) The dialogue and repartee is arguably the greatest I’ve heard this side of Aaron Sorkin, and I’m not talking about The Newsroom.  The show is a joy for anyone who’s a New Yorker, and increasingly leans in the era of the late 19^th century. (A trailer shows that Peggy might be following a story on Tuskegee and her mother telling very clearly just how dangerous the South is for her.) I may have been off my mark in my reviews which said that this was a superior show to Succession but few would doubt watching any episode that it has everything that show did, moves faster, has far more likable characters and is infinitely more fun that the first seasons were. I got the feeling that many people watching Succession as much to see the Roys live in misery and treat each other horribly, and I get that.  But the fact remains there is still more action in a single episode of The Gilded Age than there was in most of the first three seasons of Succession.

So why hasn’t The Gilded Age  received the worship that almost every other HBO project does from critics often regardless of its quality?  I can think of two reasons. The first is in fact that the exact reason I love this show as much as I do and is a promising trend. As anyone who has wanted Peak TV, the common complaint even among those who loved many of the shows in the past decade, is that they have centered entirely on the ‘White Male Antihero.’  No one who watches The Gilded Age for five minutes can say the same here: the men may have all the money, but the women have all the power, are (with a few exceptions) the most interesting characters and almost always have the best lines.  Bertha Russel is not an addendum to her husband; she is making strives in a way most women in the 19^th century couldn’t. Peggy and Marian are trying to find futures for themselves in a world where they were just beginning to find them. And Agnes, for all her crochety ways and refusal to accept change, is a force to be reckoned with and not afraid to speak truth to power – or really to anyone. None of these women can be called shrinking violets,  and in a world where so many misogynistic attitudes are prominent towards female characters on Breaking Bad or Mad Men, you can see why  that might bother some people.

Yet The Gilded Age is representative of what may be the most encouraging trend I’ve seen yet as to how Peak TV may go forward in a turbulent time. The future, as they say, is female. We have already seen it play out in such brilliant new comedies as Abbott Elementary and Hacks, seen variations on it in The Morning Show and Bad Sisters and the biggest phenomena in recent years on TV is Yellowjackets  where the women and girls dominate the series. I’ve also noticed that one of my favorite shows of the last decade has been Cruel Summer and each season so far has focused on two female leads. This may be the most encouraging sign I’ve seen for Peak TV has as it enters its new phase and it’s a great sign for television as entertainment and the industry.

The other problem may, honestly, be The Gilded Age’s network.  This show was initially intended to debut on NBC before the deal with creator Julian Fellowes was scrapped. I honestly think if this show had debuted on a broadcast network, a streaming service or, hell, PBS, the raves and awards would have come in from day one.  Save for its quality The Gilded Age bares no resemblance to the most famous HBO period pieces that have aired: I speak of Deadwood, Rome and Boardwalk Empire. There’s no violence, what sex there is happens off screen, and I haven’t heard so much as a ‘goddamn’ in the first two episodes.  How do you square this with the network where it’s last major project was The Idol, which was one of the biggest disasters in the network’s history?  Are we so used to Logan Roy dropping F-bombs with every other word that this is the only kind of character we expect when we tune into cable television these days? Are we actually disappointed when we tune in an HBO drama and not see s cousins hesitating before embarking into a relationship?

The Gilded Age is everything I love when I watch TV. Extraordinary actors, delivering brilliant dialogue, period pieces which actually look at history and characters that I actually give a damn about if things go wrong with their lives. I may have changed my mind on the quality of Succession but not about how loathsome the Roy clan was. The Russell’s and Van Ryans are all infinitely more interesting and fun to be around and every single one of them would look down at all of them and argue if this is what became of the new.  The Gilded Age also, in a way, is the inverse of Succession as it shows the American Dream does not bring the one percent happiness and shows it near its end. The Gilded Age shows us the start of it and can not help but build a mood of optimism even if we know how it ends.

Given the strike in Hollywood, most of HBO’s  highlight dramas -The Last of Us, House of The Dragon and Euphoria – won’t air until the end of next year at the earliest.  No doubt they will be looking for a show to submit for Best Drama next summer. Here it is.

Note: I’ll be writing about this at greater length in a different article, but I think it’s high time we revisit the ratings system for TV. As I mentioned, there is nothing in The Gilded Age that would cross the eyes of even a twelve year old, yet the flyspecks have given it a TV-MA rating, though the only reason they give is ‘Adult Content’.  Euphoria has a TV-MA  rating as well but it has every possible sin under the sun and while it may have adult content, it is completely juvenile at its core.  In what world does anyone think they deserve the exact same rating?

MY SCORE: 5 STARS.