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Julian Fellowes knows how to make “classy” drama better than almost anyone else on TV. He can squeeze so much plot out of people sitting in period costumes drinking tea that you wonder what he could do with a glance or some other form of non-verbal communication. His current series, The Gilded Age, is entering its third season with lots of storylines being juggled at once — all of which are dealt with through the art of conversation.
THE GILDED AGE SEASON 3: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: Horses and a carriage move through the desert.
The Gist: George Russell (Morgan Spector) and his secretary, Richard Clay (Patrick Page), arrive in the mining town of Morenci, Arizona, to negotiate with mine owners to build a railroad over the mines. George’s goal is to buy the mines outright at cut-rate prices; to him, the land is far more valuable than whatever is being mined underneath it.
Back in New York, an early spring snowstorm surprises and delights the staffs of the Russell and van Rhijn households. There have been power shifts in both: Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon) has won the opera stand-off with Carrie Astor (Donna Murphy) and, with her newfound society power, wants to marry off her daughter Gladys (Taissa Farmiga) to the Duke of Birmingham (Ben Lamb). Across the street, Ada (Cynthia Nixon) having inherited the fortune of her late husband, Luke Forte (Robert Sean Leonard) at the same time her sister, Agnes van Rhijn (Christine Baranski), has found herself broke due to bad investments by Agnes’ son Oscar (Blake Ritson).
The latter situation has become confusing to the staff at the van Rhijn residence, with Ada and Agnes often giving them conflicting orders. The cook, Mrs. Bauer (Kristine Nielsen), insists head butler Mr. Bannister (Simon Jones) straighten it out. In addition, Ada has become interested in the temperance movement, holding a meeting at the house that the wine-loving Agnes thinks is ridiculous.
Speaking of the van Rhijn staff, Agnes’ secretary, Peggy Scott (Denée Benton), comes from her parents’ house in Brooklyn with good news: A magazine wants to publish excerpts from her novel. However, as she works on new chapters, she gets sicker after thinking she had a cold. Agnes calls in a doctor who refuses to treat Peggy because she’s Black.
Love is also in the air, as Gladys and Billy Carlton (Matt Walker) intend to marry, whether Bertha approves or not. Gladys’ brother Larry (Harry Richardson) is in love with Ada and Agnes’ niece Marian Brook (Louisa Jacobson), who insists on getting a job, despite Agnes’ objections. Charles Fane (Ward Horton) asks for a divorce from his wife Aurora (Kelli O’Hara). Finally, Jack Trotter (Ben Ahlers), a junior footman at the van Rhijn household, continues to work on his clock patent with Larry, earning him scorn from the Russell family’s staff for not knowing his place.
Photo: HBOWhat Shows Will It Remind You Of? Written by Julian Fellowes and Sonja Warfield, The Gilded Age is reminiscent of Fellowes’ signature series, Downton Abbey, though these days it feels like it’s a more formal-sounding version of The Buccaneers.
Our Take: Fellowes and Warfield have pretty well established the rhythms of The Gilded Age to this point. The show reveals its plot developments through talking. This show has lots and lots and lots of talking, and talking is pretty much the “action” that takes place in the first episode. Even with Russell and Richard in the Wild West, the most that happens are some fierce negotiations between Russell and the coalition of miners that has been created to make sure they have strength in numbers against the notorious robber baron.
As usual, keeping track of everything that is going on requires attention to what’s being spoken; there are literally a couple of dozen characters to keep track of, and at last half a dozen different storylines. But since the show literally tells and doesn’t show, it takes all of a viewer’s concentration to make sure they don’t doze off and miss something critical.
Of course, it helps that the show has a great cast; we haven’t even mentioned guest stars like Audra McDonald, Phylicia Rashad, Merritt Wever and more. Even the restrained banter between Ada and Agnes crackles because Nixon and Baranski are delivering those lines. Carrie Coon’s Bertha is getting more ruthless in Season 3, but it’s not like Coon is out of her element playing the social-climbing new money socialite.
What we hope is that some of the love stories get more play, and we see George have a hard time putting one over on the mine owners out west — while dealing with a new problem back in New York. The changing dynamics between Agnes and Ada are also interesting, because Ada is used to being in charge; how stubborn she’ll be as her sister asserts herself will also make for whatever this show considers “action.”
Photo: HBOSex and Skin: None in the first episode, though most of what goes on in this show is mostly pretty chaste-seeming; the TV-MA rating is for occasional flashes of nudity.
Parting Shot: After having an argument with Bertha over her relationship with Billy, Gladys leaves the Russell house in the dead of night.
Sleeper Star: Not sure why, but we’re rooting for Blake Ritson’s sad-sacky Oscar, who is looking to marry a rich woman to hide the fact that he’s gay.
Most Pilot-y Line: “Take a ride around Five Points or Hell’s Kitchen sometime and tell me you’re not satisfied with your life,” Agnes says to Marian when she says she “wants more” from her life (they’re talking to Aurora about her pending divorce at the time).
Our Call: STREAM IT. Listen, we’re all for watching great actors recite witty, well-written lines of dialogue, and The Gilded Age has lots of it. But we just wish there was a little more showing and a lot less telling in this series.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
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