Imagine a show starring the greatest American stage actors, all dressed in literal works of art, arguing about the seating plan at a dinner party as if it’s life or death. If that sounds like heaven to you — and it does to me — then The Gilded Age is back on HBO for its fourth and finest season.
Opening Shot: A horse-led carriage races through a forest in the dead of night. When it arrives at a stately English manor house, we learn that it’s carrying a doctor who has just arrived in the nick of time to save a life.
The Gist: The Gilded Age is HBO’s super expensive period drama set during one of the most wildly wealthy times in American history. After the Civil War, industrialists, inventors, and robber barons accumulated an insane amount of money in a short amount of time. It radically upended the old class system and accelerated all sorts of social change.
Season 4 of The Gilded Age follows several soap-y storylines unfolding in the privileged parlors of New York’s elite. Estranged from husband George (Morgan Spector), Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon) is in England to watch over her pregnant daughter Gladys (Taissa Farmiga) — now a Duchess. Meanwhile, the Russell’s eldest son Larry (Harry Richardson) takes advantage of a major social event to try and rekindle his Season 3 romance with Marian Brook (Louisa Jacobson). Peggy Scott (Denée Benton) is more excited about her first book being published than she is in picking lace for her wedding gown and Aunt Agnes (Christine Baranski) is obsessed with preparations for a dinner she is hosting for the President of the United States.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? We’ve long-maintained that The Gilded Age is a spiritual cousin to its co-creator Julian Fellowes’s massive hit Downton Abbey. Both shows feel prestigious thanks to their talented cast and creatives, but the storylines are pure melodrama.
Our Take: Look, is The Gilded Age the best show on television? No, it’s far from the best show that’s aired on HBO this year. That said, it is the best escapist entertainment on TV today.
As we wrote in our official DECIDER review, “The Gilded Age might veer into melodrama with abandon, but that’s because it knows we’re here to be comforted, not challenged. The Gilded Age‘s fourth season understands its brief to a tee. Season 4 is the HBO hit at its most confident: a killer mix of high class craftsmanship and old school camp.”
Yes, there are moments that could feel just as home in a tawdry nighttime soap, but The Gilded Age presents these wild twists with utter conviction and gorgeous visuals.
Performance Worth Watching: It’s really hard not to think of Carrie Coon as the show’s MVP — her Bertha is a rare mix of ruthless ambition and tender love — but this season, Kelley Curran gets upgraded to the main cast and it’s obvious why. Her Enid Winterton started off as Bertha’s scheming maid and now is a scene-stealing power player enjoying the prime of her life. She’s a delight!
Sex And Skin: While there’s no nudity, there are allusions to sex and one very scandalous (for the time period) tryst at a downtown hotel that takes place almost completely off screen.
Parting Shot: After narrowly surviving being shot in Season 2, George Russell discovers that the Pinkerton detectives he’s hired to track his would-be assassin have narrowed in on a suspect. Agents run through a poor neighborhood, moving into position to take this attacker down.
Our Call: STREAM IT! The Gilded Age remains one of the most well-executed primetime dramas on television and hits the ground running with some massive (spoiler-y) developments in Episode 1!
Meghan O’Keefe is Senior Critic at Decider.
