Empire building: HBO period drama 'The Gilded Age' lifts the curtain on Season 2

Whether first heard as a quippy one-liner from famous New York humorist Fran Lebowitz or read in Esther Crain's book "The Gilded Age in New York, 1870-1910," there is little doubt you've heard about New York City's penchant for change. Per Crain's aforementioned book, released in 2016, "the most common observation about New York is that it never stops evolving."

This is especially true in the HBO series "The Gilded Age," premiering Season 2 on its home network and the Max streaming service Sunday, Oct. 29. Starring Carrie Coon, Cynthia Nixon and Christine Baranski as some of New York's finest wealthy gossips, the series follows a group of business moguls and socialites as they work hard to make a name for themselves and build an empire in New York City during the turn of the 20th century.

Coon stars as Bertha Russell, a "new money heiress" who caused some major waves in Season 1 alongside her husband, railroad tycoon George Russell (Morgan Spector), and her fellow socialite Mrs. Caroline Astor (Donna Murphy), the leader of the aristocratic social society called The Four Hundred. With her own societal standing foremost in her sights, Bertha often stirs up more trouble than is necessary to get what she wants.

Also to blame for her fair bit of trouble is Marian Brook (new talent Louisa Jacobson), who fell on hard times when her father died in the series premiere and began Season 1 by moving into her estranged aunts' house for a bit of a lifestyle makeover in the Big Apple. Marian's aunts, Ada Brook (Nixon) and Agnes Van Rhijn (Baranski), both belong to the old-money world and thus have very particular views on how things should be done among New York's finest. While Marian does her best to please her aunts, she has also learned that not everyone subscribes to her family's conservative school of thought.

Returning alongside Coon, Murphy, Jacobson, Nixon and Baranski for Season 2 is Denée Benton, who plays Peggy Scott, a highly motivated writer who moved from Pennsylvania to New York City with Marian. Despite holding down a job as Agnes' secretary, Peggy is of respectable societal standing herself and has come to enjoy the company of her old friend in a new city. She also enjoys testing the boundaries set in place by those in high-up positions, often complicating matters for herself and those closest to her.

Headed into the show's second season, the Primetime Emmy-winning series follows more of the petticoat-clad drama that comes along with Gilded-era expansion. This time, according to the official HBO trailer, it seems that the bulk of the hullabaloo centers on the world of the operatic arts. More specifically, it likely revolves around the 1886 closing of the Metropolitan Opera House.

As newcomers to the show (and maybe even some avid fans) may not yet know, "The Gilded Age" takes many of its plot lines from the annals of history. While hardly to be considered a true story, the first season held to realities of the robber barons of the late 1800s, like the railroading Russells. (The Astors were also a real family, fictionalized for the series.) Now headed into its second season, "The Gilded Age" is placing its focus on the so-called "Opera House War" of the 1890s and the subsequent end of the "Knickerbocker era."

According to Crain, who wrote of this historic moment in "The Gilded Age in New York," as the theater district began to spread across Manhattan, "seeing the opera wasn't the point" of going to the show, rather "being seen was." And as these types of outings began to cater to more and more people from varying walks of life, members of the wealthier classes could no longer procure seats. And so, they did what any multimillionaire family of the Gilded Age would do: they opened their own opera house.

While Crain's book and HBO's drama series are not affiliated, even just a quick glance at the literature signals that the show may feature more than a few interesting characters this season. While no such castings have been confirmed, Crain's accounts list circus showman P.T. Barnham, piano-maker William Steinway, socialite Alva Vanderbilt and more among influential figures in and around New York at the time.

A few more characters viewers can count on returning, however, are the aforementioned Russells, as well as Gladys (Taissa Farmiga) and Larry Russell (Harry Richardson), Oscar Van Rhijn (Blake Ritson), Mr. Bannister (Simon Jones) and Mr. Church (Jack Gilpin).

Meanwhile, joining the cast are Laura Benanti, Christopher Denham, Robert Sean Leonard, Matilda Lawler, Ben Lamb, Dakin Matthews, Nicole Brydon Bloom and David Furr.