YMMV / The Gilded Age

• Designated Hero: George Russell is full of good qualities: he's a good father and good husband, but he is also a robber baron that is shown to be crushing (or attempting to crush) unions in Season 2 for challenging his riches, even though they're asking for very low adjustments. Then again, that dichotomy is part of his character; just because you love your family, it doesn't mean you'll care about the people who work for you.
• Die for Our Ship: Plenty of fans have taken against Tom Raikes much the same way as Aunt Agnes, with many preferring Larry Russell as Marian's love interest. The hate against Raikes seems to have been borne out.
• Fan Nickname:
  • A common one for the series is "the American Downton Abbey".
  • "Bertha-raptor" for Bertha Russell is picking up some steam in the fandom due to her fierce nature.
  • Following her marriage in Season 2, the former Miss Turner, now Mrs. Winterton, is now known as "Turnerton".
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • Most obviously with fellow Fellowes-penned drama Downton Abbey.
  • The Gilded Age has also drawn the interest of many Broadway fans, owing to the large number of Tony winners in the cast (for example, Audra McDonald, who plays Peggy's mother Dorothy Scott, holds the dual distinction of having the most performance wins of any Tony winner and being the only person to win in all four acting categories).
• Funny Moments:
  • "Heads Have Rolled For Less": The normally stoic Bannister is giddy with delight after getting $100 from Bertha to be a butler at her luncheon, which was a lot more back then than it is now. He is barely keeping himself from skipping across the street.
  • "Let the Tournament Begin": When Mrs. Astor is talking with McAllister about being forced to attend the Russells' house party, she coolly notes she knows he wants to attend the ball. He replies with a long speech about the need to bring in new people to their social circle to keep control of it and not be the excluded ones eventually, how he thinks the Russells will make good additions, and how fighting the Russells could end up destroying Mrs. Astor's public image in society. She collects this and says to the effect, "Translated: You want to attend the ball".
  • "Head to Head": THE Oscar Wilde immediately clocking Oscar van Rhijn and John Adams's relationship to the bewilderment of Aurora Fane.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The casting of Robert Sean Leonard as Aunt Ada's love interest, considering Luke Forte, like Leonard's most well-known character, gets a terminal cancer diagnosis.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Simon Jones as the van Rhijns' butler Bannister is funny considering his last role in a Fellowes-penned drama was as King George V in Downton Abbey.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Arthur Scott, Peggy's father, is a man born into slavery. His beloved uncle was sold away from the house before Emancipation and he hasn't seen him since. He has dealt with all the racism in the North since living there as he works his way up to being a very wealthy man. However, he told Peggy her son died at birth, when Arthur had the midwife secretly take the child away, and forced Peggy to annul her marriage to a man he deemed unsuitable, so as to "free" his daughter from this mistake. Season 2 shows him deeply regret this, since his actions inadvertently led to his grandson's death of scarlet fever, leaving him on the outs with his wife and daughter for the rest of the season.
  • Agnes van Rhijn is a generally frosty person who is old-school elitist and doesn't like change, domineering over all in her household. However, she is implied to have had an unhappy marriage with the late Mr. Van Rhijn, on top of multiple child deaths, leaving only Oscar to survive to adulthood. She also has moments of kindness, such as her defense of Peggy to Mrs. Armstrong and her support of Jack's patent. Especially in Season 2, while her initial rejection of Ada and Luke's marriage was horrible and rightly called out by everyone around her, her conversation with Luke showed it came from a place of hurt, since Ada's marriage would, in her eyes, rob her of the companion she hoped to have into old age. However, she does show up at the wedding last minute despite this, and ends up coming through for Ada when Luke falls ill.
• Like You Would Really Do It: It's pretty obvious that the van Rhijns aren't going to have to move out of their house in season 2 if for no other reason than because the show wouldn't be able to get full use of its signature set, the street and frontage of the Russell and van Rhijn houses.
• Memetic Mutation: "Will Larry leave the dining room?" ^Explanation Despite being advertised as a prospective suitor for Marian, many fans were disappointed that Larry doesn't seem to do much in the first season but eat dinner with his family. Hence shock and surprise if he actually does leave the house.
• Moral Event Horizon: Arthur Scott telling his own daughter that her baby was stillborn and giving it away, despite it being his grandchild.
• Unconventional Learning Experience: Through the character of Peggy Scott and her family, viewers are treated to a rare portrayal and exploration of the African-American elite that emerged from the Civil War and Emancipation, the history of which has gained increasing exposure because of things like the Tulsa race massacre.

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