HBO’s The Gilded Age initially got off to a pretty rocky start, with its feature-length pilot getting panned by critics and audiences alike and that was after almost a decade of struggle to get the show to the screen in the first place. But then something weird happened. Even with all of its faults, there was just something about the show that kept viewers coming back. Let’s take a quick look at the special magic that’s helped the show to create its own cult following, and the important lesson that studios should learn from its success. Here’s our Take!
Basic Context
Initially announced way back in 2012 as an attempt at an American version of Downton Abbey, The Gilded Age hit a number of roadblocks on its way to our screens. After struggling in development hell for years, creator and writer Julian Fellowes (who was also, notably, the creator of the Downton Abbey) decided some changes needed to be made. Initially, the show was set to follow the story of the real-life Vanderbilt family, but Fellowes eventually decided that focusing on real people was too restricting and decided to create fictional families whose story he had complete control over instead. The show was first meant to be on NBC and was even given a greenlight in 2018, but eventually, everyone involved realized that the show might be just a bit too much for NBC’s budget – and so HBO swooped in. Production was finally ready to begin in March of 2020. Everything, of course, shut down and the show was set back yet again. But after the production halt ended, The Gilded Age was at last on its way.
Set in New York City’s Upper East Side during the Gilded Age, the period of the late 1800s in which the US saw a boom of economic growth thanks to industrialization. During this period, many of the country’s already wealthy families got even wealthier while new titans of industry sprung up, capturing their own riches – leading to a split between old money and new money. The Gilded Age illustrates this divide through the Russels – a new money family spearheaded by matriarch Bertha, who is determined to break into New York high society – and the van Rhijns – whose matriarch Agnes is not at all happy about new players trying to break into her world. Importantly, the show also features other points of view – like Peggy, an African-American writer as well as a number of people working in the Russel and van Rhijn households. This is important because while, during this period, the rich did get richer and a handful of people were able to claw their way into wealth, for large swathes of society, the Gilded Age was a time of increasing struggle and poverty.
The show was not an immediate success – the nearly hour-and-a-half pilot to many felt slow and, to be honest, kind of boring, and much of the rest of the first season followed suit. Some characters weren’t nearly engaging enough to get as much screen time as they did, and much of the plot was rather tedious, only occasionally punctuated by real drama or intrigue. As David Mack wrote for Slate, “The Gilded Age was supposed to be a juicy soap opera about the fierce battle between New York’s old money and its new. But to call it a soap opera would be to suggest that something—anything—happened. It was, to put it rudely, a total snooze.” But be that as it may, as David and many others have noted, there was just something that kept viewers coming back week after week, with views actually increasing over the season. So how did a show that even fans thought was boring manage to build a following?
Its Secret Magic
While there are places the show falls flat, there are also many things that it gets right. The cast is bursting with talent, from Christine Baranski, Carrie Coon, and Cynthia Nixon leading to a whole host of other Broadway greats making appearances. Even when the storylines themselves might be lacking, these actresses always bring a spark to their scenes. The show also looks and feels extravagant, just like the period it’s showcasing. The Upper East Side mansions are lavish, as are the beautifully detailed period costumes. The show manages to make you feel like you’ve been transported to another time, if only for an hour – and this is its real charm. Many people are looking for a few moments of mindless escape every now and then – with so much information and bad news flooding into our lives from screens every day, it can be nice to take a momentary break and be dropped in another time where things happen much slower and the drama feels lower stakes. The show wants to be a bit scandalous, but because it never quite manages to actually cross the line into intrigue or shock, it just keeps comfortably pulling viewers along, bored but somehow still invested. It’s the little things that pull us in – the grandeur of the set design, the delight in an artful barb from Baranski or Coon, the sort of calming background interest in if maybe something big will finally happen this episode. There’s also, of course, the period setting itself. While we might seek out entertainment for a momentary respite from the chaos on all of our other screens, many shows and films are themselves about modern problems. This certainly isn’t an issue, but it doesn’t lend itself to the escapism we sometimes seek. The time period saves us from having any of the drama relayed to us through shots of TVs on our TV or clunky attempts at showing texts on screen, and instead, we get everything through people actually interacting with each other.
The show does seem to be shaking things up in its second season by actually having things happen! Apparently onboarding some of the criticism of season one, the writers have started giving the characters more to do and bringing more drama. Alice Burton wrote in a recent Vulture review of the show, “This is how you do a Gilded Age: nonsense events put on by rich people, coupled with things that actually matter. Have to show the gild on the age, if you will.” From icy jabs to revenge plots to rush engagements, this season feels much more like the soap opera we were led to expect in season one. And this improvement highlights an important truth of most shows – they need some time to find their footing. Whether it’s the first season of The Office having to learn that it can’t just copy the original to Parks and Rec changing up its tone, shows that become fan favorites often don’t start off perfect. They become beloved because the creative team takes a look at what worked and what didn’t early on and then were willing to implement changes going forward. We also saw this with the recent Sex and the City revival And Just Like That, which took nearly two and a half seasons to figure out how to start recapturing what people liked about the original show and how to work in its new characters in an effective way. In addition to giving the creative teams time to figure things out, it’s also important to give audiences time to get invested. So often nowadays, shows are thrown out if they’re not immediate hits, with no time given to make changes or attempt to attract new viewers. So The Gilded Age has provided an important lesson that if studios are willing to invest in new shows and give them time to breathe and find their wings, they can create hits out of initially floundering shows. But will this season two turnaround be enough to keep the show going?
Can it sustain its cult hit success
While The Gilded Age does seem to have hit a new stride, that doesn’t mean it’s safe from the axe. Though HBO has been pretty tight-lipped about the show’s true budget, it’s clear just from looking at it that it’s not cheap to produce. From the costumes to shooting on location in real New York and Rhode Island mega-mansions, to the salaries for a seemingly ever-growing cast, finances will certainly be top of mind when it comes to the question of a season three renewal. But that was also a huge reason people thought the show would never make it past season one – in an era when so many shows are getting cut due to “budget concerns”, how could this one possibly survive? It seems that when it comes to The Gilded Age, HBO has decided to go back to its roots: putting in the money to let the creatives tell the story they want to tell and giving the show some breathing room to find its true, dedicated audience. But, as the show nears the end of its second season, HBO still has not yet confirmed if we’ll get a third season. This delay was likely in part due to the months-long strikes that halted Hollywood across the board, but now that things are back in motion, fans are still awaiting news of the show’s fate. Only time will tell if improved reviews, a small but dedicated audience, and the potential to continue hooking new fans will be enough to grant it another go. (Though And Just Like That getting its own season three renewal does give us a bit of hope!) This beautiful, boring, somehow entrancing show is an interesting anomaly in the troubled seas of modern TV, and so we can only hope that HBO and the other streamers take the right lessons from its surprise success.
Sources
Burton, Alice. “The Gilded Age Recap: I Must Cancel My Congratulations.” Vulture, 27 Nov. 2023, www.vulture.com/article/the-gilded-age-recap-season-2-episode-5.html.
Loofbourow, Lili. “‘The Gilded Age’ Finds Its Footing in a Soapy Second Season.” Washington Post , Washington Post, 27 Oct. 2023, www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/tv/2023/10/27/gilded-age-season-two-review/.
Mack, David. “The Worst Show on Television Is Back on HBO. I Can’t Wait to Watch It All.” Slate Magazine, Slate, 27 Oct. 2023, slate.com/culture/2023/10/the-gilded-age-season-2-hbo-review.html.
Mack, David. “Worst Show on Television. Can’t Wait to Watch It All Https://T.Co/L3ysqa5lpj.” Twitter, Twitter, 9 Oct. 2023, twitter.com/davidmackau/status/1711433965586829769.
Silva, Rachel. “Every Historic House Featured in HBO’s ‘The Gilded Age’ - Elle Decor.” Elle Decor, 26 Oct. 2023, www.elledecor.com/life-culture/a44912657/the-gilded-age-filming-locations-max/.