The Gilded Age Review Episode 1: Never the New

By Joyce Davis

Just to note there may be spoilers in my reviews of the episodes. If you plan to watch the episode, I do hope you have had a chance to watch before anything is spoiled for you.
The Gilded Age series is set in 1882 New York, Central Park. It is a period piece unlike any other I have seen. What caught me was the story was based on American classism. America was founded because they were tired of following a King and Queen ranked system yet; they end up making their own ranking system excluding those that have not been in America long as themselves, or those that have not been rich as long as themselves. New money vs old money. They went as far as to treat Mrs. Astor as if she were their queen, and only she could decide who is to be in or out of the circle.

Miss Marian Brooks starts the story after her father dies and leaves her with thirty dollars to her name. Her lawyer, Mr. Raikes tells her to stay with her father’s sisters. The two sisters Agnes Van Rhijn who married well and Ada Brooks who never married lived together in New York. They represented old money; while moving in across the street were George and Bertha Russell and their two kids. Mrs. Bertha Russell is determined to break into the old money circle. Mrs. Van Rhijn says over her dead body.

Marian meets a colored woman, Peggy Scott, at the train station and buys her a ticket after her purse and ticket were stolen. Marian insists she goes home with her after the ferries are canceled because of a storm. The aunts welcomed Miss Scott in without a thought, maybe because they saw her as the help and not as an equal. She slept in the maids’ quarters but oddly they did not object to a colored woman living in the house. Couple of the maids did and treated her like she was unwelcomed. One maid exclaimed in her Irish accent “they’re coming up here to take our jobs”.

Mrs. Russell is excited when she is invited by Mrs. Patrick Morris and Mrs. Charles Fane to a charity function. She sees her way in the door. When she gets there, she meets Mrs. Fane who later says about her, “Let’s face it aunt Ada, we need the money. You know how much money those women give when they want to get in.” The writer lets us in on the fact that these women used these women’s desire to be accepted to take their money but had no intention of letting them into the inner circle. Mrs. Russell thought after the invite she was in so in return she sent invitations for people to come to her house. Her husband warned her that they just wanted her money.

Aunt Agnes was impressed with the way Miss Scott wrote and offered her a job. We meet her mom as they dine in an all-black restaurant and the mom is uncomfortable being there. She was not happy that the girl would choose to take a job and live in a maid’s quarters rather than come home. Her and her father have quarreled over something they have not let us in on yet but it’s enough to make this proud colored woman live with maids that look down on her not knowing she comes from money.

They then show us what type of businessman Mr. Russell is. He is a railroad Tycoon. He offered Mr. Thorburn money to buy a stretch of railroad and Mr. Thorburn wanted to play hardball and told him no twice. We see them talking in his office and Mr. Thorburn complains “If you build a railroad beside me, you will put me out of business.” With no sympathy Russell said to him “That’s not my intent, I offered to buy it and you turned me down.” “You were supposed to negotiate.” Said Mr. Thorburn and Mr. Russell tells him, ” now people will know I don’t go pass the second offer. I may lose thousands of dollars now but I am saving money in the future.”

Whenever you watch a show, usually the writer tells you who your hero is. Here you don’t know. You want to believe the old guard is the villain for excluding someone based on anything other than their character. However, protecting one’s surroundings is heroic.

By the end of this we find out that Aunt Agnus’ son is gay leading a double life. We see Mrs. Astor throwing away an invitation from Mrs. Russell seemingly appalled that she had the nerve to invite her. And last, we find Mrs. Russell in her bed crying because she set a party for two hundred where only two people showed up. Her husband asked her if she was going to give up and she lashes out that she will never give up and she will make them sorry for how they slighted her. We are in for a ride with this show.