How do you introduce your characters? It can be such a challenge to do in the pilot, especially if you have a huge cast like THE GILDED AGE. You want each character to have a moment, and ideally that moment will reveal something specific about who they are, what they want and/or what their problem is. Doing that with a huge cast threatens to slow things down.
But if you watch the first few minutes of GILDED AGE, there's no such problem. In fact the opening has a wonderful momentum. We start with the horse-drawn carts rolling through Central Park to the Russell's fancy new house, and for a few minutes the camera never stops moving. We go from the carts rolling up to Bannister and his second watching from the van Rhijn house across the street, and then up the windows to where Agnes watches, unhappily and from behind the curtain, as though hidden away. Just like that we learn much about what this show is--Russells vs. van Rhijns; new money vs. old. And without a word from her we've also learned everything we need to know about Agnes--she does not like what the Russells represent; and she's trapped away in her house.
We get a second beat of the watching to introduce her sister Ada, and then John is given mail that carries bad news--which he immediately clarifies with "They're old, they get bad news every week." So someone has died. And then we follow him into the servants' work area and in about 10 seconds meet all five main players there and learn the space they work in; and with the exception of Armstrong (Debra Monk) between dialogue and costume it's very clear what they each do and their relationships. There's even a bit of conflict as Mrs. Bauer suggests Bannister let Armstrong take the letters up and Bannister says he thinks he knows what he's doing.
(On second thought that moment is actually there to give us some sense of Armstrong, isn't it? Even though we don't have the connection yet of face and name, still Fellowes is trying to establish roles and relationships.)
Bannister takes the notes upstairs, we cut to credits and then we're with our protagonist Marian, who is the subject of the note that we've just heard talked about. And now we take a real moment with her and Tom Raikes, her lawyer, who unbeknownst to us (or her) will be so central in her story. And we lay out her problem and also her self-confidence--her great skill. And on we go back to the sisters in New York and their reaction to Marion's situation.
We haven't introduced the Russells yet, which is brilliant; we set up everything on one side of the street and then turn to them--and the conceit of the sisters watching them through the window is once again our way in. It's Mrs. Russell they're watching, the main character of that story, and we follow her into her house--with the music that opened the show and led us into the Van Rhijn story now leading us into the Russell story as well, and once again the space, the characters and their desires. First Mrs. Russell and her desire to take the world by storm. Then we slow down and meet Mr. Russell, whose tycoon status is clear from the opening shot of him lighting a cigar.
It's really, really brilliant. It's like a whole class in opening a show. You think I need whole scenes to introduce characters and relationships, but no. Sometimes it's as simple as what they wear, their stature or physical relationship to someone else in a room. That image at the top of this post: Ada looks out on the Russells with curiosity, maybe concern. But Agnes hides in the background, not in the light but in the dark, both not wanting her obvious interest to be seen and also once again, seeming a bit trapped. The show's own Miss Havisham.
