#DENEE BENTON IN THE GILDED AGE LMAO

[davidtennantgenderenvy]

Me: (shows this picture to my grandmother and says in a funny voice) please look at this cool picture of Taylor Swift

My grandmother, who is hard of hearing: wHo iS tHaT? iS tHaT tInA tUrNeR???

[mermaidsirennikita]

I saw Meryl’s daughter in a play in LA recently and she was MUCH more vibrant than on the show. It was startling. She was still unequivocally a nepotism hire because literally everyone else in the gilded age cast has extensive experience and she’s a total newcomer, but I wonder if it’s the directing/writing that’s stifling her. Ingenues aren’t really supposed to be interesting and I think Marian’s supposed to be the “straight man” type? But even so, some of Louisa’s line readings are just so bad and flat. Maybe her performance in the play was exceptional.

At any rate, the gilded age is so middling which is disappointing because it had a lot of potential. It’s such an fascinating period and is relatively unexplored. I wish it were about Peggy and her family.

The Gilded Age is boring, but people who are good in it can make their moments work. Denee Benton is great. Carrie Coon and Morgan Spector have great chemistry and manage to act like they're on some Real Housewives show even when the material isn't super exciting--whenever they get to lord over someone else you can tell they love it.

Louisa had a pretty big storyline in the first season--she was supposed to fall in love and be like? An It Girl? Somehow? And yet she gave absolutely nothing. Just flat smiles here and there. Maybe she feeds off an audience and does better on stage--a lot of actors are more suited for theater than film, and vice versa. But idk man, I don't think anyone was responsible for how flat she was on the show but her because they obviously wanted us to invest in her character.

The show is disappointing because it's super pretty to look at and has good actors--Audra McDonald!!! is on their payroll!!! And she's like... a sad mom? I find Peggy's plotline to be reeeeeeeeeeeally disappointing. She's from a wealthy Black family in New York and they give her a tragic dead baby but oops not really because her father (a successful Black man in 19th century America) is HORRIBLE AND PREJUDICED LMAO??? Typical Fellowes. Such a dipshit. Why. Denee is so good though. So charismatic and pretty and does what she can with the material she's given.

And the drama should be waaaay higher. Like, you've got Robber Baron Macbeth and Lady Macbeth here and he's not having his enemies killed in the streets? She nEVER found out about the maid trying to get in his pants? She never had the maid kidnapped or some shit? THE DRAMA POTENTIAL IS THERE!!!!

Also, we have the standard issue Closeted Snake stereotype that Fellowes is so fond of (just like the maid was the standard issue Evil Maid, this time with tits out). It's Downton Abbey redux, which is so fucking dull because it's like... America is a different nation... the culture was different... Idk bro, maybe having a dude who sits in the House of Lords write TV about the Gilded Age was a mistake???

Should've just adapted a Joanna Shupe series.