The Gilded Age Season 4 Starts November 1, and Rockefeller Is Coming for the Russells

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The Gilded Age is back on November 1 at 9pm on HBO, with eight episodes running weekly through December 20, and the trailer makes it clear who the new problem is. Neal Huff joins as John D. Rockefeller, which means Bertha Russell has finally met someone with more money than her. Carrie Coon, Christine Baranski, Cynthia Nixon, Morgan Spector, Louisa Jacobson and Denee Benton are all back.

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HBO's synopsis says Bertha is dealing with the fallout of her social success and what it has done to her family, Agnes wants to win back some of the standing she lost, Marian is off on a new path, and Peggy is trying to win over her future in-laws. That last one is the storyline I care about most, because Peggy's family has been the best-written part of the show for two seasons.

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The new faces are good. Dennis Haysbert plays Dr. Reginald Harris, Bonnie Milligan from Kimberly Akimbo plays a Mrs. Knapp Curtis, and Phylicia Rashad and Brian Stokes Mitchell are back. There was a stretch this year when it looked like Morgan Spector might not return, but he is in the trailer and on the cast lists, so George Russell lives to fight another railway.

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I came to this show late and sceptical and now I am fully in. It is Julian Fellowes doing Downton again, yes, but the American setting means the money is newer and the fights are nastier, and Coon and Baranski are two of the best things on television in any genre. Season three ended with a duel and a near-death, so the stakes have been raised.

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Sunday nights in November are now spoken for in my house. Are you a Russell person or a van Rhijn person, and has anyone ever been both?