Alison Herman TV Critic Amid a horrifying month in world news, it’s a relief to reenter the world of “The Gilded Age,” where problems are something to be gossiped about over lawn tennis in Newport.
In Julian Fellowes’ opulent, HBO-funded take on 19th century New York, the recently concluded Civil War takes up a fraction of the real estate devoted to the Opera War, a brewing fight for patronage and prestige between the establishment-favored Academy of Music and the upstart Metropolitan.
Can new money arriviste Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon) go head-to-head with grande dameCaroline Astor (Donna Murphy)? Can Marian Brook (Louisa Jacobson) be gainfully employed as an art teacher and maintain her prospects as a marriageable young woman?
Can Marian’s aunt Ada (Cynthia Nixon), much to the horror of her sister Agnes (Christine Baranski), serve soup at a luncheon?
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