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Podcast: It's Been a Minute
Episode: "The Gilded Age" and the trouble with American period pieces
Description: The Gilded Age delighted audiences with its lavish sets, decadent costumes and social sniping when it debuted. Lucky for us, the period drama just returned to HBO Max with a second season. But if we look a little closer at the show, it reveals what we truly want out of period pieces: to remake the past with our modern sensibilities and values. As Brandon Taylor wrote in his essay called "morgan spector pls break me in half," The Gilded Age engenders "self-delusion" about our history – because to reflect our past more accurately, would be "too horrifying" for a somewhat soapy sh...