Christine Baranski knows The Gilded Age leveled up in its second season

We love it, but The Gilded Age is mostly a silly show about big dresses and even bigger hats. Still, its star Christine Baranski knows those hats fit a lot more comfortably in the HBO series’ second outing, and, in the spirit of nineteenth century New York, she isn’t afraid to be a little petty about it. 

“I was hoping we’d have a third season (they are!), because the second season was so much improved over the first,” the Mamma Mia! star, who plays old money socialite Agnes van Rhijn, recently told The Hollywood Reporter. As any good gossiper knows, you have to be able to back up your barbs, and Baranski certainly has a good reason for her comments. 

“The first season, there were so many new characters that had to be introduced. You couldn’t put them in severe conflict until you knew who they were and what their world was,” she continued. “I, of course, had to almost single-handedly represent the old money portion of society, so I found a lot of my dialogue was expositional in nature. There was just a lot of groundwork to lay, but once the audience clued into it, things could then really move forward. You have to earn the right to kick into high gear with a drama.” While this is all entirely spot on, that last bit rings especially true with regard to dramas’ increasingly rare, but always special third seasons. We’re seeing the evolution right now with fellow HBO series Industry, and we’ll hopefully see it again when The Gilded Age airs its next installment sometime in 2025.

Speaking of season three, the show has added a whole host of new social machinators for its next turn, including Merritt Wever as Bertha’s (Carrie Coon) estranged sister, Leslie Uggams as a member of Newport’s Black elite society, and Bill Camp as JP Morgan. Yes, that JP Morgan. But while finding a way to weave one of the world’s most famous investment bankers into your story might be a measure of success for some, Baranski’s personal indicator is much more au courant. “One of my colleagues wore a T-shirt that had three of my faces, as Agnes, on it with a quote that I said on the show. ‘Heads have rolled for less,’” she shared. “If you can make it onto a T-shirt that’s being worn at a gay pride parade, which these were in Los Angeles, then you’ve entered the culture. You’re part of the conversation. You’re trending.”