Is it just me or will “the gilded age” finally be good?
After the final of the second season, I complained how much better Julian Fellowes' American period drama could be if the characters gave the chance to develop, and even fall in love with “La Tom and Sybil or Carson and Mrs. Hughes”. With great sentences, perfect costumes and talented Broadway actors who were involved in complex social problems, the “gilded age” always had the potential to be a great television instead of everyone's favorite hate observer.
After the final of the last night, it feels like the HBO Max -Drama could finally be on the way there. With Four weeks with increasing viewership And an audience that grows at a speed that is almost 50% higher than in the first two seasons. I am pretty sure that I don't just have the feeling that the show finally (finally!) Took its step.
What is ironic is that most of the time dramas (think for longing, veiled conversations, stolen kisses and later weddings) to expand this type of public investment.
“The gilded age” makes the opposite.
The turning point of this season in the spectator engagement seems to be episode 4 when Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon) her daughter Gladys (Taissa Farmiga) down to marry the Duke of Buckingham (Ben Lamb) in a moment that is one moment direct reference To Consuelo Vanderbilts Miserable Real Marriage to the Duke of Marlborough.
“What a triumph for Mrs. Russell. Strange, really, if you believe that three years have ever heard of us of her,” whisper Mrs. Astor (Donna Murphy), the goalkeeper of the Old Society Show, Ward Mcallister (Nathan Lane), while the Aisle on the arm of her great father, George Russell (Morgan Spector).
When you watch the notorious railway -TycoonDollar princess”A newly rich daughter of a wealthy American businessman who deals with“ cash for the class ”in a purely transactional marriage felt even more difficult than when Gladys Billy Carlton (Matt Walker) married.
Last season I would have been irritated by a love story instead of showing, but I didn't care about this season. When Hector of the Duke lifts the veil of Glady's face, the show has some missions.
After Gladys had been forced into a marriage of convenience – the Bertha says that Bertha will give her daughter in strength – Glady's sail for Great Britain, and George is talking to Bertha for orchestrating the entire program. All of these developments seem to be on the brand for this season, the topic of which may best be described as Love Lost. The characters are adjusted and things are in both mansions in the 61st Street Topy-Turvig.
In the gold -plated Villa of the Russells, the facade shows some wear. Villars George, who was just shot in his office, lived in the “Club” because he cannot be near Bertha. This is an interesting development because its relationship traditionally was the most interesting part of the show. Now it seems as if her marriage could be heading for the dissolution, which probably in the face of the view that Alva Vanderbilt, Berha's historical mirror, was First society woman to divorce And helped to disigmitize the divorce more generally.
Bertha is already involved in another social controversy of her own making when she defends Aurora Fane (Kelli O'Hara), whose husband forces her to submit to divorce. This leads to another patient situation with Ms. Astor who wants to exclude Aurora despite the marriage problems of her own daughter Aurora. Bertha, loyal to her character, refuses to let the hypocrisy slide, and may only win the Aurora fight in time to wage her own social war next season when her marriage ends.
On the other side of the street, Van Rhijn's sisters are fighting with their new world order. After Oscar (Blake Ritson) lost his mother's money, Agnes (Christine Baranski) has to rely on the newly inherited wealth of her sister Ada (Cynthia Nixon).
This role is not easy to do and forms the background noise behind the real heartache of the house. Ada still mourns the loss of her husband in season 2, and Oscar is destroyed after his male lover was driven over by a horse right in front of him. Even worse, he can't mourn it properly because his same -sex relationship is not socially acceptable. Marian (Louisa Jacobson) is also lovable after she broke her engagement with Larry Russell (Harry Richardson).
Even the writer of the house, Peggy Scott (Denée Benton), is broken heart. Your past causes problems in her burgeoning relationship with the charming Dr. William Kirkland (Jordan Donica). Not even Footman Jack is satisfied after his watch is sold, and he deserves 300,000 US dollars because he cannot be a “rockefeller in painting”, which means that he has to move into his own house and leave the other employees who are practically his own family.
Overall, nobody is happy like the plot, which slowly came across in two seasons. The only exception could be Gladys who found out that her mother may have been right and actually had good intentions when she forced her to the wedding. Being a duchess gives her a voice that we never knew that she had at all.
Here the third season is me for the fourth. (HBO Max has already renewed the show.) I can hardly wait, like the women on the show, especially Bertha and her daughter, navigate at the end of the 19th century when her agency was as limited. Perhaps the show will finally go down in some of the scary relevant similarities between the gilded age and today.
Or maybe not. In both cases, I am not sure whether it is important, because at least things finally happen, and I am pretty sure that the growing audience of the show in view of the cliff hangers is waiting for the return of the show just as I am anxious.
The first three seasons of “The Golded Age” are streamed on HBO Max.