Last week I gloried in the florid melodrama of The Gilded Age. This week I fear the bill for those pleasures has come due. Because as quickly as the disasters come, they are erased through the magic of plot armor. As delicious as the troubles of these characters can be, they melt on the tongue and disappear so that another plate of empty calories can be slid onto the table.
All I want are a few consequences for awful behavior. All I want is a comeuppance or two. Instead, what we get this week is bailout after bailout. George has unwisely and vindictively overleveraged his company, threatening ruin for his family? No worries, Larry will ingeniously discover that the copper mines described as worthless for the whole season are suddenly money machines. Bertha selfishly auctions off her daughter to a penniless aristocrat? Hey, looks like they might fall in love after all, no harm done. Larry never even thinks of refusing a visit to New York’s aristocratic…
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