HBO's 4-Part Historical Series Has One of the Best Seasons in TV History
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Published Nov 11, 2026, 7:52 PM EST
Amanda M. Castro is a Network TV writer at Collider and a New York–based journalist whose work has appeared in Newsweek, where she is an Associate Editor, and The U.S. Sun, where she previously served as a Senior Consumer Reporter.
She specializes in network television coverage, delivering sharp, thoughtful analysis of long-running procedural hits and ambitious new dramas across broadcast TV. At Collider, Amanda explores character arcs, storytelling trends, and the cultural impact of network series that keep audiences tuning in week after week.
Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Amanda is bilingual and holds a degree in Communication, Film, and Media Studies from the University of New Haven.
Bertha Russell gets what she wants; her daughter marries a duke, her name carries more weight in New York society, and she has managed to make the Astors look a little less untouchable. However, one problem remains because her family is paying for it — the uncomfortable position at the center of The Gilded Age Season 3. Julian Fellowes' HBO drama has always been interested in the people who make up New York's upper class, especially those with money but without the right connections. By its third season, though, the series had found a more interesting use for that premise. Social advancement comes at a cost, and those pursuing it are not always prepared to face the consequences.
Set in 1880s Manhattan, The Gilded Age follows the rivalry between the old-money van Rhijn household and the newly wealthy Russell family. The show has plenty of elaborate parties and disagreements over invitations, as one might expect from a period drama about high society. Season 3 backs up those conflicts, with a 96% Rotten Tomatoes score based on 46 critic reviews, reflecting a season in which the characters' personal lives becomeas compelling as their social ambitions.
What Is 'The Gilded Age' About? HBO's Drama Follows New York's Wealthiest Families
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When Marian Brook (Louisa Jacobson) arrives in New York in 1882, she enters a world with rules she doesn't fully understand. Her aunts, Agnes van Rhijn (Christine Baranski) and Ada Brook (Cynthia Nixon), belong to a family with an established place in society. Their neighbors, George Russell (Morgan Spector) and Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon), have the money to compete, but the city's most influential families are reluctant to treat them as equals.
Bertha doesn't take this with a grain of salt; she wants her family accepted, and she has little patience for the idea that social standing should be inherited. Her determination to enter the city's most exclusive circles draws on the real history of wealthy industrial families such as the Vanderbilts, whose fortunes challenged the established social order. Caroline Astor (Donna Murphy), meanwhile, represents the kind of influence Bertha is trying to overcome.
Other stories unfold alongside the rivalry. Marian is working out what she wants from her own life, while Peggy Scott (Denée Benton) pursues a writing career in a society that places additional restrictions on Black women. Their experiences give the series a wider view of the period than the Russells' social ambitions alone could provide.
'The Gilded Age' Season 3 Gives Bertha Russell a Costly Victory
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Bertha's decision to arrange Gladys' (Taissa Farmiga) marriage to Hector, the Duke of Buckingham, is one of the season's defining conflicts. Gladys has feelings for Billy Carlton (Matt Walker), but her mother has other plans. Marrying a duke offers the family the social recognition Bertha has spent years pursuing; whether Gladys wants that life is another matter. George disagrees with the arrangement, and the disagreement exposes a serious problem in their marriage. Bertha has become so focused on the family's position that she is willing to make decisions for her children without considering what those decisions will do to them. Larry (Harry Richardson) is also frustrated with his mother's interference; his engagement to Marian falls apart after a misunderstanding involving his visit to the Haymarket, leaving another relationship damaged by the family's social complications.
Bertha's choices raise a question the series does not answer neatly: How much of her interest in social progress is about changing society, and how much is about changing her own position within it? She supports including divorced women at social events and uses her influence in the suffrage movement. Those actions have consequences beyond her immediate ambitions, but her motivations are not always as generous as the causes themselves.
The contrast with Agnes is worth watching. She can be rigid, dismissive, and deeply attached to her class privileges. Still, her treatment of Peggy and her willingness to acknowledge Peggy's work as a writer complicate the assumption that the old-money household is always the less progressive one. Agnes has her limitations, certainly, but she also shows a capacity for respect that Bertha does not consistently extend to the people closest to her.
Christine Baranski and Carrie Coon Give the Season Its Best Conflict
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The shift in power between Agnes and Ada is another reason Season 3 works. After inheriting a fortune, Ada becomes the authority in the household, a position Agnes has occupied for years. Agnes struggles with the change — understandably, perhaps — because she has built much of her identity around making the decisions, and now she has to accept that her sister has the final say.
Baranski makes that adjustment particularly interesting because Agnes is rarely willing to admit when she is wrong. Her relationship with Ada has room for genuine affection, even when she expresses it badly. Watching her gradually accept her sister's authority is more satisfying than another round of arguments about who belongs in which drawing room.
Coon has a different challenge, as Bertha can make a convincing case for almost anything she wants, including decisions that hurt the people around her. Coon doesn't need to make her sympathetic in every scene; she lets the character's ambition speak for itself, which makes the strain in her marriage to George all the more uncomfortable to watch.
The supporting cast has its own share of difficult material. Oscar van Rhijn (Blake Ritson) grieves John Adams (Claybourne Elder) after their relationship develops, while Peggy's romance with Dr. William Kirkland (Jordan Donica) moves toward a proposal despite opposition from his family. Jack's clock patent, meanwhile, gives him and Larry a chance to make money of their own. These stories don't always get equal attention, but they give the season a sense of a city changing at different speeds.
Why 'The Gilded Age' Season 3 Earned a 96% on Rotten Tomatoes
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The season's finale brings Bertha's private and public lives into direct conflict. George is shot and survives, but the couple ends the season estranged after her decisions involving their children, then Bertha's Newport ball succeeds by the standards she has spent years chasing — she even makes room for divorced women on the guest list. The achievement feels rather different when she returns to a marriage in serious trouble.
Rotten Tomatoes currently lists Season 3 at 96% from critics, with an 86% audience score based on more than 100 ratings. Those numbers don't settle where the season belongs in television history, of course, but they do suggest the show has found an audience for its increasingly complicated character stories.
Season 3 is at its best when the consequences follow the characters home. Bertha has gained access to the society she wanted, Agnes has lost control of a household she thought would always be hers, and neither woman has quite the life she expected, and that is where the series finds its most interesting material.
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