LIFE & CULTURE

‘The Gilded Age’ Is The New Period Drama Everyone Is Going To Be Talking About

'Downton Abbey' meets 'Bridgerton'.

Fans of Bridgerton and Downton Abbey can consider their next binge-watch sorted.

The release of brand new period drama The Gilded Age is set to provide the first streaming shake up of 2022, with the New York City-based narrative providing a fresh lens on the lives and loves of the Big Apple’s natives in the nineteenth century. 

The story starts in the year 1882 following young country-raised Pennsylvanian Marian Brook, who moves to New York City to live with her aunties, all of whom have cushy fifth avenue lifestyles (thanks to old money). 

Per Variety, the show will cover “huge fortunes made and lost, and of palaces that spanned the length of Fifth Avenue”—seriously, it’s Sex and the City but make it Victorian. 

With its release date finally upon us, we thought it high time to do a deep dive on the show, including answering the all-important question: where you can watch it here in Australia. Scroll on for the low-down. 

What is The Gilded Age about? 

The show was written and produced by Downton Abbey’s Julian Fellowes and Gareth Neame. Going by the British period drama’s previous success, you know this one is going to be good. 

As mentioned above, the show follows young Marian Brook who moves to New York City following the death of her father. There, she becomes embroiled in a social war between her rich aunty and one of her affluent neighbours. Over the course of nine episodes, we’ll see Marian come to terms with her own identity in a society driven by wealth and greed—all while she manoeuvres the quirks of her family’s lavish lifestyles and the drama that comes with it. 

Who is in the cast of The Gilded Age? 

One of the sure-fire signs proving this show is a goodun’ is the stellar cast Fellowes recruited. 

Newcomer Louisa Jacobson stars as Marian Brook, while Sex and the City‘s Cynthia Nixon and The Good Fight‘s Christine Baranski play her two aunties, Ada and Agnes. 

UnREAL‘s Denée Benton plays Marian’s friend and aspiring writer Peggy Scott, while Morgan Spector and Carrie Coon play rich neighbours at war, George and Bertha.

Where can you watch The Gilded Age in Australia? 

The Gilded Age, owned by HBO and Universal Television, is available to stream in Australia on Paramount+ from January 26, 2022. 

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