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Color Page 2 • Terre Haute Tribune-Star • October 29 - November 4, 2023 Whether first heard as a quippy one-liner from famous New York humorist Fran Lebowitz ("Pretend It's a City") 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 and available through most major booksellers, "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 ("Gone Girl," 2014), Cynthia Nixon ("Sex and the City") and Christine Baranski ("Mam- ma Mia!," 2008) as some of New York's finest wealthy gossips, the series follows a group of business moguls and social- ites 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 hus- band, railroad tycoon George Russell (Morgan Spector, "The Plot Against America"), and her fellow socialite Mrs. Caroline Astor (Donna Murphy, "The Nanny Diaries," 2007), the leader of aristocratic social society called The Four Hundred. With her own societal stand- ing 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 trou- ble 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 fami- ly's conservative school of thought. Returning alongside Coon, Murphy, Jacobson, Nixon and Baranski for Sea- son 2 is Denée Benton ("UnREAL"), who plays highly motivated writer Peggy Scott, 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 com- pany of her old friend in a new city. She also enjoys testing the boundaries set in place by those in high-up positions, of- ten complicating matters for herself and those closest to her. Headed into the show's second season, the Primetime Emmy-win- ning series follows more of the pet- ticoat-clad drama that comes along with Gilded-era expansion. This time, according to the official HBO trailer, it seems that the bulk of the hullaba- loo centers on the world of the op- eratic 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." coverstory BY DANA SIMPSON David Furr and Louisa Jacobson in "The Gilded Age" Operatic opposition: HBO period drama lifts curtain on Season 2 Though it's a potent chiller anytime, there clearly isn't better scheduling for director and co-writer John Carpenter's original 1978 thriller "Hallow- een" than the week of trick-or-treating itself. AMC gives the scare show a real workout by showing it Sunday, Oct. 29, Monday, Oct. 30, and Tuesday, Oct. 31 – along with several of the sequels, which were guaranteed when the first movie became one of the most profitable independent films of all time. Recent Oscar winner Jamie Lee Curtis secured her "scream queen" label as Laurie Strode, the babysitter who ends up in a battle for survival against Mi- chael Myers (played mainly by Nick Castle), a sanitarium escapee who targets various people in an Illinois town. Donald Pleasence also stars as the masked and highly lethal Michael's psychiatrist, who does what he can to recapture the killer. Carpenter also composed the memorably minimalist music score. Nick Castle in "Halloween" "Halloween" is here again classiccorner BY JAY BOBBIN "The Nightmare Before Christmas" (Freeform, Sunday, Oct. 29): Produced by Tim Burton, this bizarrely and famously unique 1993 story centers around Jack Skellington (voice shared by Chris Sarandon and composer Danny Elfman), the offbeat leader of annual celebrations of trick-or-treating. He also wants to honor Christmas, but others don't know how to separate the spirit of that occasion from the Halloween events they're used to, to the degree that a plot to kidnap Santa Claus is hatched. Catherine O'Hara and Paul Reubens – alias "Pee-wee Herman" – also are in the voice cast. "To Catch a Thief " (MGM+, Sunday, Oct. 29): One of di- rector Alfred Hitchcock's most stylish and lush;y filmed pictures, this 1955 treat teams Cary Grant and Grace Kelly – and, quite notably and noticeably, the French Riviera – in the tale of a for- mer jewel thief (Grant) who has a hard time convincing others that he's gotten out of that line of work. Jessie Royce Landis, who played Grant's mother in Hitchcock's "North by Northwest" sev- eral years later, co-stars. more retro rewinds