Only One Thing the Gilded Age Did Better Than Any Other Period Show

Summary:

• The Gilded Age is an extremely accurate period drama.
• There are many real historical events in it, which makes it a whole lot better than other shows in the same genre.
• Downton Abbey has been criticized for lacking such important storylines.

Period dramas are the new black of the TV industry nowadays, as more and more powerful series are being released every season. The fans of such shows appreciate the atmosphere that is recreated with the help of costumes, dialogues and the overall stories that are told in these shows.

The Gilded Age has it all, and that's why viewers love it. But it's not just about that: one of the most appreciated things about the show is that it actually pays enough attention to the historical events that took place at the time.

Well, yes, all the personal shenanigans that go on between the many complicated characters are quite intriguing, but the fact that the true events are also explored and talked about just takes the show to the next level compared to the other period dramas, like, for example, Downton Abbey.

What The Gilded Age Did Right

Both series were created by the same person, Julian Fellowes, but The Gilded Age did a better job of exploring the bigger picture rather than focusing on the many small bubbles of wealthy families and their scandals. Since its first season, The Gilded Age has established that what’s going on in the outside world can not be ignored.

However, the new season just made it all even better, highlighting the most important events of the period. For example, focusing on the problems that appeared in front of George Russell, who, let’s face it, was quite comfortable on the throne in season 1.

The thing that made him come close to losing everything was the strike that his workers went on after they decided to unionize. Faced with a work slowdown and the possibility of a violent confrontation between union members and management, George had to make the difficult decision to give his workers a higher wage (even if only temporarily).

The good thing is that all of this was front and center, not just a subplot without even dialogue. The storyline not only emphasized the time period, but also helped the characters to show their personalities much better than the ordinary life scenarios would have done.

Is There a Need To Make The Gilded Age Even More Accurate?

Of course, there are still many fans who are not satisfied with what the show's creators have offered them. As usual, they demand more real-life events and figures from any historical drama. Basically, they want a fictional series to be a kind of documentary, not realizing that the two genres are completely different and both are free to exist.

“If they made it historically accurate or based the character on one figure, there'd be pressure to never deviate and essentially write a biopic/documentary, which has its interesting aspects, but for the most part would be boring. IE plans taking years to pay off, not being able to put dramatic plots in quick succession of each other, long periods of nothing happening, etc,” Redditor whelmr said.

The Gilded Age is available to stream on Hulu.