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"  At the risk of sounding like an Anglophile Andy Rooney, I hate drama series The Gilded Age on principle. I hate it for what it&amp;#039;s going to do to Downton Abbey, the show I love so much. NBC describes Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes&amp;#039;s new show, set in late-nineteenth-century New York, as &amp;quot;an epic tale of the princes of the American Renaissance, and the vast fortunes they made \u2014 and spent.&amp;quot; Fellowes adds that there will be &amp;quot;dizzying, brilliant ascents and calamitous falls, of record-breaking ostentation and savage rivalry; a time when money was king.&amp;quot; We already have a misguided Edith Wharton adaptation, and it&amp;#039;s called Gossip Girl. Please undestand: I love Julian Fellowes and his pathological interest in the British class system. After Downton Abbey runs its course, I would happily watch a spinoff exploring the Dowager Countess&amp;#039;s misspent youth or Fellowes&amp;#039;s take on Upstairs, Downstairs. But Fellowes needs to understand his limitations: He functions best when he&amp;#039;s writing about the world he knows best (Fellowes&amp;#039;s title is Baron Fellowes of West Stafford, and his wife is lady-in-waiting to Princess Michael of Kent), and his work suffers when he&amp;#039;s stretched too thin. The disastrous second season of Downton Abbey, which focused on the First World War, was followed too quickly by Titanic, a miniseries that makes Liz &amp;amp;amp; Dick look like The Godfather Part II. Shifting to an unfamiliar setting and trying to appease a ravenous network that will likely demand at least a thirteen-episode season is not going to help Fellowes, who is already prone to dragging out plotlines too long (Downton&amp;#039;s Anna and Bates) and introducing and abandoning stories to fill space (remember that Canadian burn victim?). So I implore you, Mr. Fellowes: Focus and keep Downton from crapitude. The departure of Matthew Crawley is a sign to keep your head down and the show tight, not style your own British Invasion of the major networks. We&amp;#039;re depending on you like Lord Grantham depends on Bates. Don&amp;#039;t let us down. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a16990/julian-fellowes-the-gilded-age-14789193/>