TV POWER COUPLE OF THE YEAR MORGAN SPECTOR & CARRIE COON

THIS PAST SUMMER, as 90 private jets descended on Venice for a billionaire’s society wedding, HBO's The Gilded Age—a relatively niche series about New York's aristocracy in the aftermath of the industrial revolution—returned to our screens and inadvertently reflected our absurd cultural times back to us, down to a see-and-be-seen wedding of new elites.

- BY RAYMOND ANG

ON MORGAN SPECTOR pants Anderson & Sheppard ON CARRIE COON corset Agent Provocateur underwear Dolce & Gabbana tights Wolford ring (on left hand) Chopard ring (on right hand) Cartier hair by teddy charles. for coon: makeup by jo strettel using revlon at walter schupfer management; nails by kim truong using chanel beauty. for spector: skin by holly silius. tailoring by yelena travkina. set design by heath mattioli. produced by camp productions.

As the show met the moment and upped the stakes in season three, it became the crown jewel of HBO’s Sunday-night programming, seemingly overnight.

At the beating heart of the show are Carrie Coon and Morgan Spector, who star as Bertha and George Russell, new-money millionaires upending Manhattan's old-money elite. They nail the nuances of their characters’ despicable behavior while also playing a love match so convincing it’s hard not to root for them. And so the Russells have become unlikely couple goals—not for their vast wealth but for their common front, the TV marriage built on blood-and-sweat ambition.

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