The Gilded Age

It's so different from all of the rest of latest period dramas like Bridgerton, and even Sanditon. It's a good old period drama, where good always wins, but with enough "drama" to keep you involved and excited. The cast is nice and diverse, the wardrobe is beautiful. It's new world meets old world kinda intrigue.

And it's just nice, and doesn't make you stressed. Characters are mostly kind and good-natured, there's not a single character you truly hate. It's definitely not steamy, it very PG13 in that aspect, but it reminded me of old BBC period dramas.

Highly recommend and can't wait for the next season to arrive.

Reading some of these reviews is almost as entertaining as the show itself. Some proclaim to love Downton Abbey (which by the way also raised sensitive issues such as class, heritage and sexuality) but when it makes a small subplot in an American show - the trolls emerge proclaiming "no, no 'woke' stuff."

Anyway: The first episode is long but it does a good job of setting the stage. Love Baranski, Nixon did a fine job, Farmiga was not the right choice. Although I adore Coon as an actress (I'll never forget her performance in Leftovers), she didn't get to really flex in this role, yet.

I eagerly await the continuation and will update my rating as the season moves on. Which it will as I am sure irritates quite a few but gives the majority of us no reason for concern.

I've been waiting this for a while, especially since Fellowes mentioned it, I knew the premise could deliver a good show, and so it is. I'm giving it a 7* for the time being for I know it could be an 8 but I will reserve judgement until the end of the season.

Plus, all Fellowes' dramas are slow burners, even Downton Abbey was a bit much at first, there were dozens of characters presented at once, nothing made much sense until episode 3 so I knew what to expect on that regard but I want to make a defense, should that be the word, of this series. Aside of minor mistakes, façades not being the right stone, streets missing small details, the show presents the age rightly, especially one that was written a lot about, and mostly from a women's feud views. The men offer the backside of this, they didn't care about their wives' issues, they make business in between each other and let them manage the social side of their lives.

The show is heavily inspired from Alva Vanderbilt's takedown on Old New York, her bid on becoming socially acceptable agains Mrs Astor's 400, the Knickerbockers. Old ways vs the new way, Americans, especially Newyorkers, finding their footing in the new order where the US was beginning to be a power in its own right, and so, then, of course, the Buccaners, the most famous 3: Minnie Stevens, Jennie Jerome, and Consuelo Vanderbilt, the first 2 ones ran away from NY due to the lack of acceptance their families had, Alva was of a sterner material, first she won at home, and then she placed Consuelo as a duchess in England. Shortly after she divorced her husband, marry the love of her life, and then became an activism for women rights, vote, etc. What a woman, ha!

I also disagree with those who refer to this as woke, luckily is not, Fellowes loves to introduce these "downstairs" stories, and it is going to be one of the lines to go, so I like that, he is also usually thorough when it comes to details, I mean, don't expect seeing Peggy marrying a Vanderbilt or an Astor, he does not play with history on that regard but there will some surprise there for sure.

I hope this one follows its course, it could run for 4 season easily, and more.

The show is set during the era of the so-called 'rober barons'...incredibly wealthy men who made huge fortunes no matter what the cost to their poor employees. But the program doesn't center very much on these poor but the rich, their friends as well as their servants. The vibe is very much like "Downton Abbey" and it's written by the same man. Overall, a very satisfying and beautiful program which will likely have you longing to see more.

I really loved watching both seasons (up to now season three has not yet been released) and was ready to give the show a 10. But it is, at times, a bit predictable...but also incredibly unpredictable (such as the finale of season two). The predictability are many of the romantic relationships (particularly of the lead)...but considering how rich the characters are, I'll cut this some slack.

Downton Abbey was about upstairs/downstairs affairs in the UK, while this dramedy is about old money/new money in America.

I found the writing hilarious. It's a dry, witty drama with many laugh out loud moments, although one needs to listen closely to notice them. This is not in your face, but subtle.

The costumes are gorgeous and the acting superb, as you'd expect from HBO and the big names involved.

Some of the previous reviewers commented that they didn't like how woke the show was, but I didn't notice that. As far as I could tell, gender and race issues are treated with historical accuracy.

I love this new show and can't wait for more episodes.