‘The Gilded Age’ Season 3 Episode 2 review: “What the Papers Say”

Hello, and welcome back to The Gilded Age, where time is a construct and the hats are comically tall!

The comically tall hat in The Gilded Age Season 3 Episode 2 belongs to Gladys (Taissa Farmiga), who ran away from home in the middle of the night, but not before donning an elaborate outfit. You’ve got to flee in style, you know? She’s in love with Billy Carlton (Matt Walker), who’s got about as much charisma as a teaspoon. But Billy is a man not chosen by Gladys’ domineering social climber mom Bertha (Carrie Coon), so…

How much time has gone by, exactly?

This episode picks up where the premiere left off, but maybe not so for poor Aurora (Kelli O’Hara), whose husband (Ward Horton) left her “weeks” ago. If you’re new to the Gildedverse, this is by the same creator as Downton Abbey, where seemingly months would pass between episodes. You’re not here for a logical time. You’re here for a good time!

Also here for a good time? Gladys’ brother Larry (Harry Richardson), who may win this season’s award for Key Player in the Biggest Number of Plotlines. Larry is his sister’s sole confidante while their father George (Morgan Spector) is away being, as Twitter knows him, Railroad Daddy. And Larry is helping footman Jack (Ben Ahlers) with his business venture. AND declaring his long-developing love for Marian (Louisa Jacobson)! What a time to be Larry Russell, possibly the only member of his family whose life isn’t falling apart!

Drama across East 61st Street

Across the street from the tortured and/or contented Russells is Peggy (Denee Benton) whose novel-writing and secretarying-for-Christine-Baranski days have been dampened by a bad bout with pneumonia. Her screentime for most of the premiere was spent coughing and talking about writing, which seems to be the period drama girlie occupation. But the arrival of series newcomer Dr. Kirkland (Jordan Donica, the latest in Gilded’s Broadway pedigree) promises new things for Peggy’s future. Do we hear her cough getting better already?

The Gilded Age is fun, soapy drama, but it takes its most discordant step this week. Widowed Ada (Cynthia Nixon) has been on a mission this season to get everyone to join the temperance cause. Teetotaling in the GildedVerse is something to be scoffed at. Ada’s the butt of many a joke in her quest to make her family and servants swear off all alcohol. Marian advocates for the servants’ right to have balance, but Ada’s avoidance of alcohol is played off as a complete joke.

Ada’s traditional sister Agnes (Christine Baranski) is revolutionary for being surprisingly inclusive (she was dismayed by her doctor’s treatment of Peggy, who’s Black) and feminist (she’s interested in suffrage). Ada’s quest for an alcohol-free society may be unrealistic, but her story’s been written in the 2020s, when the mocktail, as a concept, has exploded in a society that aims to be inclusive of all relationships to alcohol. Why give Agnes a speech about being raised to be “progressive” and then scoff at her sister’s teetotalism seconds later?

Too many plot lines! Not enough space!

The Gilded Age‘s ensemble cast is part of its charm, but not necessarily its strength where the writing is concerned. Every actor is giving their best, but they’re hardly given the screen time they all deserve. We finally know what was in last week’s mysterious letter to Mr. Borden (Douglas Sills). No spoilers, of course, but it’s the latest in parallels this show shares with its spiritual predecessor, Downton Abbey. (Fun fact! Gilded was initially developed as a Downton spinoff!) Maybe we’ll get more Mr. Borden screentime this season, but his charming romance with Mrs. Bruce (Celia Keenan-Bolger) has had barely a second of attention in the season so far.

And that’s what you missed on The Gilded Age

What is this show’s greatest strength, then? Its comfort factor. High stakes can be drawn from history as much as from who can or cannot use specific silverware. (Remember the premiere’s debacle about Agnes’ silver and Ada’s attempted use of it?) Sunday nights on HBO have never been more confection-like, in all the best, most melodramatically delicious ways. Who will have next week’s most comically large hat, we wonder?

Claire Di Maio

Claire was once asked in elementary school why her go-to question was always, “Watch anything good lately?” It’s still her go-to question, because she loves hearing what other people are passionate about. She often sacrifices sleep in the hopes that she will one day clear her to-watch and to-read lists (a futile effort so far).