Why is The Gilded Age portraying the robber barons as heroes?

Slate

Julian Fellowes "has always been as invested in portraying the preposterousness of the rich as he is their ultimate humanity," says Phillip Maciak. "And, to its credit, the show clearly understands the failings of its luridly wealthy characters. But, because the tone of this particular series is so avowedly light, it’s committed to a project of rehabilitation for nearly all of them." He adds: "The show seems indebted to the literary aesthetic of great Gilded Age novelists like Henry James and Edith Wharton, and advance press for the series made sure to acknowledge these literary forebears. But, despite occasional dark turns, The Gilded Age has none of Wharton or James’ invigorating mercilessness. Those novelists elaborately described the sorts of interiors, domestic and psychological, we see onscreen here, but they were never this gentle. The nineteenth century New York of the American realists and naturalists was a pretty nasty place, but, over and again, the New York of Fellowes’ show simply isn’t. In this, The Gilded Age takes much the same tone as Shonda Rhimes’ Regency era romance Bridgerton—down to its fanfic approach to literary influence—when it really ought to feel more like Succession."