‘Downton Abbey’ creator tackles 19th-century New York in ‘The Gilded Age’ series

After the British aristocracy in the series Downton Abbey, screenwriter Julian Fellowes looks at the building of the United States in the 1880s withThe Gilded Age, a new production stamped HBO, broadcast in France on OCS from January 25.

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The story takes place in the 1880s: young Marian Brook (played by Louisa Jacobson, Meryl Streep’s youngest daughter, in her first major television role) must leave Pennsylvania, the state that saw her to be born, following the death of his father. Ruined, she finds shelter in New York, with her aunts Agnes Van Rhijn (Christine Baranski) and Ada Brook (Cynthia Nixon, eternal Miranda of Sex and the City), figures of good local society. Accompanied by her friend Peggy Scott (Denée Benton), a young writer in search of change, Marian quickly finds herself caught in the fire of a conflict between one of her aunts and her new neighbours, the modern and wealthy George (Morgan Spector) and Bertha Russel (Carrie Coon, discovered in The Leftovers). In a city in full metamorphosis, the young woman will have to make a decisive choice: follow the rules due to her rank, or listen to her heart and chart her own path.

In video, “The Gilded Age” season 1, the trailer

The Gilded Age, which means “golden period”, corresponds to the time following the Civil War in the United States. It is in a country in full reconstruction, where old America is teetering, that the story of the series takes place. As new and bold ideas flourish, tensions arise between the old fortunes and the newly rich in New York at the height of the Industrial Revolution.

In the script, we find Julian Fellowes, the creator of the famous historical series Downton Abbey, as well as Sonja Warfield, having worked on the comedy series Will & Grace. For a new dive into an era in full metamorphosis, between ball gowns, social classes, new ideas and racial tensions.

The Gilded Age from January 25 in US+24 on OCS