8.5

The Gilded Age Comes Into Its Own In a Third Season That’s Learned From Its Mistakes

By Lacy Baugher Milas  |  June 12, 2025 | 6:30pm
(Photo: Courtesy of HBO)
TV Reviews HBO
The Gilded Age Comes Into Its Own In a Third Season That’s Learned From Its Mistakes
Introducing Endless Mode: A New Games & Anime Site from Paste

A long, long time ago (a.k.a. before the streaming era), the entertainment industry often gave its television properties something that’s in precious short supply today: Time. If a show wasn’t an immediate hit within the first few weeks of its premiere or if something about its overall narrative wasn’t quite clicking after a first season, it wasn’t an immediate death sentence. Series were given a chance, not just to find an audience, but to find their voices. Change and narrative course correction were not just possible; they were often expected and necessary for a show to reach its full potential. But in our modern entertainment landscape, packed with more content than anyone could ever realistically watch, many series are now simply canceled instead, a sad truth that’s a big part of the reason why HBO’s The Gilded Age feels like such a deliciously satisfying success story. The gorgeously decadent costume drama, set amidst the high society elites of late nineteenth-century New York, is the rare example of a contemporary prestige series that’s only now becoming its best self in its third season.

The first season of The Gilded Age premiered in 2022, and it was…mostly fine? But it featured far too many characters, took itself way too seriously, and wasn’t very much fun to watch (outside of its seemingly endless parade of gorgeous gowns). Its second outing was much improved, embracing the soapiest and most over-the-top antics of the obnoxiously rich people at its center—the primary plot was literally a fight over which opera house New York’s wealthy should favor—and abandoning the occasionally preachy social storylines its first season seemed to think everyone was supposed to care about. Now, with its third installment, it feels as though the show has finally and fully come into its own.

The Gilded Age Season 3 is indulgent and entertaining in all the best ways, full of ridiculous plot twists, social scandals, and family spats. As always, there are lavish parties, jaw-dropping costumes, and a few random historical figures thrown in for good measure, but what’s most exciting is the way the series continues to evolve, jettisoning characters and plots that don’t work, doubling down on the things that do. The result is a delightful mix of bonkers excess and character-driven relationship drama with a healthy dollop of much-needed romance on the side, a balance the show’s been chasing since its inception, but has only just finally truly achieved.

The story picks up where last season left off: Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon), victorious after having successfully backed the Metropolitan Opera, has never been more influential in New York society. (Not bad for a woman most people would only begrudgingly talk to back in Season 1.) But she’s not content to rest on her laurels; she’s actively plotting to take things even further by marrying her daughter Gladys (Taissa Farmiga) to the English Duke of Buckingham (Ben Lamb). This isn’t as wild a move as it sounds; after all, the Russells are disgustingly rich, and many American heiresses during this period snagged titles by marrying British aristocrats whose landed estates were cash poor. (If this sounds familiar, it’s because such unions are a foundational plot point in period dramas ranging from Downton Abbey to The Buccaneers.) 

Gladys, for her part, longs to marry for love, but as Bertha repeatedly says to anyone who’ll listen, she’s a woman who gets what she wants—and what she wants is a daughter who’s a duchess. Always vaguely intimidating, Coons gets to play a Bertha at her most domineering this season, and her controlling, often manipulative behavior begins to take an uncomfortable toll on her relationships with her family. 

To his credit, George Russell (Morgan Spector) isn’t a huge fan of making his daughter spend the rest of her life with someone she doesn’t like or even know all that well, but he’s busy attempting to close a land deal in Arizona, so he’s not as hands-on when it comes to parenting as he might otherwise be. Though he and Bertha fight about the issue more than we’ve ever seen them argue before, which is upsetting on a near-spiritual level given how central their relationship has become to this show. Meanwhile, their son Larry (Harry Richardson) is head over heels for neighbor Marian Brook (Louisa Jacobson), but, having had two disastrous engagements already, she’s understandably wary when it comes to thinking about any sort of romantic future for herself.

Across the street, old money traditionalist Agnes van Rhijn (Christine Baranski) and her sister Ada (Cynthia Nixon) are attempting to adjust to their own new normal—one in which Agnes no longer rules the proverbial roost. With Ada’s money now paying for everyone’s upkeep, Agnes seems somewhat adrift, reluctant to relinquish her control over the staff and household accounts and continually ordering her sister around. (But don’t worry, Baranski still gets most of the series’ best one-liners.) Ada, for her part, is searching for purpose in the wake of her husband Luke’s (Robert Sean Leonard) death, which sees her drawn to everything from the moral clarity of the temperance movement to the spiritualist mediums who claim they can communicate with dead loved ones. Meanwhile, Agnes’s secretary Peggy Scott (Denee Benton) finally meets a nice man when the handsome Dr. William Kirkland (Jordan Donica) is summoned to treat her when she grows ill at the van Rhijn house. 

The Gilded Age hasn’t always known what to do with Peggy and her family, one of the few examples of Black upper-middle-class characters in a story like this one. Thankfully, Season 3 finally seems to have figured it out, jettisoning heavy-handed social issue subplots and after-school special vibes in favor of a more traditional romance plot, just one that happens to take place amid the Black bourgeoisie of Newport, who throw balls just as lavish as any taking place on 61st Street. Peggy’s romance with Dr. Kirkland is charming, though his snobbish mother, Elizabeth (Phylicia Rashad), generally doesn’t approve of their relationship or the Scott family in general. If there are moments where this storyline still feels a little too siloed from the rest of the series, it’s balanced out by the sheer glee of watching Rashad and Audra McDonald (who plays Peggy’s mother) face off. 

Some of the show’s most prominent flaws remain: There are still too many characters and some unnecessary subplots, though they’ve both greatly decreased in number. (Progress!) Virtually everything involving George’s attempt to acquire the land to build a railroad is confusing and dull. (If you can consistently keep track of which of those older white actors is meant to be which fantastically wealthy robber baron, you’re a better person than I am.) And the show’s attachment to its downstairs characters, though also greatly lessened, is not gone, and remains one of its weakest elements. Fellowes can’t seem to stop writing stories about servants who love their jobs working for the upper classes, and it’s a tic that particularly feels out of place in a series like The Gilded Age, which is so specifically concerned with the clash between the rules of the old world and the new. 

But at the end of the day, these are all fairly small complaints. In truth, The Gilded Age has never been better, and it’s a joy to watch it so confidently become the show it was always meant to be: A little darker, a lot more romantic, and so much more enjoyable than it probably has any right to be. 

The Gilded Age Season 3 premieres Sunday, June 22 on HBO. 

Lacy Baugher Milas is the Books Editor at Paste Magazine, but loves nerding out about all sorts of pop culture. You can find her on Twitter and Bluesky at @LacyMB

For all the latest TV news, reviews, lists and features, follow @Paste_TV

 
Start the discussion...