Gilded Age renewed

Poor Meryl.

HaHaHa to all the complainers and naysayers that have trashed the series. I fucking love it!

Well, HBO has nothing else going on at the moment.

Right now, so much of entertainment is "let's pretend" or "act as if."

Let's pretend Gilded Age is a prestige drama series instead of a hacky piece of shit, so it shall be so!

See also:

Let's pretend The Flash is the best action movie since ... oh? OK, never mind.

Reddit is rejoicing. The only people who hate this wonderful little show are here on DL. Lucky us.

Background casting call went out today for women to play Temperance meeting attendees, it shoots July 8th.

When I hate a show, I don't watch it.

So Cynthia Nixon will be shooting this and AJLT at the same time. That's rough.

I want to know when it will air. I have watched both seasons several times. I really love it.

Good. I'll be glad when The Last of Us and White Lotus returns.

When's Season 5 of Succession?

I'm out of things to watch. I just finished Under the Bridge on Hulu. I haven't found anything on HBO, Prime, or NEtflix worth watching. So far.

[Quote] Let's pretend Gilded Age is a prestige drama series instead of a hacky piece of shit, so it shall be so!

This is the crudest gaslighting I’ve seen in a while. Bravo.

“I don’t like this show so anyone who likes it must be pretending!” Spoken like a nine year old.

Bonus points for people having to think it’s a “prestige drama series” (MARY!) in order to like it.

I'm glad it's coming back. The engagement of Gladys to the Duke of Buckingham should be very interesting to see unfold.

It's good entertainment and finding its stride, I think.

I'm assuming he's going for her money? Is the plot based on Consuelo Vanderbilt and her unhappy forced marriage?

I watched part of a couple of episodes of this series. It just seemed so second-rate.

[quote] I'm assuming he's going for her money? Is the plot based on Consuelo Vanderbilt and her unhappy forced marriage?

Yes to both questions.

I just want to see Bertha Russell suffer. I’m tired of her new money nasty winning ass.

I also hope Julian Fellowes finally has Bertha suffer next season. He's set it up so she will: Bertha is dead-set on having Gladys marry the Duke of Buckingham come hell or high water because of her social ambition, even though Gladys does not love him. Fellowes established this season that bertha's husband George wants Gladys to marry only for love. This could create genuine and lasting unhappiness between them, very unlike the fake tension caused by Bertha's former dresser throwing herself as George.

In real life, the mother of Consuelo Vanderbilt, Alva, forced her daughter to marry the Duke of Marlborough, even locking her up in her room at marble House until she agreed to the marriage. But that time Alva had already divorced Consuelo's father, William K. Vanderbilt, and had re-married another millionaire, Oliver Belmont. The Duke only married Consuelo because of her beauty and (most of all) the enormous dowry she brought that allowed him to refurbish the ancestral home which was falling apart. Alva eventually repented of her bad behavior towards her daughter and helped her escape the unhappy marriage, even testifying to how awful and coercive she had been at Consuelo's divorce proceedings.

I would actually like it if Fellowes would be bold enough to have this situation with Gladys cause her parents to divorce, but I doubt Fellowes would ever be that brave. He never goes for unhappy endings if he can possibly help it--all marriages in Downton Abbey worked out, unless the actor left the series, and then the widowed character always got a new spouse eventually.

I’m not so sure I agree with you. R19. The show has some twists and turns but it’s unabashedly sentimental, like the gilded age itself, and there’s something to be said for that.

Fags will watch anything in a frock and hat.

Gawd, Cynthia Nixon on two shows? She's really a terrible actress, but apparently what she does has an audience.

r22, it's her undeniable great beauty.

Her versatility is quite admirable.

I also enjoy the show and the attention to detail in costuming and set decoration.

[quote]The Duke only married Consuelo because of her beauty

I don't think she was a beauty, was she? She seemed quite homely in the pictures I've seen. Jenny Jerome (Churchill) was a known beauty though.

Poor Gladys, not pretty.

R19, I agree with you in terms of your plot prediction and that Fellowes doesn't have the stones to do the full Alva story. They'll take it to the edge. Gladys will escape the marriage arrangements at the very last minute. The cliffhanger may be George leaving her (a la Rhett Butler) and the following season their reunion. But the Russells are popular as a couple with fans (and amuse media) for their high sex drive so I can't see them weakening that by splitting them up. This is a melodrama, not a drama, so the human condition can only get explored so far. Gilded Age isn't Boardwalk Empire or Succession. I'm still not quite sure how the hell it landed on HBO.

(FWIW I'm still trying to work out the heavy handed dialogue between the Duke and Gladys about Faust, where she remarks about how the protagonist sold his soul for riches. The falling anvils changed from showers to a downpour. But assuming the Duke's not gonna get to ruin Gladys' life, what's the price he'll pay? I say he could wind up marrying the widowed Mrs. Turner-Winterton, for comic effect (if they can spare the character as an enemy for Bertha, though I am also minded they'll do a Harry Lehr type story between Oscar and Winterton. It's a Fellowes show. Whatever happens, it will be palatable in the end, if you like your entertainment heavy on sugar and cream. Or they could do a third alternative and the Duke is basically Robert Grantham 2.0 and he and Gladys fall in love. Uncle Julian is usually quite happy to repeat himself, so he may just take the lazy route.)

Mrs. Astor's daughter is going to marry the Duke and that will cause an explosion in the Russell household. But then the son hooks up with the girl across the street. So the Russells will like that but her Auntie won't. And let's not forget the closeted Gay son. Something always brewing there. Oh, I don't care, I just like that time period, and the costumes and the sets. The opulence, etc.

Unless you've been the lead in a Broadway show, or Meryl Streep's daughter, there is little chance to play any role on this series. There are 5-8 Broadway leading ladies in every episode.

I guess this makes it fancy!

SEX in the city - 19th century style

[quote] I don't think she was a beauty, was she? She seemed quite homely in the pictures I've seen. Jenny Jerome (Churchill) was a known beauty though.

In those days they valued long necks as a sign of beauty, and Consuelo had the longest and most beautiful neck in society.

Why do Americans love these bullshit period pieces? Is it escapism? Why can't they just get drunk like everyone else, and leave our TV screens alone?

Oh, how you do suffer, r32.

Facetious R32?

Looks like the frauest thing that ever fraued.

Hacky piece of shit, ya probably. But it’s also fun escapism, so I’ll take it.

Maybe the duke will find the gay son across the street attractive. Though there's no money there--he lost it all.

Louisa Jacobson came out! She has a gf

Oh, so it is the Gilded Age one who came out, then? I honestly can't tell her daughters apart.

I’ll be wriTing leTTers about my laTest luncheon!

R32 must not remember that Pride and Prejudice was one of the most watched limited series in the UK when it came out. It ain't just Americans, hon.

Any lesbians?

Christ, when will the torture end?

No, just homos.

Phylicia Rashad is joining!

One more reason not to watch it.

^^So is Brian Stokes Mitchell.

Can't wait for Brian Stokes Mitchel to join the cast! Will he be passing as white? A new love interest? Many possibilities if they have the balls.

Cousin Dashiell is coming out as Gay and Brian Stokes Mitchell will be his former lover comes to town, and is the catalyst for the whole coming out thing. But then Agnes's son gets in the mix and things get messy. I have no idea what Philicia Rashad will do. They have Audra and her daughter. So will Rashad be a relative? Or perhaps a f amous suffragette setting up a special school for girls?

[quote] Let's pretend Gilded Age is a prestige drama series instead of a hacky piece of shit, so it shall be so!

I think that’s why I enjoy The Gilded Age and gave up on Downton after a season. No one pretends TGA is any greater than, say, Yellowstone without the eye candy. Fellowes was pretty clear about his soapy inspirations, but Americans intimidated by all that “British Classiness” acted like it was the TV equivalent to Middlemarch.

Leslie Uggams, Merritt Wever, Andrea Martin... Also Bill Camp, who will be playing JP Morgan.

All new character descriptions in the article.

I can't wait to sing late nineteenth-century songs on this show!

"I dreamt I dwelt in marble... uh, huckadabejeepers..."

Well I'm thrilled it is returning for season 3. Great show, The dynamic between Nixon and Baranski should be fun!

They are currently filming on my street. Apparently my neighborhood is standing in for Providence. WTF?

You must live on a providential street, r54.

Tedious frock & bonnet bore that fraus and ancient kweens lap up.

I get strong gay vibes from Ben Ahlers, Harry Richardson and the guy who played Marian's jilter in R1, Thomas Cocquerel.

Who's had them?

I get gay vibes from the whole cast

I get 100% straight vibes from Ahlers' Insta, he just has a faggy face.

As for Richardson... yeah, he a theatre queen.

Leslie Uggams? Huckada bejeepers!

John Singer Sargent has been cast! He will be played by a *very* handsome guy.

The costumes on that show are wonderful.