“The Gilded Age” Is a Poor Man’s Period Drama

In the HBO drama “The Gilded Age,” the characters are keenly aware that they live in interesting times. Early in the series, which is set in the eighteen-eighties, an estate lawyer observes that million-dollar fortunes are made and lost by the day in the railway business. One of its titans, the robber baron George Russell (Morgan Spector), envisions an express line that will enable cross-country transport at an unprecedented pace.