The Gilded Age in American history is generally considered to be the period starting a few years after the end of the Civil War (~1870) and ending with the turn of the 20th century (~1900). Perhaps because the U.S. was not involved in any dramatic foreign wars (other than the Indian Wars in the West) until the very end of this period, it’s a time that perhaps has had somewhat less attention from historians, readers and movie watchers than many other periods in U.S. history.
Despite that relative lack of focus on the era, though, many transformational changes were sweeping the country at that time. During the Gilded Age, a national network of railroads was being built across the continent; telegraph lines were being laid, to link every part of the continent with instantaneous communications; oil was being discovered and extracted for the first time; and astounding new technological innovations and scientific discoveries like electric lighting were arriving almost daily.
During this time period, the Industrial Revolution was in full swing, as new factories were built, powered by coal and then oil, and filled with new kinds of iron and steel machines of mass production. At the same time, new emigrant populations from Europe and China, as well as freed blacks from the post-Confederacy South poured into northern cities, looking for work and opportunity in those factories, and making homes in crowded urban tenement neighborhoods.
This is the setting for Julian Fellowes' newest series (this time on HBO Max), The Gilded Age, which he has begun to produce after completing the massively popular Downtown Abbey show.
The Gilded Age is superficially similar to Downton Abbey, in that it focuses on the “upstairs / downstairs” lives of extremely rich families and their household staff in an age of opulence and highly concentrated wealth. But there the similarities mostly end, because unlike the relative backwater of Downton Abbey’s rural British aristocratic world of the early 20th century, The Gilded Age takes place in the 1880s, in the urban bustle and commotion of a dynamic and fast-changing New York City. And rather than a single household full of characters for us to follow, in The Gilded Age, we have two.
One is the city home of two elderly sisters who are exemplars of the “blue blood/old money” class, in terms of their family history, social standing and strict social standards (played by Christine Baranski and Cynthia Nixon).
The other is a gorgeously ornate and huge new house across the street, built by a prototypical newly wealthy industrialist of the era (Morgan Spector) for his even more ruthless social-climbing wife (Carrie Coon). The wife is determined to be accepted into New York high society, despite the constant snubs and obstacles put in her way by the many “Grande Dames” of the blue blood world.
This is the war of social standing and acceptance at the heart of the series: old Yankee wealth and exclusivity, threatened by and resisting the social incursions of a powerful new class of super-rich titans of business (and their wives), who have the money and the determination to overcome their conservative predecessors’ resistance to their social overtures, regardless of their personal roots or family origins.
Into this heated high society war zone come several other key characters. There is a single young woman of “good breeding”, education and modern ideas (Louisa Jacobson), but who lacks independent wealth or prospects, and comes to live as a dependent of her two elderly aunts in the aunt’s mansion after the death of her father.
There is also an educated young black woman (Denee Benton), who becomes the senior aunt’s personal assistant and a successful journalist, despite constant instances of racism, sexism and reflexive resistance (even from her own family) to her attempts at a career and independence in the white male-dominated world of 1880s New York.
There are plenty of other characters with minor roles too, including the son and daughter of the industrialist and his wife, a nephew in the aunts’ household who is socially aspiring but also a closeted gay man, a number of high society figures, and several of the house staff in each house who are drawn into events and the intrigues between the two households and the larger New York high society world.
Will the young lady find an appropriate match (but also true love!) under her aunts’ watchful eyes? Will the young black woman manage to succeed as a writer despite all the social prejudices arrayed against her? Will the industrialists’ driven wife manage to get anyone from high society to show up for her magnificent parties? And will the industrialist force all the blue blood businessmen to bow to the strength of his will, and to the power of his fortune?
It all makes for an entertaining costume drama and period piece, although I found it lacking in some of the charm and fun that made Downton Abbey so appealing and universally loved. More than anything else, none of the characters seemed all that endearing to me, unlike many of the very lovable characters (both upstairs and downstairs) in Downton Abbey. It also seemed somewhat slow-moving.
But with that said, it’s a worthwhile TV series. It provides a well-imagined view into the social conflicts of the super-rich in an important but under-noticed period in American history, the era that set the stage for the rise of the United States to a position of global power in the 20th century. Recommended.
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