I have hot Gilded Age takes, but mostly about the surfeit of Broadway talent, comparative advantage of filming in NY and the decline of American entertainment by offshoring and moving production away from cultural hubs. Is that the take you're looking for???

not really, though again fascinating! I'm writing an essay on China / US comparisons and want to include my colleague Yuen Yuen Ang's China's Gilded Age. Right now I just say that the fact that there's a show on about this period speaks to its relevance today, but maybe I could expand that?

I wish it's airing was a reflection of The Times but I think it's a reflection of Julian Fellowes ran out of storyline in Downton Abbey so he brought the story to America. See also: the bustles are wrong. See also: they made the robber baron a sympathetic character so what are we even doing here.

Ok, I’ll not lean into this. Would like your PE essay though….

I only watched the first season of Downton Abbey because I didn’t like it (so inferior to Gosford Park, for me at least), but didn’t that show also make the rich sort of sympathetic while some of the “downstairs” help/working class folks were jerks? I remember disliking it mainly for that reason.

If you’re going to make a show about the ruling class at any time in history, at least 85% of the characters must be huge assholes. There should be a law about this.

Absolutely. The true art of Succession was they did this to 100% of the characters.

I enjoyed that show for exactly that reason! “Want to be an insanely wealthy capitalist? Okay. Here’s what those people are like. Enjoy!”