The one thing I really do not like about THE GILDED AGE is the whole "Gay men fool innocent girls" plot. I get it from a historical perspective, they see/have no way of being happy in this society, but still, it's just gross. The fact they're so much older than Gladys only makes it worse.
Clearly we're not supposed to like this idea either. But still, I don't think it's right from a storytelling angle. It's the Skyler White problem.
Skyler White, wife of BREAKING BAD lead Walter White, spends two years in the dark not knowing anything about what her husband is doing. That's part of the drama for him; he can't let her find out. But it poisons the well on her character. When the audience is on a secret that one of the characters does not know (but probably should), it makes them seem pathetic.
Skyler is told at the top of season three, which given the fact that season one is just six episodes is not that bad. Her story is definitely then able to take off in interesting ways. But a lot of damage was already done.
THE GILDED AGE has spent its whole first season doing the same thing to Gladys. And weakness is already an issue she contends with as a character because of the way her mother and father treat her. I'm sure Julian Fellowes has some plan to launch a stronger version of Gladys out of the ashes of all this at some point, but the amount of degradation she might have to go through--really the amount she's going through already...is harming her as a character.
Also, why are the gay characters in Julian Fellowes' historical projects always villains? He tries to humanize them by placing their villainy in the context of their situation. But do they really all have to be that way? (Someone pointed out to me just today that the GILDED AGE plot was actually done to Mary in a lesser way in DOWNTON ABBEY. Which only increases the WTF of it. Find a new take, Julian.)
There's a lesson in there about the treatment of minorities, but also about seeing the patterns in your own writing. Our stories are obviously shaped by our own assumptions and issues. It's essential to see those patterns in our work--or more often, to let others help us see them--so that we don't recycle the same nasty plots again and again.
