The Gilded Age

[GreekGod]

Anyone watched the first episode ? The US Downton Abbey set in New York in 1882.

Everyone keeps calling it the "US Downton" I loved it. I think possibly even more than Downton.

I would if it really was like that then in New York ie Old Money - v - New Money and the snobbery that came with that

@AcrossthePond55 - post away , we are discussing episode 3

@Weekendssuck I am watching on sky Atlantic

[quote GreekGod]@AcrossthePond55 - post away , we are discussing episode 3[/quote]
Cool!

I am in love with the wine glasses used in the Russell house. I really want them!

I've only watched the first two episodes and I really want to like it. I loved Downton, but this isn't really doing it for me yet.

One of the things I find distractingly unrealistic is the friendship between a rich white, upper class woman (albeit her aunt's wealth) and a black woman from Harlem. I realise they're in the North, but this is fewer than 20 years post civil war.

I like the way the Russell's relationship is unfolding. It appears to be a a true love match and that they rose from rags to riches together. Even though it had a horrible effect, I liked the way he risked everything to get what he wanted and that she stood by him ("We made one fortune together, we can make another"). I really expected to dislike them as 'parvenus' but I'm rooting for them.

I'll tell you what pisses me off though, and has happened IRL too; the way these cowardly men who have lost their fortunes commit suicide and leave their wives and children bereft and helpless. All those who tried to double cross Russell took that chance and lost. Be a real man, face your failure and deal with it.

@derekthe1adyhamster

I am in love with the wine glasses used in the Russell house. I really want them!

Give it some time and then google, better if you can freeze-frame and capture an image and image search.

I found the gorgeous china used by the Crawleys that way.

@AcrossthePond55 I felt exactly the same - how bloody dare that man leave his wife and children to deal with the mess he created! Arsehole.

@hennybeans

I've only watched the first two episodes and I really want to like it. I loved Downton, but this isn't really doing it for me yet.

One of the things I find distractingly unrealistic is the friendship between a rich white, upper class woman (albeit her aunt's wealth) and a black woman from Harlem. I realise they're in the North, but this is fewer than 20 years post civil war.

I'm afraid I agree with you, although it wasn't completely unknown there were usually extenuating circumstances in these friendships. It also would have been very unusual for a black woman to have befriended a white woman at the train station, let alone paid her fare and for the white woman to sit in the 'black' train car. Chances are, they wouldn't even have been sitting on the same bench at the station in the first place.

But I prefer to put these things in the 'suspension of disbelief' category and just ignore the anachronism.

I absolutely love it!

I think the point though is that Marian Brook is in fact penniless (she is not an upper class white woman) and if it wasn't for her aunt, then she'd be working

But yes, completely understand your points about their friendship

i don't like the lawyer who is chasing her though - something off about him

@GreekGod

I think the point though is that Marian Brook is in fact penniless (she is not an upper class white woman) and if it wasn't for her aunt, then she'd be working

But yes, completely understand your points about their friendship

i don't like the lawyer who is chasing her though - something off about him

Marian would still be considered 'upper class by right of birth' into an old family, just as a penniless peer is still a peer. But her connection to and living with the 'monied' Van Rhijns make her (and Aunt Ada) 'socially acceptable'. If they weren't, they wouldn't be given the 'cut direct' if met on the street, but they wouldn't be invited to any 'social events'.

I agree with you on the lawyer. I think he's a gold-digger AND I think he's going to try and 'compromise' her so that Mrs Van R will have to permit a marriage or face social embarrassment. And he hopes that Mrs Van R wouldn't want her niece to live 'in poverty'.

@AcrossthePond55 - i see your point re upperclass and just like the young Van R tying to "compromise" the young Ms Russell but something tells me Bertha is going to stop that happening..

[quote GreekGod]@AcrossthePond55 - i see your point re upperclass and just like the young Van R tying to "compromise" the young Ms Russell but something tells me Bertha is going to stop that happening..[/quote]
Agree. And he may want to think again before crossing either of the Russells after the RR station debacle.

Enjoyed last night's episode.
I must admit it never occurred to me that the lawyer was anything but sincere but it's a good point. He was very forward.
It's taken me three episodes to commit as I am such a Downton fan.but I am all I now!

@AcrossthePond55 ah I thought exactly the same at the end of the latest episode! There he was, gazing sadly at a photo of his family, but more bothered about saving himself from humiliation and penury than their feelings or security or future.

I've just watched the 3rd episode - loving it! Think it's great - the costumes are fab!

[quote SilverGlassHare]@AcrossthePond55 ah I thought exactly the same at the end of the latest episode! There he was, gazing sadly at a photo of his family, but more bothered about saving himself from humiliation and penury than their feelings or security or future.[/quote]
Absolutely. What a shit.

I do hope they show what happens to the wife and children.

@AcrossthePond55 it first airs at 2am here (so I'm assuming at the same time as the US) and then again at 9pm the next night so you may want to give us a day's grace that said I record it at 2am and watch it at lunchtime when DD has a nap so have watched it before the 'normal' 9pm showing.

I'm really enjoying it too. I can get lost in the costumes and the drama.

[quote KatieKat88]@AcrossthePond55 it first airs at 2am here (so I'm assuming at the same time as the US) and then again at 9pm the next night so you may want to give us a day's grace that said I record it at 2am and watch it at lunchtime when DD has a nap so have watched it before the 'normal' 9pm showing.[/quote]
2 am London is 6pm 'my time', so episode 'drop' time is the same.

I normally don't post anything until someone else already has so I don't inadvertently spoil things, lol.

[quote SilverGlassHare]@AcrossthePond55 ah I thought exactly the same at the end of the latest episode! There he was, gazing sadly at a photo of his family, but more bothered about saving himself from humiliation and penury than their feelings or security or future.[/quote]
I was shouting at the TV "you reap what you sow, you selfish old fool".

I'm way too invested in this programme lol

Am loving it. Can watch Christine Baranski and Carrie Coon all day. Also George Russell is very attractive. The hats are so entertainingly ridiculous as well.

@NurseButtercup

Nah, it's not being too invested, it's because we know that we'd NEVER do that. We'd sell our bodies in order to keep our families from starving.

A friend and I were talking about this. You hear of distraught women taking their lives because of a man. But if it's a distraught man, it's more likely over money. Purely non-scientific speculation of course.

Disliked episode 1. Think was the script. Too obviously lifted from Fellowes’ Downton formula.

Liked the costumes and scenery a lot, also most of the actors, apart from the ‘nouveau riche’ woman who thought was wooden and no chemistry between her the actor playing her H.