Comparing 1883 to The Gilded Age's 1882

The Ringer

Paramount+'s Yosemite prequel series takes place months after the events of Julian Fellowes new HBO period drama. "1883 and The Gilded Age share some similarities other than big budgets and settings midway between the Panic of 1873 and the Panic of 1893 (and just prior to the Panic of 1884; panicking was popular in the late 19th century)," says Ben Lindbergh. "Both are brand-name multi-hyphenates’ follow-ups (and temporal preludes to) their first TV hits. 1883, created and written by Taylor Sheridan, is a prequel to Yellowstone; The Gilded Age, created and cowritten by Julian Fellowes, is technically a prequel to Downton Abbey, in that it too takes place on planet Earth, a few decades before Downton. (The series started life as a more explicit prequel, and a crossover of sorts is still a possibility.) Each show features a young female protagonist who leaves home in hopes of finding freedom and fortune, a prominent Black character who reminds the non-Black characters about segregation, and a character who blows their own brains out after suffering a severe loss. Each boasts of some commitment to historical accuracy and explores some similar themes. Whichever one you watch, you’re certain to encounter horses, corsets, and characters who hit the 'h' in 'wh' words harder than Stewie from Family Guy saying 'Wil Wheaton.' In other respects, the two 1880-something series are nearly nothing alike. 1883 took about seven months to develop and produce; The Gilded Age took 12 years. The former is an alternately upbeat and brutal Western populated by haunted, hard-bitten protectors, unscrupulous robbers, and suffering settlers; the latter, like Downton, is an upstairs-downstairs soap fest full of eligible socialites, scheming lady’s maids, and sharp-tongued dowagers. Though both were shot on location, the locations in question couldn’t be more distinct: 1883, the product of a suitably grueling, five-month, real-world trek from sweltering Texas to frigid Montana, showcases the wide-open spaces of the Great Plains and other Western wildernesses, while The Gilded Age lets us plebs past the gates of the period-appropriate great estates of Newport and exurban New York."