First look at hit drama The Gilded Age's highly anticipated new season

News.com.au

4 days ago

Emmy-nominated series, The Gilded Age, is set to return for its highly anticipated third season.
After its dramatic Season 2 finale, viewers will get the answers they crave when the period drama returns for another eight-episode season, airing locally on Paramount+ from June 23.
The series, which takes place during the US era of the same name, follows the wealthy residents of New York City during the late 1800s, focusing on the conflict that surrounds the new-money Russell family and their old-money neighbours, the van Rhijn family.
From day one, we see Bertha Russell (played by Carrie Coon) try to break into the old-money crowd, one social event at a time – and this season, it appears she finally has a chance to elevate her family to unimaginable heights among Manhattan society.
Meanwhile, chaos erupts across the street when cranky socialite Agnes van Rhijn (Christine Baranski) struggles to accept her younger, much gentler sister Ada Brook's (Cynthia Nixon) new position as lady of the household following the inheritance from her late husband.
As the season unfolds, ambition and scandal peaks, but no gains come without great sacrifice. To put it as succinctly as the trailer's tagline, 'Love can conquer all or cost you everything.'
'Agnes doesn't like all this new money – it's all for show,' Baranski told W magazine of her character back in October. 'It doesn't have to do with deep values.'
'People think she's just this grouchy old lady, but I actually think she has a lot to be angry about. She sees society changing toward one where you can buy your way into anything.'
And if you loved the Season 2 cliffhanger finale, Coon says there's plenty more where that came from.
'I was really shocked by a couple of the twists we have coming. So that was thrilling,' she told People last August, one month after filming was underway. 'They keep surprising me. I haven't even seen all the scripts yet, so I am eager to be surprised.'
She added of filming: '[It was] chiefly exciting because we didn't think we were getting a season 3. The people watching the show really did save it.'
'It's exciting because we have dispatched with all of the exposition, and now it's all storytelling, we don't have to introduce anyone really anymore. And I feel that [writers] Julian [Fellows] and Sonja Warfield have really embraced our very specific pacing, which is quite breathless actually, a lot can happen in an episode.'