But it is unusual for it to feature on The Gilded Age, a show where the most intense action is typically Carrie Coon saying something mean.

Thus are the lingering questions heading into Sunday night’s season finale of The Gilded Age, the HBO drama that has, to the surprise of many, become the hottest show of the summer. Its viewership keeps growing, and, buzz-wise, it’s all everyone I know is talking about.

“Places like that were very much the product of the new money of the time, as you can see in ‘The Gilded Age,’” said David Ray, a longtime Newport resident and owner of the Bannister’s Wharf complex and the Clarke Cooke House restaurant. “There was one-upmanship at any cost.”

Though HBO's The Gilded Age often chided for its low-stakes approach—as if we have nothing better to concern ourselves with than the trials and travails of the show's mostly ultra-rich cast of characters—there's an addictive quality to its particular blend of drama,