Naomi Weisman is a Canadian-Australian and mother of three who loves to ramble with her dog, cook for family and friends, and laugh whenever possible.
You’ve heard me say this before, but it bears repeating that I LOVE HISTORICAL DRAMAS!
I went back to university in 2010 to finally get the degree I had started two decades before. It took me almost six years while raising my young kids and looking after my mother to complete it, but I finally did in 2016.
My kids would spend every other weekend and some school holidays with their dad in those years, so I had a concentrated bit of quiet in order to write essays and study for exams. I made a deal with myself that if I wrote 500 words, I could take a break before writing 500 more.
During spring break one year, I had a couple of essays to write while my kids were gone for a week. I went to the video store (I know, it sounds funny) and rented several seasons of Downton Abbey.
At the time, I must have been the only person I knew who hadn’t seen it. I was so excited to reward myself with the trials and tribulations of the Crawley family and the servants downstairs. Not only did I finish my essays that week, but I also finished a couple of seasons!
Well, here we are in 2023, and I am hooked on the second season of The Gilded Age, which, like Downton Abbey, is a Julian Fellowes creation. Set in 1880s New York City, it tells the story of America’s industrial boom and the wealth that sprung from it.
During this age of expansion after the Civil War ended, banking, railways, and steel manufacturing made millionaires out of anyone willing to take the chance. Suddenly, ordinary folk became American royalty with social and political influence to spare.
Although the show uses fictitious names for the most part, many of the characters are modeled after famous tycoons of industry like the Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, Carnegies, Goulds, and Morgans. The mansions they recreated from the originals that used to house these nouveau riche families along Fifth Avenue are absolutely gorgeous.
I have really enjoyed the acting in this series. I particularly like the sisters Agnes Van Rhijn and Ada Brook, played by Christine Baranski and Cynthia Nixon. They are wonderfully snobby, judgmental, and hysterical.
Marion Brook, the niece of the sisters, is played by Louisa Jacobson (Meryl Streep’s daughter). She is a modern woman with opinions who often clashes with her aunts in subtle ways.
The ruthlessness amongst this social set is deliciously fun to watch. They do and say things to one another that most of us wouldn’t dare to in this day and age.
If you love to live vicariously through the famously wealthy and like to indulge in a bit of gossip, reward yourself with this show!
As always, I would love to know what you think!
READ MORE > Nomi's Pics, Rambler Cafe Blog
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