Warning: SPOILERS For The Gilded Age Season 3The Gilded Agejust wrapped season 3 and Julian Fellowes' juicy historical drama is more popular than ever with audiences.The Gilded Agehas enjoyed climbing ratings week-to-week, culminating inThe Gilded Ageseason 3’s finalenetting a record 5-million viewers across multiple platforms. Audiences can’t get enough ofThe Gilded Age.
HBO has renewedThe Gilded Agefor season 4, and the series is only just hitting its stride creatively.The Gilded Agehas shed unpopular charactersand awkward storylines that didn’t connect with audiences.The Gilded Ageseason 3 was more confident and lavish, centering on Bertha Russell’s (Carrie Coon) unwavering quest to marry her daughter, Gladys (Taissa Farmiga) to the Duke of Buckingham (Ben Lamb).
Thankfully,The Gilded Ageshows no signs of slowing down, with season 3’s ending delivering crowd-pleasing moments like Agnes Van Rhijn (Christine Baranski) giving her sister, Ada Forte (Cynthia Nixon), her just due as head of the family, and signs that the newly wealthy ex-footman Jack Trotter (Ben Ahlers) could find love with housemaid Bridget (Taylor Richardson).
Here are five major reasons whyThe Gilded Ageis more popular than ever.
5The Gilded Age Is A Perfect Escape From Modern Life
The Gilded Agewhisks audiences back 150 years, into an America that’s very different, yet recognizable, exhibiting the early building blocks of our 21st century society. Turn on the news, and we’re inundated with divisive, frightening rhetoric. Open the newspaper inThe Gilded Age, and one will learn the latest gossip from behind the closed doors of Bertha and George Russell’s (Morgan Spector) 61st Street palace.
With its lavish ball gowns for women and dapper suits and tuxedoes for men,The Gilded Agepresents an elegance and sophistication that’s lacking in our everyday lives. The Russells, Van Rhijns, Buckinghams and other families inThe Gilded Agesuffer heartbreak, joy, and even divorce in season 3, but they also possess a surety of social order that is both comforting and alluring.
Life seems simpler inThe Gilded Age,although the myriad rules and hazards of late 19th century New York high society are deceptively complex, and often unforgiving. But if all gets to be too much,The Gilded Age’s characterscan always escape to their seaside Newport, Rhode Island mansions, and they take us along for the ride.
4Broadway’s Finest Actors Make Up The Gilded Age’s Cast
Millions of HBO viewers may not have the opportunity to travel to New York City to enjoy a Broadway play, butThe Gilded Agebrings Broadway to audiences for the simple cost of an HBO Max subscription.The Gilded Age’s cast is absolutely stacked with the theatre’s finest actors. From Christine Baranski, to Morgan Spector, to Donna Murphy, to Blake Ritson, to Denee Brown, it’s a who’s who of the Great White Way.
The Gilded Ageis a true ensemble cast, butHBO’s historical drama greatly benefits from Carrie Coon, who is arguably the show’s lead as Bertha Russell. Coon is white-hot from her role inThe White Lotusseason 3 and her box office smashGhostbustersmovies, butThe Gilded Agelets Carrie shine brightest as the indomitable Mrs. Russell.
Each season ofThe Gilded Agecontinues to add even more firepower from stage and screen, and season 3 outdid itself by bringing in Phylicia Rashad and Jordan Donica as Mrs. Elizabeth Kirkland and her defiant son, Dr. William Kirkland. Merritt Wever as Bertha’s sister Monica, Hattie Morahan as Lady Sarah Vere, and Nicole Brydon Bloom returning as Maud Beaton were also standouts in season 3.
3The Gilded Age Has Julian Fellowes' Downton Abbey Pedigree
Many viewers ofThe Gilded Ageare also fans ofDownton Abbey,Julian Fellowes' legendary ITV and Masterpiece PBS TV series, which has spawned three feature films. Other than hoping for a yet-unrealizedDownton Abbeycrossover withThe Gilded Age,Downtonfans have enjoyed how Fellowes has applied his same winning formula toThe Gilded Agewhile properly tailoring HBO’s series to its American setting and time period.
Academy Award-winner Julian Fellowes writes or co-writes every episode ofThe Gilded Age, just as he didDownton Abbey.
The Gilded AgereplicatesDownton Abbey’s upstairs-downstairs paradigm of servants and their well-to-do employers, while doubling the intrigue between two households, the Russells and the Van Rhijn-Forte-Brook home across East 61st Street.
From the competing butlers, Church (Jack Gilpin) and Bannister (Simon Jones), to gossiping housemaids, totreacherous lady’s maids,The Gilded Agespeaks in Julian Fellowes' familiar voice, just likeDownton Abbey.
2The Gilded Age Has Pleasingly Low Stakes (But They’re Getting Higher)
The Gilded Age’s low stakes is one of the show’s most endearing aspects. From the will-they/won’t-they marry dilemma between Larry Russell (Harry Richardson) and Marian Brook (Louisa Jacobson), to Aurora Fane’s (Kelli O’Hara) painful divorce, to who was leaking Bertha Russell’s gossip to the press,The Gilded Agemakes soap opera clichés dramatically addictive.
Each season ofThe Gilded Agehas culminated in a lavish ball, or a resplendentopera war inThe Gilded Ageseason 2, and Bertha Russell has emerged triumphant every time. However,The Gilded Ageseason 3 has also upped the ante, adding life-or-death stakesthat have galvanized the series.
The Gilded Age season 3 saw the shocking death of John Adams (Claybourne Elder), which was followed by anassassination attempt on George Russell. Mr. Russell then shockingly left his wife, Bertha, over his resentment from the central event ofThe Gilded Ageseason 3: Gladys' wedding to the Duke of Buckingham.The Gilded Ageseason 4 may no longer be playing for keeps.
1The Gilded Age Is Unabashedly Romantic
WhenThe Gilded Agewants to - and thankfully, it often does - the series can send audiences' hearts soaring with romance. Characters like Marian Brook, Peggy Scott, and Gladys Russell suffer when their high hopes are dashed by cruel reality, butThe Gilded Agewill offer salvation and proves that love can still conquer all.
Gladys' marriage to Hector, Duke of Buckingham seemed to be fraught with peril, but with her mother’s help, Gladys prevailed and, against all odds, forged a happy marriage with her doting Duke. The Buckinghams are now pregnant at the end ofThe Gilded Ageseason 3, making Gladys the series' first major character to be with child.
Perhaps no one inThe Gilded Agehas carried pain and guilt for as long as Peggy Scott, but her beau, Dr. William Kirkland, proved himself true blue. The only dry eye in their Newport Ball was William’s mother, Elizabeth’s, when Dr. Kirkland proposed to Miss Scott. Romance is alive and well inThe Gilded Age, and season 4 of Julian Fellowes' wildly popular HBO series cannot come soon enough.
