The Gilded Age's Weird Appeal - How it Made "Boring" Fascinating - video Dailymotion

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00:00HBO's The Gilded Age initially got off to a pretty rocky start,

00:04with its feature-length pilot getting panned by critics and audiences alike,

00:08and that was after almost a decade of struggle to get the show to the screen in the first place.

00:13But then something weird happened. Even with all of its faults,

00:16there was just something about the show that kept viewers coming back.

00:20I'm not concerned with facts. Not if they interfere with my beliefs.

00:24Let's take a quick look at the special magic that's helped the show to create its own cult following

00:29and the important lesson that studios should learn from its success. Here's our take.

00:34Initially announced way back in 2012 as an attempt at an American version of Downton Abbey,

00:40the Gilded Age hit a number of roadblocks on its way to our screens.

00:44After struggling in development hell for years, creator and writer Julian Fellows,

00:48who was also notably the creator of Downton Abbey, decided some changes needed to be made.

00:53Initially, the show was set to follow the story of the real-life Vanderbilt family,

00:57but Fellows eventually decided that focusing on real people was too restricting,

01:02and decided to create fictional families whose story he had complete control over instead.

01:07She thanks you for the letter that you did not show me,

01:10and for the tickets that you purchased without my knowledge.

01:14What a relief.

01:14A relief?

01:16And who is to support her?

01:18Exactly. Me.

01:19The show was first meant to be on NBC, and was even given a green light in 2018,

01:24but eventually everyone involved realized that the show might be just a bit too much for NBC's budget,

01:30and so HBO swooped in.

01:32Production was finally ready to begin in March of 2020.

01:37Everything of course shut down, and the show was set back yet again.

01:40But after the production halt ended, the Gilded Age was at last on its way.

01:45Set in New York City's Upper East Side during the Gilded Age,

01:48the period of the late 1800s in which the US saw a boom of economic growth thanks to industrialization.

01:54I don't think we should be afraid of new things, or new people.

01:58During this period, many of the country's already wealthy families got even wealthier,

02:02while new titans of industry sprung up, capturing their own riches,

02:06leading to a split between old money and new money.

02:10Charity has two functions in our world, my dear.

02:13The first is to raise funds for the less fortunate.

02:15The second is to provide a ladder for people to climb into society who do not belong there.

02:20The Gilded Age illustrates this divide through the Russells,

02:23a new money family spearheaded by matriarch Bertha,

02:26who is determined to break into New York high society,

02:29and the Van Rynes, whose matriarch Agnes is not at all happy

02:33about new players trying to break into her world.

02:36Now you need to know, we only receive the old people in this house,

02:41not the new, never the new.

02:43Importantly, the show also features other points of view, like Peggy, an African-American writer,

02:49as well as a number of people working in the Russell and Van Rynes households.

02:52This is important because while during this period the rich did get richer,

02:56and a handful of people were able to claw their way into wealth,

03:00for large swaths of society, the Gilded Age was a time of increasing struggle and poverty.

03:06The show was not an immediate success.

03:08The nearly hour-and-a-half pilot to many felt slow,

03:10and to be honest, kind of boring.

03:12And much of the rest of the first season followed suit.

03:15Some characters weren't nearly engaging enough to get as much screen time as they did,

03:19and much of the pilot was rather tedious,

03:22only occasionally punctuated by real drama or intrigue.

03:25This isn't a society squabble, since Mrs. Russell is not in society.

03:32What an interesting moment for me to arrive.

03:34As David Mack wrote for Slate,

03:36the Gilded Age was supposed to be a juicy soap opera

03:39about the fierce battle between New York's old money and its new.

03:42But to call it a soap opera would be to suggest that something, anything, happened.

03:47It was, to put it rudely, a total snooze.

03:50But be that as it may, as David and many others have noted,

03:53there was just something that kept viewers coming back week after week,

03:57with views actually increasing over the season.

04:00So how did a show that even fans thought was boring manage to build a following?

04:04While there are places the show falls flat, there are also many things that it gets right.

04:09The cast is bursting with talent, from Christine Baranski,

04:13Carrie Coon, and Cynthia Nixon leading to a whole host of other Broadway greats making appearances.

04:18Even when the storylines themselves might be lacking,

04:21these actresses always bring a spark to their scenes.

04:24The show also looks and feels extravagant, just like the period it's showcasing.

04:28The Upper East Side mansions are lavish, as are the beautifully detailed period costumes.

04:33The show manages to make you feel like you've been transported to another time,

04:37if only for an hour.

04:38And this is its real charm.

04:40Many people are looking for a few moments of mindless escape every now and then.

04:44With so much information and bad news flooding into our lives from screens every day,

04:49it can be nice to take a momentary break and be dropped in another time

04:53where things happen much slower and the drama feels lower stakes.

04:58She says the opera war is really heating up.

05:00Why does there have to be a war?

05:02Why can't the Academy create more boxes for the new people to rent?

05:05The show wants to be a bit scandalous,

05:07but because it never quite manages to actually cross the line into intrigue or shock,

05:12it just keeps comfortably pulling viewers along.

05:14Bored, but somehow still invested.

05:17It's the little things that pull us in.

05:19The grandeur of the set design.

05:20The delight in an artful barb from Baranski or Coon.

05:24The sort of calming background interest in,

05:26if maybe something big will finally happen this episode.

05:30Is everyone part of this conspiracy?

05:34I'm doing a perfectly decent job.

05:35You won't need to be ashamed of me.

05:37I'm ashamed of you now.

05:38There's also, of course, the period setting itself.

05:40While we might seek out entertainment for a momentary respite from the chaos

05:44on all of our other screens,

05:46many shows and films are themselves about modern problems.

05:50This certainly isn't an issue,

05:51but it doesn't lend itself to the escapism we sometimes seek.

05:55The time period saves us from having any of the drama relayed to us

05:59through shots of TVs on our TV,

06:01or clunky attempts at showing texts on screen,

06:04and instead we get everything through people actually interacting with each other.

06:08The show does seem to be shaking things up in its second season

06:11by actually having things happen.

06:14Apparently on-boarding some of the criticism of season one,

06:16the writers have started giving the characters more to do,

06:19and bringing more drama.

06:20Macalester is playing a complicated game.

06:24I'd like to be there when Mrs. Astor finds out.

06:26It's about to get more complicated than he knows.

06:28Alice Burton wrote in a recent Vulture review of the show,

06:31This is how you do a Gilded Age.

06:32Nonsense events put on by rich people coupled with things that actually matter.

06:36Have to show the guild on the age, if you will.

06:39From icy jabs to revenge plots to rush engagements,

06:42this season feels much more like the soap opera we were led to expect in season one.

06:46And this improvement highlights an important truth of most shows.

06:50They need some time to find their footing.

06:52Whether it's the first season of The Office,

06:54having to learn that it can't just copy the original,

06:57to Parks and Rec changing up its tone,

06:59shows that become fan favorites often don't start off perfect.

07:03Everybody say a race that you are attracted to sexually.

07:08I will go last. Go!

07:10They become beloved because the creative team takes a look at what worked,

07:14and what didn't early on, and then were willing to implement changes going forward.

07:18We also saw this with the recent Sex and the City revival,

07:21and Just Like That, which took nearly two and a half seasons

07:24to figure out how to start recapturing what people liked about the original show,

07:28and how to work in its new characters in an effective way.

07:31In addition to giving the creative teams time to figure things out,

07:35it's also important to give audiences time to get invested.

07:38Persistence is the key to everything. Patience and persistence.

07:41So often nowadays shows are thrown out if they're not immediate hits,

07:45with no time given to make changes or attempt to attract new viewers.

07:49So The Gilded Age has provided an important lesson that if studios

07:52are willing to invest in new shows and give them time to breathe and find their wings,

07:57they can create hits out of initially floundering shows.

08:00But will this season 2 turnaround be enough to keep the show going?

08:04While The Gilded Age does seem to have hit a new stride,

08:07that doesn't mean it's safe from the acts.

08:09Though HBO has been pretty tight-lipped about the show's true budget,

08:12it's clear just from looking at it that it's not cheap to produce.

08:16If you're going to do a thing, you might as well do it properly.

08:19From the costumes, to shooting on location in real New York and Rhode Island mega mansions,

08:24to the salaries for a seemingly ever-growing cast,

08:27finances will certainly be top of mind when it comes to the question of a season 3 renewal.

08:32I don't want to come a long way.

08:35I want to go all the way.

08:37But that was also a huge reason people thought the show would never make it past season 1.

08:41In an era when so many shows are getting cut due to budget concerns,

08:45how could this one possibly survive?

08:48It seems that when it comes to The Gilded Age, HBO has decided to go back to its roots,

08:52putting in the money to let the creatives tell the story they want to tell,

08:57and giving the show some breathing room to find its true, dedicated audience.

09:01But as the show nears the end of its second season,

09:04HBO still has not yet confirmed if we'll get a third season.

09:08This delay was likely in part due to the months-long strikes that halted Hollywood across the board,

09:12but now that things are back in motion, fans are still awaiting news of the show's fate.

09:17Only time will tell if improved reviews, a small but dedicated audience,

09:21and the potential to continue hooking new fans will be enough to grant it another go.

09:25Though, and just like that, getting its own season 3 renewal does give us a bit of hope.

09:29This beautiful, boring, somehow entrancing show is an interesting anomaly in the troubled seas of

09:35modern TV, and so we can only hope that HBO and the other streamers take the right

The Gilded Age's Weird Appeal - How it Made "Boring" Fascinating

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