‘The Gilded Age’ Is Better Than ‘Downton Abbey’
I love The Gilded Age and Downton Abbey. I’ve watched every episode of both shows more than once. I’ve seen all of the Downton Abbey movies. I’ve visited the set of The Gilded Age, recapped it every week it airs, and have interviewed practically every star and creator of it. Since The Gilded Age Season 2 premiered in late October, I’ve been rewatching Downton Abbey (again) to keep the Julian Fellowes vibes flowing as I await my weekly Sunday meeting with the Van Rhijns and the Russells on E. 61st Street.
While simultaneously tuning into these upstairs-downstairs dramas, one thing has become clear: The Gilded Age has lapped its predecessor.
Classism is Fellowes’ favorite topic to dramatize. Nearly every show he’s ever made has been an exploration of class divides within a given social setting of yesteryear. But it’s Downton Abbey and The Gilded Age that are the most similar in structure.
Both center on a wealthy class and the struggles they face to stay relevant/climb the social ladder, as well as the people they employ whose livelihoods depend on their bosses staying rich. They’re not that far removed in the years they take place (The Gilded Age kicks off in 1882 Manhattan, and Downton begins in 1912 in what’s believed to be Yorkshire, England). And Fellowes recreated the tried and true character archetypes of his PBS hit in his HBO follow-up: the central married couple (Robert and Cora Crawley, George and Bertha Russell), the curmudgeonly family matriarch for whom Fellowes saves his most deliciously bitchy lines (Violet Crawley, Agnes van Rhijn); a “spinster” sister who eventually finds love (Edith Crawley, Ada Brook); a detestable lady’s maid serving the lady of the house (O’Brien, Armstrong), and I could keep going.
They’re essentially the same shows in different fonts, but The Gilded Age‘s setting begets more dramatic intrigue than what Downton‘s time period and location has to offer.
Time and the change it brings is the main villain of Downton Abbey. Robert must evolve the estate or let it die, thereby ending his family’s long legacy of maintaining the noble mansion and leaving the scores of workers — many of whom have been employed by the estate for most of their lives — without jobs and homes. The staffs of the Manhattan elite’s households face the same existential threats, but time and change bring promise to their futures more often than not rather than threaten them. (However, I will admit that Downton Abbey makes me care far more for the downstairs staff than The Gilded Age does.)
Downton’s staff didn’t have much hope for upward movement, just hope that they could keep their jobs. With The Gilded Age, the downstairs staff can become the wealthy elite because of the lack of American royals, and seeing this happen in Season 2 with Kelley Curran‘s Turner is just downright scrumptious. Bertha (Carrie Coon) fought hard all of Season 1 to convince the old money to let her into their glamorous clique. Her former lady’s maid — the one who tried to seduce her husband, no less — marrying into old money in Season 2 tests the limits of Bertha’s beliefs that all new money should be accepted. Robert had a fling with a maid in an early season of Downton, and he wasn’t even exposed for it. Where’s the fun in that?
Because of the cutthroat culture of excessive capitalism of this American era, The Gilded Age characters are forced to take bigger swings and use their social skills and business acumen to come out on top. This adds some fear into the dramatic mix. The Crawley family was never cruel, but the Russells knew how to ruin someone’s life if need be. I like my main characters to have that kind of bite. It’s also more entertaining to see the genuinely sexy relationship Bertha and George (Morgan Spector) share. PBS doesn’t do sex, so I didn’t expect sex scenes from Downton‘s couples. But even a little steam would’ve been nice.
Much of The Gilded Age is an American version of Downton plots. But the why behind each Gilded Age character’s actions is what makes me enjoy it more.
Mary Crawley (Michelle Dockery) produced some divinely mean squabbles with Edith (Laura Carmichael), but for no reason other than apparent boredom. That got old. Bertha, on the other hand, I could watch passive-aggressively and deliberately insult people for hours on end as she tries to unseat Mrs. Astor (Donna Murphy) from her throne. And where Downton made some of its most dramatic storylines stretch on for far too long (Mr. Bates’ time in prison is such an unnecessary drag), The Gilded Age has a similar balance of genuine drama and petty squabbles but tells its story at a much faster pace. That doesn’t mean it sacrifices quality storytelling, however. Season 2 has been working smarter, not harder, and the scores of Broadway stars they’ve cast make a meal of every scene.
The capitalistic, cutthroat culture of the American Gilded Age is simply a more intriguing setting for a TV show. The sex isn’t meek, the characters have more drive, and the low stakes feel higher. The Gilded Age is cooking with gas; Downton Abbey was a slow burn. The Gilded Age literally made me scream when Christine Baranski‘s Agnes stormed across the street in the Season 1 finale.
What other show on TV can say walking across the street was a series high? Only The Gilded Age, baby!
Conversation12 Comments
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B
You’re comparing apples and oranges. Downton Abby is about the British aristocracy at the end of the 19th century. The old world is dying and modernity is peeking around the corner (autos, electricity) and with it hints of social mobility and changing social mores. Fellowes captures the nuances of British aristocracy of the period, and its potential changes for the working class which is still pretty ensconced in feudal structures.
Gilded Age is in NYC, post Reconstruction. Season 2 has given us hints that Jim Crow is taking hold in southern states. “Robber barons” are the “new aristocracy” and the notion of old money is being shattered. Upward mobility is the concept of a new emerging nation that is making its mark in the global political and economic world, even as it shaping its own character within.
The energies conveyed of an old system dying vs. a new one being shaped by necessity will be different ones. Again, apples and oranges. I enjoy both for what each distinctively provide with no need for unnecessary comparisons.
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B
Season 1 of Downtown was instantly engaging. Season 1 of Guilded was arduous and unclear of its self. The downstairs character's stories in guilded are rather forced and uninteresting until half way through season 2 and even those are comparatively weak (Bates' dragged out troubles aside)Peggy. She needs her own show. She's arguably the most interesting character in Guilded but she's third tier and barely connected. I love that there is a character and a family like hers included but they're just kind of crammed in there. They deserve a whole show set in their world where whyppl are barely a factor. Maggie Smith. None of those American actresses can sling an insult like the dowager contess. Meryl Steep's daughter, though better in season 2, is still dry as toast and as dynamic as a straight line. Cynthia Nixon, also better in season 2, that's not saying much.
Season 2 of Guilded is a much better show than season 1, but it doesn't hold a candle to downtown. For a more apple's to apples comparison weigh Guilded against apple tv's The Buckaneers. New Yorkers in the same era.
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O
I like downton Abby better
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G
Strange. Not once did you mention Peggy Scott, her family and racism.
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P
I have watched both. Season 2 of TGA is much better than season 1, but it still does not rise to Downton Abby. The characters are downright boring except for the Russell's. Marian is downright dull and the actress can't carry the part. |
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England and Scotland had their horrific wars, imprisonments, quarterings, and beheadings, savagery/aristocratic turmoil via the Wars of the Roses, the Tudor and the Stuart Eras. By the Victorian Era and British Empire stage, a calmness and “correctness had come, before the eventual malaise and slow decline (that upper class stagnation and decline is still happening in happening in aristocratic Great Britain today). America’s founding and development was equally as corrupt, and violent as Britain. In multiple ways, America is still a volatile and savage nation. That’s what makes “The Gilded Age” so exciting” The faux classism, violent/in your face racism, sexism and homophobia make the characters on “The Gilded Age “ exciting to watch.
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B
I LOVE The Gilded Age!
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O
I think what makes The Gilded Age so great is that you have a society that is growing and on the way up. Downton Abbey is set a time of cultural malaise and imperial decline. America is always going to be a more socially dynamic setting and will always be more colorful than British society has ever been. I really hope they continue to show the seething undercurrent of social unrest in the America of that time period.
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O
Hogwash (The Gilded Age) vs Moet de Chandon (Downton Abbey) is no contest.
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O
There was only one kiss, but the maid and Robert had a lot of conversations that would be considered verging on an inappropriate relationship. She was supposedly a war widow, but there was always a question as to the validity of that claim in my mind, due to another plot line. When the maid left, Robert told her he wanted to pay for her very young son‘s education. Who does that when a maid has worked so briefly in a home? Someone who feels guilty, that’s who.
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O
Correct. As I recall it was one kiss. Hardly a fling.
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G
I do not remember Robert having a fling with a maid in season 2?
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