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The Gilded Age (TV series)

American historical drama television series From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Gilded Age (TV series)
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The Gilded Age is an American historical drama television series created and written by Julian Fellowes for HBO that is set in the United States during the Gilded Age, the boom years of the 1880s in New York City. Originally announced in 2018 for NBC, it was later announced in May 2019 that the show was moved to HBO.[1] The first season premiered on January 24, 2022,[2] and the second on October 29, 2023.[3] In December 2023, the series was renewed for a third season,[4] which premiered on June 22, 2025.[5][6][7] In July 2025, the series was renewed for a fourth season.[8]

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The series has received positive reviews, with particular praise for the costumes and performances of lead actors Carrie Coon, Morgan Spector, Cynthia Nixon, and Christine Baranski. At the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards, the second season received six nominations, including Outstanding Drama Series and acting nods for Coon and Baranski.

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Synopsis

The series follows Marian Brook, a young woman entering 1882 New York City's rigid social scene who is drawn into daily conflicts surrounding the new money Russell family and her old money van Rhijn-Brook family. The two are neighbors across 61st Street near Fifth Avenue on the Upper East Side of New York. The series explores conflicts of new money (who made their money through industrialism), old money (who have inherited wealth), the African-American upper class, and the domestic workers in service to the other three groups.

Numerous social and legal aspects of the age appear as subplots and themes, including the robber barons, the rise of organized labor, the social and legal power of women, the temperance movement, and the (then) scandal of divorce.

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Cast and characters

Main

  • Carrie Coon as Bertha Russell, the matriarch of the Russell family, a "new money" family made rich by her husband George, a railroad tycoon. Bertha is determined to use her money and position to break into polite society that resists change at every turn.
  • Morgan Spector as George Russell, Bertha's husband, and a classic robber baron He is pleasant in company, but his utter ruthlessness in business has led to him acquiring millions, and is determined to win every challenge.
  • Louisa Jacobson as Marian Brook, the orphaned niece of Agnes van Rhijn and Ada Forte who comes to live with her estranged aunts at East 61st Street following the death of her father. Through her paternal family, she descends from old money New York.
  • Denée Benton as Peggy Scott, An ambitious African American woman who works as Agnes van Rhijn's secretary. She attended the prestigious Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia and wants to become a successful journalist and writer.
  • Taissa Farmiga as Gladys Vere, Duchess of Buckingham (née Russell), Gladys is the younger child and only daughter of the Russell family, she grew up sheltered, under her mother's tight control. Gladys is married to Hector Vere, 5th Duke of Buckingham.
  • Harry Richardson as Larry Russell, son of Bertha and George Russell, a recent Harvard University graduate eager to make his way in the world, he is engaged to Marian Brook.
  • Blake Ritson as Oscar van Rhijn, Agnes's intelligent and charismatic son who is looking for a rich heiress to guarantee him a proper standard of living and act as a shield for his homosexuality
  • Thomas Cocquerel as Tom Raikes (season 1), a sensible young lawyer, smitten when he meets Marian Brook, his late client's young adult daughter
  • Simon Jones as Mr. Alfred Bannister, the Van Rhijns' self-aggrandizing English butler who keeps the rest of the staff in check
  • Jack Gilpin as Mr. Church, the Russell family's butler, a supporter of Mrs. Russell, excelling at his job
  • Cynthia Nixon as Ada Forte (née Brook), is the younger sister of Agnes van Rhijn and comes from the Pennsylvanian Brook Family through her father and from the New Yorker Livingston Family through her mother. Prior to her marriage, she lived as a companion to her widowed sister in the Van Rhijn matriarch's Manhattan brownstone home.
  • Christine Baranski as Agnes van Rhijn (née Brook), is the widowed matriarch of the Van Rhijn Family, an old money Dutch-American family from New York. She is a proud and stubborn socialite who clings to the values of the old having descended from the Brook and Livingston families. Mrs. Van Rhijn is the mother of Oscar van Rhijn.
  • Ben Ahlers as John "Jack" Trotter (seasons 2–present; recurring: season 1), footman of the Van Rhijn household
  • Michael Cerveris as Mr. Watson (season 2; recurring: season 1), George Russell's valet with a mysterious past
  • Celia Keenan-Bolger as Mrs. Bruce (seasons 2–present; recurring: season 1), the Russells' housekeeper
  • Debra Monk as Mrs. Armstrong (seasons 2–present; recurring: season 1), Mrs. Van Rhijn's catty lady's maid
  • Donna Murphy as Caroline Schermerhorn Astor (seasons 2–present; recurring: season 1), a prominent American socialite and de facto leader of the elite group of New York society known as "The Four Hundred"
  • Kristine Nielsen as Mrs. Bauer (seasons 2–present; recurring: season 1), Mrs. Van Rhijn's kindly cook, a German immigrant from Hanover who takes young Bridget under her wing
  • Kelli O'Hara as Aurora Fane (seasons 2–present; recurring: season 1), Agnes's niece by marriage, who helps both Marian Brook and Mrs. Russell break into society
  • Patrick Page as Richard Clay (seasons 2–present; recurring: season 1), George Russell's loyal secretary
  • Taylor Richardson as Bridget (seasons 2–present; recurring: season 1), the Van Rhijn housemaid, troubled by an abusive past
  • Douglas Sills as Monsieur Baudin (seasons 2–present; recurring: season 1), chef to the Russell household who initially presents himself as French before it is revealed that he is Josh Borden from Wichita, Kansas
  • John Douglas Thompson as Arthur Scott (seasons 2–present; recurring: season 1), Peggy's father, a well-to-do pharmacist and pillar of the Black elite
  • Erin Wilhelmi as Adelheid Weber (seasons 2–present; recurring: season 1), a German immigrant from Berlin, Gladys Russell's lady's maid
  • Kelley Curran as Mrs. Enid Winterton (née Turner) (seasons 2–present; recurring: season 1), Bertha's ambitious lady's maid, who does not intend to be a servant forever. She is fired by Mrs. Russell but later re-emerges as the much younger wife of a rich widower
  • Sullivan Jones as T. Thomas Fortune (seasons 2–present; recurring: season 1), publisher of the weekly New York Globe
  • Ben Lamb as Hector Vere, 5th Duke of Buckingham (season 3; recurring: season 2)

Recurring

Guest

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Episodes

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Season 1 (2022)

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Season 2 (2023)

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Season 3 (2025)

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Production

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Development

In September 2012, The Daily Telegraph reported Julian Fellowes as saying that he was working on a spin-off prequel of Downton Abbey. Initially conceived as a book, it was then planned for pick-up by ITV. At the time, Fellowes planned to focus the show around Lord Grantham and Cora's romance and eventual marriage as the Earl and Countess of Grantham.[31]

Production and writing for The Gilded Age was updated in January 2016. Asked whether he'd written the script yet, Fellowes said, 'No I haven't, no. I'm doing that this year', before adding: 'And then hopefully shooting at the end of the year.'"[32]

On June 4, 2016, Fellowes was asked by the Los Angeles Times, "Where does The Gilded Age stand?" Fellowes replied, "It stands really with me up to my neck in research, and I'm clearing the decks, so that when I start Gilded Age, I'm only doing Gilded Age. These people were extraordinary. You can see why they frightened the old guard, because they saw no boundaries. They wanted to build a palace, they built a palace. They wanted to buy a yacht, they bought a yacht. And the old guard in New York weren't like that at all, and suddenly this whirlwind of couture descended on their heads. They redesigned being rich. They created a rich culture that we still have—people who are rich are rich in a way that was established in America in the 1880s, '90s, 1900s. It was different from Europe. Something like Newport would never have happened in any other country, where you have huge palaces, and then about 20 yards away, another huge palace, and 20 yards beyond that another huge palace. In England right up to the 1930s, when people made good money, they would buy an estate of 5,000 acres and they'd have to look after Nanny. The Americans of the 1880s and '90s didn't want too much of that."[33]

The final confirmation the show would be produced was announced by NBC in January 2018.[34] NBC originally announced that the show would consist of ten episodes and premiere in 2019.[34][35] About the show, Fellowes stated: "To write The Gilded Age is the fulfillment of a personal dream, I have been fascinated by this period of American history for many years and now NBC has given me the chance to bring it to a modern audience. I could not be more excited and thrilled. The truth is, America is a wonderful country with a rich and varied history, and nothing could give me more pleasure than be the person to bring that compelling history to the screen."[36]

In May 2019, the series moved from NBC to HBO, with a straight to series order.[37] The series premiered on January 24, 2022, and consists of nine episodes.[2]

On February 14, 2022, HBO renewed the series for a second season.[3]

On December 21, 2023, HBO renewed the series for a third season.[4]

On July 28, 2025, HBO renewed the series for a fourth season.[8]

Casting

In September 2019, the production announced an initial cast consisting of Christine Baranski, Cynthia Nixon, Amanda Peet, and Morgan Spector.[38]

In November 2019, it was announced that Denée Benton, Louisa Jacobson, Taissa Farmiga, Blake Ritson, and Simon Jones would be joining the show.[39] In January 2020, Harry Richardson, Thomas Cocquerel, and Jack Gilpin were cast as series regulars, with Jeanne Tripplehorn cast in a recurring role.[40][41]

In April 2020, Carrie Coon was cast as Bertha Russell to replace Peet because of delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.[42] This caused the costuming team to change their approach, using the way Coon presents herself as inspiration for more metallic-colored dresses intended to evoke the burgeoning machine age.[43]

In January 2021, Nathan Lane joined the cast in a recurring role.[44]

In April 2022, it was announced several members of the recurring cast had been upgraded to series regular status for the second season while Cocquerel will exit the series.[45]

In August 2024, Bill Camp, Merritt Wever, Leslie Uggams, LisaGay Hamilton, Jessica Frances Dukes, Andrea Martin, Hattie Morahan and Paul Alexander Nolan were cast to join the third season.[46]

In November 2024, Dylan Baker, Kate Baldwin, Michael Cumpsty, John Ellison Conlee, Bobby Steggert, and Hannah Shealy were cast to join the third season.[47]

Filming

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Following the move to HBO, the series was expected to begin filming in March 2020,[48][49] before the COVID-19 pandemic delayed production.

Filming of the series began in Newport, Rhode Island in February 2021, at the mansions Chateau-sur-Mer, The Elms, and The Breakers.[50] A casting call for Rhode Islanders to work as extras on the series was made in December 2020 prior to the production setting up in the city.[51]

In April 2021, filming continued at the Lyndhurst mansion in Tarrytown, New York and the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, New York. In May 2021, filming continued in Troy, New York in its Central Troy Historic District, where multiple city blocks were transformed to resemble a Victorian era street.[52]

During filming, a horse died on set and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals asked for an investigation.[53] HBO subsequently issued a statement confirming the death in late June, saying, "a horse collapsed and died, likely of natural causes, according to a veterinarian's preliminary findings."[54]

Filming for season two began in August 2022 at various locations around White Plains, New York, including Manhattanville College's Reid Hall,[55] which was used for various locations, including offices, a home parlor and an art gallery/museum. Reid Hall was designed by Stanford White and built in 1892 for the family of newspaper publisher and diplomat, Whitelaw Reid.

Other New York locations included Albany, Cohoes, Troy and on Long Island, and the series also filmed in Philadelphia. Scenes set at Susan Blane's home were filmed at Kingscote in Newport.[56][57] The street backlot is near to Old Bethpage, New York in Long Island.[58]

The third season started filming in July 2024.[59]

On May 21, 2021, the American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada (AFM) filed a charge for unfair labor practices against HBO and its Gilded Age production. The union claimed musicians were fired after asking they be represented by AFM.[60] Two days later HBO agreed to cover the members "on an AFM basis".[61]

Real-life events

Although The Gilded Age is a work of fiction, Julian Fellowes worked to accurately represent certain realities of the time period.[62]

Caroline Schermerhorn Astor, also known as "The" Mrs. Astor, ruled New York society in the late nineteenth century. Descending from Dutch settlers, the "knickerbocker" married relatively new money William Backhouse Astor Jr. At the time the series takes place, Astor (Donna Murphy) and her husband are largely estranged. Dismayed by the chaos caused by the end of the Civil War and the rise of new money, and armed with her own distinguished lineage and her husband's fortune, she became the gatekeeper to high society.[63] She and her associate Ward McAllister (Nathan Lane) decreed that members of respectable society must be separated by at least three generations from the origin of the family fortune, as she herself was. McAllister, Mrs. Astor's right-hand man, spent years across the Atlantic absorbing culture, details of European courts, and society news. Although some recognized his devotion to preserving elegance and tradition, others[who?] saw him as an unapologetic snob.[citation needed]

Two characters, Bertha and George Russell (Carrie Coon and Morgan Spector), appear to be at least partly based on the formidable Alva and William K. Vanderbilt. Alva Erskine Vanderbilt (later Alva Belmont) came from a wealthy Mobile, Alabama, family that lost its money after the Civil War. Determined to regain her social status, she married a scion of the immensely wealthy Vanderbilt family in 1875, but the Vanderbilts were considered too "new money" by Caroline Astor and were largely ignored. In order to ascend to the upper echelons of society, Alva Vanderbilt set out to impress Caroline Astor. Among her strategies, she hired society architect Richard Morris Hunt to build a luxurious mansion on Fifth Avenue, then hosted an enormous, extravagant ball for 1,000 as a "house-warming". The details of the festivities were leaked in advance to the press, and young society waited breathlessly for the upcoming ball — including Caroline Astor's daughter, Carrie. Caroline Astor was forced to call on Alva Vanderbilt to ensure her daughter received an invitation. The ball was a success and the family was accepted into New York high society.[64]

Other historical figures who appear in the series include President Chester A. Arthur (Randall Passman), Clara Barton (Linda Emond), founder of the American Red Cross, and T. Thomas Fortune (Sullivan Jones), a man born into slavery who would become one of the leading Black journalists of his day. In his editorials, he wrote passionately about civil rights and denounced racial segregation and discrimination. He also helped found a predecessor to the NAACP, the Afro-American League.[65][66]

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Release

The series premiered on January 24, 2022, on HBO and HBO Max. In Australia, Paramount+ acquired the series as a "Paramount+ Exclusive", premiering on January 26, 2022. This also marks the first time a recent HBO series has skipped Foxtel in Australia, premiering on a non-Foxtel service as Foxtel has an output deal for HBO shows.[67]

Home media

The first season was released on DVD, on July 26, 2022.[68]

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Reception

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Critical response

Season 1

On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the first season of The Gilded Age holds an approval rating of 79% based on 76 reviews, with an average rating of 6.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Julian Fellowes' brand of upstairs, downstairs intrigue makes a seamless transatlantic transition in The Gilded Age, with an outstanding cast making the travails of the rich a compelling watch."[69] Metacritic assigned the season a score of 68 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[70]

Linda Holmes of NPR praised the series as "sharp and well-cast", noting that while it shares similarities with Downton Abbey, it distinguishes itself by focusing on the dynamics between old and new money in 1882 New York City.[71]

Conversely, Lucy Mangan of The Guardian criticized the show, describing it as "sheer agony" and questioning the quality of its dialogue and character development.[72]

Season 2

The second season received a higher approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, standing at 94% based on 31 reviews, with an average rating of 7.3/10. The site's critical consensus states: "More topical than before while also owning its frivolous appeal with unapologetic splendor, Julian Fellowes' operatic soap enters its own halcyon age."[73] On Metacritic, the season has a score of 73 out of 100, based on 21 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[74]

Kaiya Shunyata of RogerEbert.com commended the season for allowing its sprawling cast to shine, particularly highlighting Carrie Coon's performance as Bertha Russell.[75] Kristen Baldwin of Entertainment Weekly described the season as "opulent, over-the-top escapism", appreciating its lavish production and melodramatic storytelling.[76]

However, Chitra Ramaswamy of The Guardian offered a more critical view, noting that while the show is visually impressive, it lacks the sharpness and wit expected from such a period drama.[77]

Season 3

For the third season, Rotten Tomatoes reported an 95% approval rating based on 34 reviews. The site's critical consensus is: "Providing its gleaming ensemble with some of their juiciest material yet, The Gilded Age's tongue is still firmly in cheek but finds itself with plenty new to say."[78] Metacritic assigned the season a score of 73 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[79]

Accolades

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Notes

  1. This episode was first shown at the Tribeca Festival on June 12, 2025.[22][23]
  2. Nominees: Julian Fellowes, Gareth Neame, David Crockett, Michael Engler, Sonja Warfield, Salli Richardson Whitfield, Robert Greenblatt, Erica Armstrong Dunbar, Claire M. Shanley, Holly Rymon

References

External links

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