The Gilded Age - seems really bad day time tv - should I stick with it?

[IwantToRetire]

The Gilded Age is currently on offer free on my tv package.

So I thought well its free so I'll start watching.

I barely got through the first episode.

It is so badly written. Or maybe the script is AI generated from old Downton expisodes.

Does it improve as it develops?

Or is just the opportunity for oppulent clothes and houses?!

I like "historical" dramas but find this hard to take seriously.

It must be popular as a 3rd series in starting in June.

Maybe that is why 1 & 2 are being shown for free, to get people to subscribe for when the 3rd series is released.

Keep with it, I found it really improves after the first 2-3 episodes, and then continues to get better.

I loved it. DH and I are looking forward to the 3rd series.

I love it. I watch it straight through twice. First time for the story and the second time to look at the clothes and furnishings. It's not Downton. There are no aristos, no royalty, no entail.

It’s fabulous- stick with it. But it’s definitely not ever going to be deep and riveting. Light storylines, occasional upperclass peril, and the most amazing houses and dresses.

Pure escapism.

I think that is what I have been struggling with (dont forget I am still on episode 1) all this about the Old New Yorkers and the New ones, is bit like a class thing.

But I suppose it is as much about old money and new money.

Although funnily enough I usually find Christine Baranski a bit mannered in other series I've seen, but here when she could have played it like that, is very understated, but convincing.

I think it is the below stairs that just seeems like a copy of Downton.

Well I shall use it as that as I watch far too many depressing and sad stories!

@IwantToRetire It is written by Julian Fellowes, so there will be a similar feeling about it. It's America post Civil War, in the midst of what is called laissez-faire capitalism. Vast wealth disparities, but, a person with a good idea and lots of luck could make massive amounts of money. They make the point that the "Russells" (stand in for the Vanderbilts) were from "Irish potato picker" backgrounds and now have more "money than God." It is "old" money v. "new" money, but it's only money from 100-200 years ago. Not like the British, where the money could be from 500-1000 years.

It is written by Julian Fellowes

I dont know why but I thought he had just had the idea for the show and someone else had written it.

But I suppose that he probably doesn't have the same lived experience of class / money divide in the US as class in the UK that he mostly does really well.

I wonder if they had someone from an old money back ground advising on those little indications.

Of course it could be that's it me that doesn't get the US inferences that I can pick up on in Downton.

eg hadn't realised the Russells were Irish heritage.

I think the timing suggests that the Russell families came during/after the Great Famine. The show starts in 1882, about 17 years after the end of the Civil War. So their families might have been in the US for as much as 30 years.

I've watched a few more now, and am finding it a bit clunky.

More like Fellowes just took bits from Downton scripts.

But am impressed by what I believe are called "production" values!

And at first was confused because I always thought the bustle was a turn of the century style, but now find it was more 1880s.

They did do a lot of research and remember, this series starts 30 years before Downton (1882 v. 1912.) I have been in those "summer cottages" in Newport, RI and took my Welsh friends there. They said they were just like the stately homes, except brand new, other than all the furnishings, paintings, tapestries they bought from European homes and castles.

This series starts 30 years before Downton (1882 v. 1912.)

And no doubt England in 1882 upper class would have had as many rules!

I meant more that the script is using the type of story lines from Downton (not me getting confused about bustles).

Especially the odd coincident that allowed someone from a minority group to be part of a story line about an elite group (whether new or old!).

Would have been interesting to have had parallel story lines which occassionally crossed.

Anyhow, have accepted it is as much about style and substance!

But also glas as this has led to the fact that Mark Twain wrote a novel with another writer called the Gilded Age which I presume the tv seeries is loosely based on, though clearly the novel is more overtly political and not so much about society rules. Have found it is on Audible so will listen to it later.

Should say thanks to all who have posted.

Sometimes I think I am a bit stubborn about accepting the storyline as written rather than the one I would have liked it to have.

@IwantToRetire Do you have the new series of The Gilded Age yet? It just started last week for us.

Thanks yes. I wasn't expecting it as I am not a Sky subscriber, so not sure how that happened.

I did in fact watch all of both series 1 & 2, as light relief.

Towards the end of the second series it was a bit like they were going over the top to cram in as many story lines as possible.

Trying a bit to hard to secure series 3? Well it worked?