The so-called Gilded Age of the late 19th century was an American phenomenon and manifested itself most ostentatiously in New York, where Mr. Fellowes has situated his nine-part drama—specifically on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, even more specifically at East 61st Street and Fifth Avenue. That is where the Russells, George and Bertha , are about to move into their new home, a Robber Baron’s monstrosity just off Central Park.
Enter the ingénue. Even though Mr. Fellowes borrows most blatantly from himself—“The Gilded Age” is a colonial “Downton Abbey,” which was a kind of prequel to the ’30s-era “Gosford Park”—he also shoplifts from the best, including George Eliot, Charlotte Brontë and, more appropriately, Edith Wharton and Theodore Dreiser.
Thanks to the weather and a few torturous plot twists, Peggy also ends up at the home of Marian’s aunts, and Agnes is sage enough to see the young woman’s potential, hires her as a secretary and gives her a room in her opulent abode. The adventures of Peggy and Marian will involve unsuitable suitors, upward mobility and Marian’s education, per Agnes, about who is who and what is what, and what is unacceptable in both behavior and humans.
Because he works with types—types he himself has established in his various programs—Mr. Fellowes can move the narrative along its track without sacrificing dialogue to the inconvenience of character development. We know who these people are. They’re clichés—not unpleasant but wholly unsurprising. While the show is ostensibly the story of the very bland Marian and the improbable Peggy, the real drama resides in the Russells, who are the least believable characters in the series. Mr.
There are subplots aplenty, both upstairs and down: the Irish scullery maid being wooed by the footman; the scheming lady’s maid, Turner , who has worked for better people than the Russells but still climbs into George’s bed one night. With a cast that includes Linda Emond, Donna Murphy, Taissa Farmiga, Audra McDonald and Bill Irwin, the series really belongs to Ms. Baranski, though, who while considerably younger than Maggie Smith, serves the same role here as Ms.
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