Posted: 1/25/22 at 6:58pm
You raise solid points about the gay relationship mirroring the (questionable) accuracy of the black/white friendships. As noted above, I found the depiction of racist bias isolated to the downstairs characters ahistorical. It feels like wishful projection to exonerate the upper class, particularly the old money legacy-preserving characters. But Glamour has an interview with Benton in which she discusses the specific notes she gave to make that relationship more accurate. She decidedly had issues. One wonders what the script was like before she contributed.
The gay relationship feels contemporary and thus altogether comfortable, which though a positive portrayal of LGBTQ lives has a whiff of anachronism. I thought it was Fellowes and HBO throwing an invested community -- the gay audience for Downton legendary -- a small reward, but we'll have to see how it's developed. Perhaps significant: most reviews of the first five episodes do not mention any gay relationships. Yet it's early, so we'll keep an open mind.
Yet Vanity Fair, an outlier on the subject, worries about this, too:
"As was true of Downton Abbey, there is a main-ish gay character on The Gilded Age, once again a mostly closeted schemer and half villain—because, I suppose, Fellowes is going to Fellowes. This character at least is shown in moments of intimacy with another man, cognizant that he must marry a woman to keep up appearances, but steadfastly determined to maintain his discreet lifestyle all the while. Is that progress? Maybe, though I hope he doesn’t get stuck in the same eddy of secrecy and conniving that trapped Downton’s Thomas."
Updated On: 1/25/22 at 06:58 PM
