The Gilded Age Season 2

 Fun

The Gilded Age Season 2

I just finished watching season 2 of “The Gilded Age” and it was way over a year since I saw part I. This distance of viewing caused me some confusion over the plot, what went before before but I quickly resolved any blanks in my memory of this marvelous series. And once again I ate this one up with a silver spoon in my butter pecan Talenti Gelato.

This year is as stunning and soapy as the 1st season and is guided by Julian Fellowes who is no stranger to this kind of story and a group of several talented women who wrote and directed some of the episodes . We are still upstairs and downstairs in the two grand houses that are across the street from each other on 5th avenue and 61st in Manhattan around the spring of 1883 and culminating with the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge in spectacular fashion.

The focus is once again on two families , the Russell's who are based on several real life robber barons including Vanderbilt and Jay Gould, and the two Van Rhijn sisters who are wealthy but more simple than the Russells but just as entertaining and indeed flawed as The Russell clan. The Russell husband and wife are played well by Morgan Spector and his Lady Macbeth the great Carrie Coon whose main goal in life is to be accepted in the high society life of New York City and is really the power behind her husband’s throne. She is cold and controlling in all aspects of her high end life including the lives of her two grown children a girl and a boy.

In this season she is calculating and scheming on how to get the “new Met Opera” house built and open and to foil her arch rival Mrs. Astor who is supporting the old Academy Of Music and is played with spit and fashion by Donna Murphy, Broadway diva supreme, one of many divas in the great cast. The quieter and more  conservative Van Rhijn sisters are played by Christine Baranski (superb) and the quieter of the two women Cynthia Nixon also wonderful and who finds fleeting love in this season. Just having hours of Baranski made me swoon with joy. 

Set among the very wealthy families and like any good soap this one is filled to the brim with marvelous actors and actresses who because the show was filmed in New York City is rich with many theatre actors and many Broadway divas including Christine Baranski,  Kelli O’Hara, Donna Murphy, Audra McDonald and Nathan Lane. I was almost expecting a large musical number to break out, but the singing is not sung only acted. The supporting players are also Broadway vets and include Laura Benanti, Kristine Nielsen, Celia Keenan Bolger, Michael Cerveris and Debra Monk, all great indeed.

Once again several of the main plot sidebars concern the niece of the Van rhijn sisters, the attractive youngest daughter of Meryl Streep and the sculptor Don Gummer Louisa Jacobson and a young African American woman played well by Denee Benton who in now a newpaper reporter and the sometime secretary to Christine Baranski. It is through Benton and her upper class family that we see the plight of African Americans both in the “liberal” north and the still harsh and scary deep south which is not commonly shown in fictional tv series.

There are still hot pepper schemes and love stories both straight and gay along with some factual history of my city as it grows and becomes the great metropolis that it still is. Everything is stirred into this pot including some gay social climbers, politics, lots of back stabbing, elegant balls, lavish dinners, small and big crimes, racism, weekends at Newport and a stunning tour of New York City in the late 19th century.

Most of the production was done with digital special effects but there is some on location scenes mostly in Central Park. Digitally done is a big street set that represents 5th ave and the lavish mansions that once lined this famous avenue. Look this is not heavy drama, its a soap but a damn good one, and if you are like me you might sometimes crave this sort of thing especially when the star is a New York City long gone. This is high up there because of the performances and the lavish look and details that wash over the show. The costumes alone make this one worth watching. An eye popping elegant extravaganza. Spectacular spectacular.