The Gilded Age, 11/5/23

Is Bertha Russell supposed to represent a real person or was she a type, a composite of several real people?

Bertha was not a real person, but she is very much based on an actual person: the exceptionally wealthy parvenu Alva Vanderbilt Belmont, the wife of first William K. Vanderbilt II and then August Belmont.

She only exists in the swollen mind of Julian Fellowes.

Nathan Lane seems at any moment ready to shout out, "Oh, BEL-VE-DERE! Come hyahh, boy!"

Laura Benanti is not toning down her stage effects for the camera.

CUNTING BUTLERS!

This episode is good.

That was a great twist. Bertha herself started out middle class and married up, so how she can complain about Miss Turner marrying up into her new class and expect to be taken seriously?

What I especially liked about this episode is that we twice got to see Bertha lose countenance (when she found out Larry is having the affair with Mrs. Blaine, and when she was re-introduced to turner), and I think she only did that once all of last season (when she was escorted out of the Astor mansion's kitchen into the yard). Carrie Coon a good actress when she gets the chance to play Bertha is not always on the spectrum.

I loved the comic element of the Morgan guy as the awkward drunk. Almost felt sorry for Oscar when Russell threw him out making it very clear his daughter was off limits. He looked so deflated. But now he is on the hunt again. Clearly Marian and Dashiell are going to be a couple, and I think Cynthia Nixon's character is making googly eyes at the new pastor. Hope something comes of that. Bertha was stunned when Larry stood up to her. Wow. He showed a whole new side. The dick has its reasons.....

Interesting irony here will be if Bertha shuns and undermines her former maid in much the same way she was shunned and undermined as one of the new people.

i loved it

By making this new character Maud, who is Oscar's new fortune-hunting prospect, the niece of "Mrs. Drexel," Fellowes may be alluding to Elizabeth Wharton Drexel, the Philadelphia heiress who married the Newport and Manhattan society fop Harry Lehr and was told on their wedding night (to her shock) he was gay and that he loathed her and that he would never touch her. She later wrote a tell-all book about the experience.

I’m hoping for a new erotic spinoff, Larry and the Cougar, featuring much twink nudity.

Miss Gummer must be one of the worst actors in a show of this magnitude. Her tone is the same for anything she says in any situation. M must be mortified.

Julian Fellowes gives an interesting interview about the conflict ahead between Bertha and the new Mrs. Winterton:

Check out the dress on her Wikipedia page, it's glorious!

First, the servant is a fallen gentleman, then the maid is a risen lady. Oh, Julian. I see what you did.

I wish they explained what Agnes does all day. Ada at least embroiders and has Pumpkin to play with, but I don't have the faintest idea how Agnes occupies her time, especially since she's too lazy even to write out her own letters.

R2. Alva Vanderbilt married Oliver Perry “O.P.” Belmont not August Belmont.

Particularly enjoyed this episode, uncle Julian certainly keeps the story chugging along, he can usually be counted on to resolve plot points quickly. It’s wonderful to see the Elms and the Newport Casino, both looking so wonderful.

The scene with Agnes and Miss Armstrong the lady’s maid was ludicrous. That old bitch should have been tossed out onto the street for speaking to Aggie the way she did. So stupid.

Larry and Mrs. Blaine have matching noses. They'll be known as the de Bergeracs of Newport.

John Behlmann played the amusing drunk and he's that delicious combination of goofy yet gorgeous. He has an amazing body. Currently appearing in Shucked on Broadway.

Super sexy

I really hope that wasn't just a one-off for John Behlmann. The series needs him and the sexy humor he effortlessly brings.

I now understand why Laura Benanti's film and TV career never quite took off. The closeups of that nose in profile would give Bob Hope the shivers.

R26. So she had me fixed for nothing?

R25. Effortless indeed. While the other actors take themselves oh so seriously Behlmann's natural style and humor made him an immediate standout.

Baranski’s now deceased husband Matthew Cowles was actually related to the Drexel family CB mentioned it in a Q&A following a screening last year.

oh, super duper cool

I forgot she used to be married to Billy Clyde Tuttle.

[quote]Harry Lehr and was told on their wedding night (to her shock) he was gay and that he loathed her and that he would never touch her. She later wrote a tell-all book about the experience.

It's amazing to me that she stayed married to him. Money should have insulated her from any social backlash, especially if she outed him. Couldn't the marriage be annulled since it was never consumated?

The words, “Momma, I married a fag” carried a bitter sting in those days.

Mrs. Blane isn’t known as Mrs. Blanal in all of Newport society for nothing. She’s the only one of our set who not only can abide it, she thrives on it.

Larry needs to drop that nosejob'd cougar and come sit on my face. The tall and hunky John Behlmann can join in. Imagine running away from someone like him, what a delicate little flower Marian is.

Agnes's exchange with her maid cracked me up. "Armstrong, don't be a cunt." – "I can't, Ma'am, my inner racist is just too strong."

The downstairs drama is so boring, dear lord.

All the love here for John Behlmann, evidently based on his stage work, is very nice. But for the rest of us, there was nothing very compelling to look at. He isn’t especially attractive (in clothes he looks like a beanpole) and his performance as a conceited buffoon and drunkard hardly seems to promise a long character arc in this series except as a running joke.

I’m far more struck by the looks of David Furr as Cousin Dashiell. He looks like a handsome version of artist John Singer Sargent, and he has a very warm smile. Furr was evidently a Tony nominee for “Noises Off.”

Thought Laura Benanti was good and looks great in the clothes of the period.

Benanti's fine, but she needs to keep her paws off our precious Larry.

You want Larry to be gay. Not happening.

Is so. Bitch.

Believe it or not, my crew friend on TGA said the alarm clock thing is actually an ongoing storyline this season.

Who the fuck cares about that limp Michael Cerveris story line??

R32, sometimes women in that scenario were shunned for telling the truth (see link). Women who were married to 'mos were supposed to just keep quiet and put up with it

R40 Will the servant invent a better alarm clock that will make him rich?

[quote][R32], sometimes women in that scenario were shunned for telling the truth (see link). Women who were married to 'mos were supposed to just keep quiet and put up with it

I can see that in the UK, but in the US? Divorce itself was not common at that time, so it seems like you'd need to have a pretty damn good reason to avoid being ostracized.

[quote] I can see that in the UK, but in the US? Divorce itself was not common at that time, so it seems like you'd need to have a pretty damn good reason to avoid being ostracized.

"Our laws favor divorce; our customs do not." -- Newland Archer, The Age of innocence

I have never seen John Behlmann onstage, but I’ve crushed on him in small TV roles over the years. I like that tall, boyish face look.

I know Behlman. Very sexy offstage as well.

I found him deeply annoying in last night's episode, and not in a funny or charming way.

He's married to a frau and has small children? Pass.

I think during the "Gilded Age" if one was married and in the closet, there was no divorce, just very separate lives. And very discreet encounters. I may be wrong, but divorce was not only socially frowned upon, but it was difficult to get. A woman had to be deserted, destitute, and even in the case of domestic violence, everything was held very close. It was not discussed socially. We watch these stories unfold not truly realizing how rigid social norms were in so many ways back then..

6Onn the other hand, once you married for money, you were set.

I've forgotten a lot of S1. Why does Oscar want an heiress? Won't he inherit?

The casting caused problems for me this episode.

Harry Richardson is a very handsome 30 and the idea that Laura Benanti, 44, is too old for him is ridiculous. Didn't Carrie Coon, 42, complain that Laura was "twice his age"?

[quote]Harry Richardson is a very handsome 30 and the idea that Laura Benanti, 44, is too old for him is ridiculous.

The character just graduated from Harvard, so is supposedly 22-23.

A 30 year old playing early 20s is hardly absurd.

However old the character is putting a 30 year old man with a 44 year old woman and trying to convince the audience that she is twice his age just doesn't work.

[quote] I've forgotten a lot of S1. Why does Oscar want an heiress? Won't he inherit?

He has money, but not enough to live the kind of life he covets.

Laura Bananti, who I've liked on stage, is just not great for film and television. I'd say she's playing it stilted for the era, but she had the sound affect as the Baroness in the live Sound of Music. I don't think she's suited to tv and film.

Seems like somebody just wanted to have Benanti in the cast and pigeonholed her into young Russell's pathetically simplistic story line.

Why did the Russell daughter’s hair look so awful in that scene in her bedroom? Was it because she’d been throwing a hissy fit?

R55, I bought it. It looked like The Graduate, 1870s style.

I don't think his character was supposed to be 30 yrs old. He has that baby face and his character was probably in his early 20's. Like, maybe 22-23. And his overbearing, control freak mother probably thinks he's a baby anyway so yeah, objecting to him fucking around with an older widow woman of means has her worried...about appearances. He could develop "a reputation" and wouldn't be considered a society catch.

I wondered about her hair (or wig), too, r59. All those shagged split ends. Strange when they're clearly spending millions on the hair and wardrobe.

R59. Setting lotion. Left it in too long.

The Russell daughter truly is one of the ugliest women I've ever seen.

The Russell son has a sweet, sweet hole.

R65, I know from firsthand experience

Gladys Russell has horrible hair in every scene. I have no idea what is going on and I don't know why the Bertharaptor permits it.

I guess no one believes you, R 65.

Isn't Gladys supposed to be an ugly duckling?

R69, don't worry. In Season 7 she'll be replaced by a swan. A black swan.

[quote]R14 Miss Gummer must be one of the worst actors in a show of this magnitude. Her tone is the same for anything she says in any situation.

The characters are predominantly one note and the actors don’t have any other way to play them. This is a real weakness in the writing.

The writing here is so bad I can only conclude that actors like Maggie Smith came up with some of their best dialogue spontaneously on set on DA.

I thought Marian's argument with Agnes was well done, very convincing. I was sure she was going to throw her out, but she didn't.

I cannot with the lippiness on Armstrong. Does this bitch not realise she is but a step above the just-freed slaves and as such in no position to talk back to her mistress? It just went on and on and on. Who wants a servant like that?

I think she looks better, face wise, than she did last season but the hair ages her and is awful. I wondered if Bertha is uglying her up a bit so she doesn't have competition.

[quote]R74 I cannot with the lippiness on Armstrong. Does this bitch not realise she is but a step above the just-freed slaves and as such in no position to talk back to her mistress? It just went on and on and on. Who wants a servant like that?

Well, she’s been working there for decades. Racism was very real. And backed by religion.

The writing on DA was perhaps not as good as you remember it.

Totally agree, Bates. But it was still so much better than the crap on The Gilded Age.

The ‘downstairs’ story lines are a bore and forced. I’d like to know more about the hammy accent that ‘Alarm Clock Jack’ is using. Did that really exist in the 1880s era of this show? It seems more plucked from a 1940s movie, not to mention, it’s all over the place. Any linguists or accent historians on DL?

Well when he was auditioning he had a dick in his mouth, so they couldn't really tell if he could talk well or not.

I really like Alarm Clock Jack.....as a name. Well done R79.

Have Alarm Clock Jack sent to my room.

Agnes’ tolerating Miss Armstrong’s impudence was incredibly stupid. I wonder if CB tried to get Uncle Julian to make a change.

I don't think Baranski is nearly as smart (or as talented) as she's being given credit for sometimes ^^^^ on these GA threads.

I don’t watch Ugly People tv.

You're right, R83, her 15 Emmy nominations, 11 Critic's Choice Award noms , 8 SAG noms, 2 Tony wins and assorted other honors are all an industry conspiracy to make us hoi polloi think she's better than she is.

All those nominations and barely any wins, r85.

Cynthia had two Tonys too.

But one is in lead while Christine’s are both in the featured category so Cynthia wins.

I watched 20 minutes of 2/2 or so of this mess and changed the station. What a pointless, boring, badly written, worse acted piece of unneeded shit this is.

I'm done with it.

But you’ll miss out on the alarm clock storyline, R88!

Why is the Ugly Duckling wearing a hat that has a sun screen flap on the back? It makes her look even more Special.

R85 IS Christine Baranski.

R29. But they were the Center City Drexels….not the Llanview-Main Line Drexels ;)

I love Baranski. I don't know how or why she ended up in BAD MOM'S CHRISTMAS but she's hilarious and it's worth slogging through just to see her and Peter Gallagher. They look like they're having a blast.

I love the whole show, even the downstairs bits.

Poor unsuspecting Alarm Clock Jack is going to figure out how to fix the clock, seek a patent on his invention, make a billion dollars, and then spend S3 worrying that all of his former scullery mates will expose his working class past.

I don’t need to watch the show. We are living in a gilded age right now in the United States.

[bold]#MakeAmericaGildedAgain

The Gelded Age

With no prior apprenticeship training, it’s dubious Alarm Clock Jack will just tinker his way to horological riches. It’s more likely he’s trick his way to whorological success by snagging an upstairs gent instead of a clock. Bad writing.

Didn’t realize until last night that Carrie Coon played Proxima Midnight, the sentinel of Thanos, in the Marvel films.

I adore the Oscar story line. He needs to marry the french tart, move to paris and whore himself out there

Pretty sure Paris was a, if not the, hotbed of syphilis at the time, Oscar better be careful if he wants to keep his nose.

[quote]Another episode of the show you are somehow FORCED against your will to watch... no matter how loudly you bitch about the asymmetrical dresses and the anachronistic houses and the decorations , the awful writing, and the very dregs of the acting profession cast in all the roles!

That's not happening. And you're trying too fucking hard.

Oscar looks like he already has syphilis.

90% of TGA threads is just bitching about how awful the show is instead of discussing the actual show, same as during the first season. OP's comment was on point.

that Peggy put that shiny bitch in her place.

Hate-watching can be fun.

"The writing is terrible, the acting is atrocious, the wardrobe is anachronistic and it's as boring as hell.

I never miss it!"

I find it fascinating that so much effort and expense can be put into something so middling. I’m watching Boardwalk Empire which involved a similar effort, but has an exciting (often) plot. Maybe TGA needs some gangsters and whores.

I can’t WAIT to use the barb, “and when were you released from the grips of the vicar of Rome?”

The show needs a trans character to make it relevant.

When Alarm Clock Jack makes all of his money, will he buy a box at the Academy or one at the Met?

Bertha can't even buy a box at the Academy.

Is Jack about to single-handedly invent the quartz system of time keeping? I honestly have no idea where that arc is going.

Perhaps he will invent the clock-radio?

Maybe he will become a respectable clock repair man and a freelance repair guy that goes to all the old/new money houses to repair the clocks., and is comfortably middle class- we don't really see into the lives of the merchants et al.

Could he really transition into the merchant class after being a servant?

Jack is going to become the first gay porn bottom.

I don't think clock repairmen were in the "merchant class." He'd be a skilled tradesman, and yeah, I think a servant could transition to that, although I suspect there might be barriers and little hoops to jump through. Not sure, but I don't think he'd become some newly accepted member of any elite.

R117, how valid, though, is that way of thinking in the United States? Aren't the "elites" essentially all faux?

I don't think the plot point has anything to do with him being a clock repair man. I think it has a lot to do with the clock being wrong and "something" important happening as a result of the clock being tampered with. Jeez.

r121, When the old GoT threads were around, DLers had better plots than the actual show, especially with the last season. Let us speculate...

he's gonna be cuckoo for clocks

Wish he were cuckoo for cocks

Is it a coincidence that Alarm Clock Jack’s new love interest is named Adelhaide aka Heidi? And isn’t Heidi Swiss, not German as previously identified? And don’t they make the best alarm clocks in Switzerland? I’m so brilliant I scare myself sometimes.

The only downstairs story line with any heft is the sparring betwixt the cunting butlers.

Vera Farmiga's sister... I don't think she has anything. I don't understand why she's an actress.

Larry's conversation with his mom was so uncomfortable to listen to, he all but said he likes older women because they know their way around the stick, with the clear implication being that Benanti ate him out after that tennis tournament.

My god, those teeth in OP’s photo. Whitening procedures were so common back then, right?

Looks like two present-day Americans playing dress up.

[quote]I don't understand why she's an actress.

It beats working for a living!

R128 I thought that was a great scene! Both of them were very convincing.

Well, it was the first time we've seen any fire and ice portrayed in this limp series, r131.

R40 obviously he’s going to figure something out and get rich off of it.

R38 agreed, no matter how effete his mannerisms are. Feels like they’re brewing something with him and Marian,

He’s not homosexual. He’s just artistic.

I don't fast-forward the downstairs scenes, but I mentally check out to the point that I didn't even realise there was a sub-plot about clocks until I read this thread.

R40, did your crew friend spoil much? Is it true Bertha and Ada starts their own band?

The band is called “the cuntessas”

R137, The Baron Cuntessas

R125 ask Fraulein Rottenmeier.

I think Alarm Clock Jack is going to make some discovery about the workings of Victorian clocks and try to get the idea patented, dream of the millions he'll make, but will have his idea stolen by some ne'er do-well played by yet another B List Broadway actor. And, his hopes dashed, it'll be back to the scullery for him in the season finale.

Seriously, though, I don't get why ACJ is so into the mousey housemaid from across the street when the adorable little Irish housemaid working right beside him is so much cuter.

I thought the Irish housemaid made it clear she wasn't interested (last season). Of course she's interested now that he's pursuing someone else.

I hope Alarm Clock Jack is reduced to presenting hole at the weekly Presenting Hole Musicale at Oscar’s gentlemen’s club.

I know this is weird, given all the different roles Christine Baranski has played over the years, but I still always think of her as Martha Mae Whovier.

[quote] Seriously, though, I don't get why ACJ is so into the mousey housemaid from across the street when the adorable little Irish housemaid working right beside him is so much cuter.

Uncle Julian is obviously recycling a less-than-scintillating storyline from Downton Abbey, in which Dreary Daisy the housemaid overlooked the dreary servants who worshipped her, and instead mooned over Unfeasibly Tall Alfred and the hotter blond one who preferred to make eyes at Thomas.

I've noticed these people don't really discuss politics much, if at all. They did that on Downton all the time. Any particular reason for that?

In america it is all about MONEY

Did it strike anyone as off that George Russell told his daughter she could marry for love? Who did that back then?

R147, I think what he meant was, you can do better than marrying a gay guy.

So the daughter knew he was gay?

The daughter knew he was ugly. But then she's no prize, either.

The daughter didn't have a clue that Oscar was gay, but George certainly knew.

That's why when he spoke with Oscar, he made a reference to what would have been a "marriage of convenience," which is one of the reasons he was against the marriage.

I don't know if George knew Oscar was gay, but he certainly knew that he was a fortune hunter.

I can’t tell if he was just saying that to get her to calm down and go to Newport so Bertha would be happy. Or if he really meant it because he had a love match with Bertha and valued it.

It’s definitely a different dog playing Pumpkin this season.

Wouldn’t it be a scandal for Aunt Ada to marry (or even court) the son of an Italian immigrant?

How lovely Oscar’s new potential wife is.

People almost never married for love back then, especially in the upper levels of society. Anyone marrying Gladys would essentially be for her money since her family doesn't have a distinguished pedigree. She could do worse than marrying someone from a moneyed, old Dutch family

We're going to buy her a duke r154. Nobody needs some "moneyed (hah!) old Dutch family."

ElderLez is alive!!! I'm glad that rumor was not true.

Yeah, where the fuck is the Duke? This show needs a posh English accent in it.

Rumors of my demise were exaggerated R156.

Is Julian Fellowes REALLY straight? Everything he writes is so camp.

[quote]That's why when he spoke with Oscar, he made a reference to what would have been a "marriage of convenience," which is one of the reasons he was against the marriage.

right, I think both he and his wife have surmised what gender oscar really likes

Would they have though?

I don't think they know Oscar is Gay. I think he just seems aimless and dissolute. Both qualities the Russells would abhor. Oscar clearly lacks ambition and seems to have no interests beyond hanging around the fringes of high society on his family's coattails. Mr. Russell is a self made man, and industrious, and BErtha is not about to have her child get involved with someone who has nothing to recommend him beyond his ancestry, especially since it is the moth eaten old guard. At least Lady Astor and Mrs. Fish seem to enjoy their lives. Can't say the same for Agnes and Ada. They have such fanatical adherence to the manners and the out dated customs of their class they must smell of mothballs.

I usually like Michael Cerveris but his storyline is super boring and I can't figure out how maintains a perfectly shaved head at all times.

Louisa Jacobson's lack of acting ability really shows in many of these scenes, though admittedly she's better than last season. At least she's not doing the same hand motion every other line. Maybe they need to give her Judy Garland drugs or something.

he's the only lead weight in the ensemble, I blame the direction which seems to feel it should be listless and alien seeming. sort of like his role in "fringe" but without actually BEING an alien race

Louisa only seems better this season because there's less of her.

indeed

The Servers storyline carries no heft because we don't know his character and we know know or care about his daughter

Can the producers really think if they cast Broadway actors the audience knows, we'll care about their story lines before we get to know their characters? This seems to have been their plan last season as well as this one.

I doubt it. I'm more informed than a flyover but less informed that a Theatre Gossip #53929384578397 hisser but I've barely of maybe a third of the Broadway ensemble. Knew Ceveris from his dreadful Peron in Evita, had heard DL going on about Donna Murphy and Kelli O'Hara. Most people aren't that informed. Check out the chatterers on Reddit. Hallmark ladies who've come up in the world. I gather they got a bunch of Broadways because they were free because of COVID. I love 'em because I don't know who most of them are. They are just their characters.

I love all the cast members.

All of them? Even the Gummer girl?

she's a wretch

Life magazine was founded the year this season takes place in, the very first rodeo was held in Texas, and the five continental time zones were instituted by US and Canadian railroads.

I wonder if they'll address the Krakatoa eruption and the Brooklyn Bridge stampede later that year. And what about the SCOTUS ruling that declared the Civil Rights Act of 1875 to be unconstitutional and thus spurred the Jim Crow laws? Will that have any implications for Peggy?

I also looked up who was president that year and I swear to god I've never heard of this Chester A. Arthur person before, yikes.

yeah, good old president arthur was a good enough reason for NOT mentioning politics

[quote]As president, Arthur presided over the rebirth of the US Navy, but he was criticized for failing to alleviate the federal budget surplus which had been accumulating since the end of the Civil War.

Failing to alleviate the budget SURPLUS, did I get that right? That sounds like the craziest shit in the world to our modern ears.

R173, Peggy should be fine as long as she doesn't go to the South. It isn't that New York didn't have racial issues, it did, but it did not have legal segregation.

and philadelphia was at that time going through a big equity surge, building schools, and colleges for black folks

Fun fact: Chester A Arthur was the attorney for Elizabeth Jennings (black woman) after she was kicked off a street car. Jennings won her lawsuit and New York city’s public transportation was desegregated. This was in the 1850s.

fascinating

Arthur was never once even a nominee for President. He took office after Garfield was shot, and then later as the incumbent he failed even to win his party's nomination.

Someone should really do a soapy period series about Black society during this era. It's fascinating. Was this the same time period that Martha's Vineyard had an established enclave of wealthy Black summer visitors? I think it's called the Ink Spot.

Hell, give the characters on GA a spin off.

He lived in Murray Hill before and after his White House years. He was a local! —could have made a cameo at a part scene.

Now it’s Curry Hill…his old building is a famous Indian market

R181 it is called The Ink Well. The Ink Spots were a singing group. I once knew some prominent wealthy Black lawyers who summered there for years.

1953 wasn’t so far from 1883

Lincoln was our tallest president. Chester Arthur was our widest.

So that's why he was so partial to coats in the images I've seen him in, to hide the girth.

I'm glad presidents don't habitually get whacked anymore, it's crazy how common that used to be.

Four times in 250 years ain’t much

Only 1 British Prime Minister was assassinated in that time period

True r189, although it was kind of a hobby in Russia.

They're currently in the middle of an economic downturn. Did that not affect George's railway business? Are his union troubles connected to that? I assume shit will fully hit the fan with the Panic of '84, which is just around the corner.

maybe poor george will have to put out then

I can’t wait for more tales of Alarm Clock Jack!

I love DL. Alarm Clock Jack is the 2nd best to come out of the GA threads, behind the Cunting Butlers.

great show.....

Oscar Wilde sure clocked John Adans and Osca van Rijn

^ ugh sorry for the typos

Oscar van Rhijn looked about 62 years old tonight.

Couldn't they have found a tall actor to play 6'3 Oscar Wilde instead of that shrimp.

I agree, R199. I was expecting Stephen Frye not Jack Black.

Funny, I was expecting a real actor, not some simpering lady-boy.

Please join us in the new thread.

(Though I’m not sure we really need to give each episode its own thread.)

The link is not taking me anywhere.

Yeah, wtf was up with that Oscar Wilde casting when you have all of the bright lights of Broadway to choose from?

Sorry .

Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley were all assassinated in the space of 36 years. It's the equivalent of Reagan and George W Bush both having been assassinated after JFK. Strange thought.

For completely unrelated reasons and political concerns. So what. Two people tried to shoot Ford! It’s still ahistorical over 250 years. That is all.

Atypical, not ahistorical. And I disagree.

I really like this show and this episode was good.

But why didn't someone tell Julian that America doesn't really have the upstairs/downstairs dynamic that the UK does? Not even during this time period. It's not really in our DNA. It's a total waste of screen time to have the help plotting and bitching like he did in DA.

It feels, well, British. Not American. Our "help" would be plotting a way up and out of that situation. Maybe the alarm clock storyline will explore that?

Julian, in America, anything was possible. Except, apparently, for you to develop a gripping story line.

[quote] It's a total waste of screen time to have the help plotting and bitching like he did in DA

R208, plotting and bitching about one’s bosses is a human trait, not an exclusively British (or US) one.

Agreed, R210. Especially bitching.

But they way in which the help does this in GA feels inauthentic. Not American at all. Which makes sense: I noticed he's written both episodes this season and Julian is very much not American.

I'm just surprised he didn't get an American historian/writer to review things. (Again, maybe the alarm clock will satisfy this. That did feel American, especially if the lad attempts to build a mousetrap.)

Americans call oils and watercolors paintings, the Brits call them pictures. For Americans pictures are photographs.

What does Morgan Spector do on this show and is it worth watching just for him?

The alarm clock story is still making me horny.

R208, if you really think about it, immigrants came to America who were poor, with very few, if any skills, and would have been very grateful to enter into service to a wealthy family. They'd get a decent place to live, and meals, and a modest salary, so it would not encourage them to leave. Especially if they were middle aged.

This show stinks.

I hope Ada’s new husband turns out to be a drunken letcher (or, considering he’s a reverend, worse) and we get misery and drama.

Morgan Spector doesn't take his clothes off nearly enough

R217 gee thanks for the spoiler on the discussion about episode two. Save it for episode in which it happens!

Do you think Ada got her lights banged out on honeymoon and, if so, Nixon was triggered during the shoot?

See, I think the reverend's secret is that he has been diagnosed with a terminal illness.

[quote]R219 gee thanks for the spoiler on the discussion about episode two. Save it for episode in which it happens!

Oh, I’m sorry. Well, that could still be revealed to be a dream… like on DALLAS. Maybe it never happened?

SPOILER:

[italic]There is no Reverend Forte.[/italic] Ada has early onset Alzheimer’s. And a penchant for laudanum.

^ Now that would be fun!

Mediocre. Some people never get enough Cosplay.

Rev's real last name is Garibaldi and he was exiled by his family.

There will be a “Mission Impossible” style face mask peeling back moment when we realize the Reverend is actually… Che Díaz!

I have just signed a contract for season three - including a very special Christmas episode - as the unsinkable Molly Brown!

Doors or Santos?

These Broadway actors are not translating to the small screen.

The alarm clock subplot is (surprisingly) failing to deliver the expected tension.

[quote]anachronistic houses

Just curious OP, how are the houses in Gilded Age anachronistic. I find them very beautiful, but dont know enough to know how accurate they are to the period

I didn't say the houses were anachronistic, r232. I said [italic]others[/italic] were complaining the houses were anachronistic.

On this first thread for this season, someone complained that though we were told in dialogue the house the Russells bought in Newport was built twenty years before the story's action in the 1860s, and that that would have been impossible because the house is built in a style that did not become popular in the USA until the 1880s.

Thanks R223. If anyone else wants to weigh in I'm curious

The rooms and hallways at the Russell house on 5th Ave. seem too enormous, even for a robber baron's home.

And that time discrepancy in the house construction totally ruins the story, doesn't it?

If anything, R235, they're barely big enough.