'Dazzling' period drama announces season 4 before season 3 finale has even aired
Following the success of his series following the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family on their country estate – which ran from 2010 until 2015 – Fellowes based his next series during the Gilded Age of the 1880s and the battles between new and old money in New York.
First hitting screens in 2022, The Gilded Age follows Marian Brook (Louisa Jacobson), a broke young woman forced to live with her estranged aunts.
However, she then finds herself battling through the city's strict social scene, specifically the conflicts involving the new money Russell family and her old money van Rhijn-Brook family, who are also neighbours on the Upper East Side.
Like Downton Abbey before it, the series also explores themes of class and race, as well as women's status, the temperance movement, and scandal of divorce at the time.
The Gilded Age – which has been nominated for 7 Emmys to date – also stars Carrie Coon (The White Lotus), Morgan Spector (Homeland), Cynthia Nixon (Sex and the City) and Christine Baranski (The Good Fight).
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
It currently holds an 89% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which fans calling the series 'compelling', 'delightful' and even 'the best show on TV'.
The third season returned to screens in June, with critic reviews continuing to be glowing.
'It's an upscale version of the classic primetime soap and one that's perfect to get lost in when real life drama is too much,' Decider wrote.
'Features more scandal, more raw emotion, and even some death and mayhem. But Fellowes has not over-egged the series in the pursuit of intrigue; Gilded Age remains mostly a pleasant, satisfying diversion,' Vanity Fair shared.
'The Gilded Age has become not just grand, but silly too. Instead of joylessly pompous, this show is now joyfully pompous. I'm in,' The Guardian.
Although there are still two episodes of the current season to air, this week it was announced the show had been renewed and there would be more episodes on the way.
'We couldn't be prouder of the undeniable viewership heights 'The Gilded Age' as achieved this season,' HBO's executive vice president of programming and head of drama series and films Francesca Orsi said in a statement.
'Transporting us to 1880s New York City, Julian Fellowes and the enormously talented cast and crew have created a 'can't-miss it' entertainment experience from week to week, and we're delighted to continue exploring these characters' grand ambitions for what we promise will be a thrilling fourth season.' More Trending
Fans were equally as ecstatic, with one declaring on Reddit: 'This is the best news I've heard so far this week, each season has gotten better!'
Since premiering three years ago, The Gilded Age has gone from strength to strength. In the US, premiere-night viewing for third season has grown for five consecutive weeks, as reported by Variety.
The third season is up 20% percent in viewership compared to last season.
View More »
The Gilded Age is streaming on Now.
Got a story?
If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you.
MORE: I'm a WWE expert – I'm shocked the Netflix documentary went so far
MORE: Fired WWE star makes 'scary' admission 5 months after being released
MORE: Netflix quietly cancels 'gem of a series' with 100% on Rotten Tomatoes
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
29 minutes ago
- The Independent
On 'Bite Me,' Reneé Rapp punches back
Reneé Rapp was clear on her intentions for her sophomore album, 'Bite Me,' from the start. 'I wanted to love this,' Rapp says. 'I wanted to be able to walk away from this and be so proud of myself and impressed, no matter what anybody else thought.' Her first album, 2023's 'Snow Angel, ' had been an experiment in figuring out her sound (a mix of pop, R&B and heart-wrenching ballads), and assembling a collection of songs that worked together. This album, out Friday, offered the chance to do it again, with an eye toward the way her life had changed in the intervening years. 'That intention, and also wanting to prove it to myself, was really grueling,' Rapp told The Associated Press. 'And also really fun.' The writing process gave Rapp, 25, an outlet to work through the burnout-inducing whirlwind that was her career in those two years. Uncharacteristically restrained in its vocal styling, the album's lead single, 'Leave Me Alone,' is strikingly open — clever zingers allude to her departure from HBO's 'Sex Lives of College Girls,' the media frenzy that surrounded her turn as Regina in the 2024 remake of 'Mean Girls,' and the external pressure she felt to put out more music after the positive reception of 'Snow Angel.' Basically, anything that's been said about her in the last few years? She reframes it, poking fun at her reputation and the industry. 'Leave Me Alone' felt like a proper introduction to the album, Rapp says, and 'Bite Me' — both a warning and a tease — the appropriate title. Paris Hilton and Monica Lewinsky were among the famous faces that teased the album upon its announcement, donning merch emblazoned with the title in bold print. Rapp herself posed in front of a newsstand filled with mock tabloids depicting her as a diva, concealed behind big sunglasses and a fur coat, to promote the second single, 'Mad.' ('That's a Rapp!' the headline read.) 'It really feels just like a time capsule of those two years of my life, a lot having to do with the business and the industry and people's expectations of me,' Rapp says of the album. 'And then also me wanting things for myself and being confused where those two roads diverge.' Rapp's confidence and humor is evident across the album, just as it is on stage — 'I write lyrics in the way that I talk,' she says. Many of the tracks tackle the destabilizing emotions that accompany the beginning and end of relationships, whether platonic or romantic, and how her now-very public career has amplified the challenges of creating, and maintaining, those connections. 'I'm so surrounded all the time, but I feel so lonely, and it feels really heavy and isolating. And I think a lot of that is just being an artist. And I also think a lot of that is just like the nature of like the business, for better or for worse," she says. The can't-be-bothered attitude heard on 'Leave Me Alone' is countered by the ache of 'That's So Funny,' which recounts the end of a deeply affecting, but ultimately toxic friendship in Rapp's signature soaring vocals. That doesn't mean Rapp isn't also having fun. The cheeky 'At Least I'm Hot' features Rapp's girlfriend, the singer and guitarist Towa Bird. 'I love when artists give you a clue into their lives, and the people who make their lives full,' Rapp said. The track, she says, is also just funny: 'Who better to put on that than like the funniest person alive?' The album's mix of emotions — heartache followed by the rush of a new crush, the impostor syndrome that accompanies the thrill of success — is something the AP Breakthrough Entertainer alum has been exploring since her 2022 EP, 'Everything to Everyone.' She wants listeners to feel the conflict, too — and know that they aren't alone in experiencing it. In June, Rapp served as a grand marshal of the World Pride parade in Washington, D.C., alongside Laverne Cox and Deacon Maccubbin. 'It can be difficult to feel resilient and empowered as a queer person,' Rapp said. 'Because World Pride was in D.C., I was like, well, I can't not be there.' She recalled a conversation with Cox, who dispelled some of Rapp's fears of coming off as self-important in the role by emphasizing the power of showing up, and showing face. 'Right now, when everything is so under attack, which it pretty much always is, it feels like that's the time to be really loud.' Rapp will launch the North American leg of her 'Bite Me' tour at the iconic Red Rocks Amphitheater in September before making stops at New York 's Madison Square Garden and as a headliner at the Toronto stop of the All Things Go Festival. She'll tour Europe in March. As she readies for fans to hear the album, she hopes it offers them some reprieve. 'I hope that the weight of the world doesn't feel as massive,' she said. 'It's really easy to obsess over everything and be constantly lost in your head.' Giving them a glimpse into hers, she hopes, is empowering — and fun: 'It's just, it feels like a big party that like everybody wants in on.'
The Independent
29 minutes ago
- The Independent
'Downton Abbey' star Elizabeth McGovern brings Ava Gardner's tumultuous life to the stage
For all of Elizabeth McGovern's acting career, someone else wrote her lines. Now it's her turn. The 'Downton Abbey' star pivots from British aristocracy to classic Hollywood royalty this summer to portray screen legend Ava Gardner in a play she wrote. 'It's an incredible feeling to see other people embrace these things that were in your head,' she says. 'My feet haven't touched the ground since we started working on this in New York. I am just loving it so much.' 'Ava: The Secret Conversations' examines the sometimes-prickly, sometimes seductive relationship between Gardner and Peter Evans, a journalist assigned to ghostwrite her memoir in the years before her death in 1990. Though Gardner pulled the plug on the project before its completion, Evans eventually published their conversations in 2013. That book is the basis of McGovern's play. She says she was intrigued by the idea of 'a star on the wane of her career, sitting with a guy trying to glean from her the story of her life, and the two of them battling it out to control the narrative.' About 'Ava: The Secret Conversations' Directed by Tony Award-nominee Moritz von Stuelpnagel, the production co-stars Aaron Costa Ganis as Evans, who also channels Gardner's three famous husbands: actor Mickey Rooney, bandleader Artie Shaw and performer Frank Sinatra. It begins performances off-Broadway at New York City Center starting this week. McGovern says she wasn't initially a huge fan of Gardner — famed for her green eyes, photogenic features and understated acting style — before she embarked on the project. It was more the idea of how a memoir can become a battleground for legacy and a way to explore Hollywood fame. McGovern made her screen debut at 20 in Robert Redford's 'Ordinary People' in 1980 and went on to co-star with Hollywood's leading men, including Robert De Niro, Brad Pitt and Sean Penn. She landed an Oscar nomination for Milos Forman's 'Ragtime.' It's a career with many similarities to Gardner. 'I feel like I do have a natural affinity for who she is. I feel like we would really like each other. I don't know, I'm flattering myself, but it's possibly because I had a kind of similar trajectory in my early life,' says McGovern. "I mean, it was not on any level close to hers, but I understood the whole kind of mechanics of it.' Gardner's reputation as a sex goddess was fully launched in 1946 film 'The Killers,' in which she co-starred with Burt Lancaster. She also starred opposite Humphrey Bogart in 'The Barefoot Contessa' and Richard Burton in Tennessee Williams' 'Night of the Iguana.' McGovern says Gardner was caught in the impossibility of women's expectations at the time — be sexy but not sleep around. She had many lovers but also felt the shame society imposed. 'I think she was a kind of a feminist, in spite of herself, really,' says McGovern 'I hope people are inspired by that — by the fact that she just did whatever she wanted to do and lived with the consequences.' A screen siren at the end of her life By the end of her life and when the play is set, Gardner has been partially paralyzed after a stroke, had emphysema and lived in seclusion. She decided on a quickie memoir to keep the bills paid. 'All my life I was the Woman Men Dream About. That was the only job I ever had,' she wails in the play. 'Where does that leave me now?' The 90-minute play, which has had previous runs in Los Angeles and London, goes to Chicago and Toronto this fall after New York. McGovern initially took the idea to two different writers who failed to produce anything. So she turned to herself, watching movies and footage of Gardner to nail her speech patterns and reading whatever she could about the actor's inner life. 'I literally would act it out in my room to myself and then write it down. So it was natural to think of myself playing it, obviously, but then writing a part for somebody else to play, I couldn't think of a way to do it except by doing the acting of that part and then write it down.' Costa Ganis, her co-star, says 'she's doing something very bold and very daring and very scary' and he rarely meets a playwright so adaptable. 'I think the thing that's so fun about working with her is just that she's such a collaborator,' he says. Music helped McGovern the playwright McGovern developed the confidence to write her first play through songwriting. She is the lead singer and an acoustic guitarist for Sadie & The Hotheads, which released their debut album in 2007 and their latest in July, 'Let's Stop Fighting.' 'It kind of embraces a lot of different styles and then ends up with something of its own,' she says of the ethereal jazz-folk the band makes, which is waiting for an audience to catch up. 'We're still waiting. It's been quite a while, but I'm fine,' she says with a laugh. Costa Ganis hears McGovern's musicality throughout the play, an internal rhythm she understands: "So if something doesn't play right, she has a great sense of what sounds good and what moves things along." McGovern will be nearing the end of her New York turn as Gardner when the latest 'Downton Abbey' hits movie theaters Sept. 12 — subtitled 'The Grand Finale.' She admits that she and the cast initially dreaded returning after the death of Maggie Smith, an audience favorite. 'I think everyone was afraid that without Maggie, it's daunting to keep the thing going. But surprise, surprise, I think it's our best movie,' she says. 'It just kind of clicked.' McGovern, who like Gardner lives in London, does music, TV, and film but always finds room for theater, where the smartphones disappear and performers meet the audience. 'It's so healthy to have two hours where you only have one job and that job is basically just to be present and I really feel like it's good for the brain.'
Metro
9 hours ago
- Metro
Sex and the City star reveals she was 'groped by an older man' while filming
A Sex and the City star has revealed the moment she was 'groped by an older man' during filming. Kristin Davis, 60, played Charlotte York in the HBO romantic comedy, starring alongside Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, and Cynthia Nixon, from its debut in 1998 until its finale in 2004. Since then, she has gone on to reprise her role in two films, as well as the revival of the show And Just Like That in 2021, which recently left fans 'completely traumatised' over a bizarre phone sex scene. However, while speaking on her podcast, Are You a Charlotte?, the 60-year-old actress recalled a 'humiliating' experience when her scene partner 'grabbed her a**' during the filming of season two's episode The Chicken Dance. The 1999 episode shows Miranda Hobbes' friend Jeremy Fields (Stephen Barker Turner) visiting from London, who falls in love with her interior designer (Carrie Preston). The four friends are later seen attending the couple's wedding after their whirlwind romance. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Davis' character Charlotte then meets a man named Martin Healy (Mike Dooly) at the wedding. After he asks her to meet his parents, she agrees, but when she ends up dancing with the father the director of the episode Victoria Hochberg reportedly was 'yelling' at the actor to grope Davis. Discussing the moment, she said: 'My point of view is that number one, I have to dance with this older man who is going to feel my butt, which I'm mortified about. Okay. Number two, everyone is beyond exhausted.' She went on to say how she felt like the director had a 'bullhorn' as she yelled: 'Hard, harder, bigger, grab her a**, grab her a**.' 'I'm just like, 'God, the humiliation factor is so high,' and there's like a close-up of him grabbing my butt.' She went on to say how she showed her 'real mad face', adding: 'If you watch the show and the movies, you know my real mad face. 'I am mad because I'm mad that I had to do it. You know, I'm mad that this man grabbed my butt. It's like mortifying, you know.' This comes after Davis recently revealed that she was pressured into a topless scene while filming Sex and the City. Recalling filming a scene during season 5 where she 'flashed my boob', Kristin accused showrunner Michael Patrick King, now 70, of not giving her a choice in the matter. 'I didn't want to do it. Michael Patrick forced me to do it. And he kept telling me like 'it'll be fine, it'll be great,'' she said on another episode of her podcast. More Trending 'And it is. But we were in a restaurant. There were people everywhere.' Speaking with Jenny Bicks, a writer on the show, Kristin admitted the story was 'not going to sound good' when the episode was released. However, she added her former boss 'knows' about her feelings. View More » Sex and the City is streaming on Now. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: Harry Potter fans have major complaint about TV series that they want 'abolished' MORE: Everything we know about the HBO Harry Potter series from cast to release date
