We almost want to apologize about watching "The Gilded Age", HBO's drama about, well, the Gilded Age in New York City at the end of the 19th century, but...

Before we get to the but, it's hard to find a show more empty underneath its glossy surface than "The Gilded Age". Weighty topics like racism in schools and the plight of organized labor are touched and dismissed in favor of figuring out which opera house to attend. Yes, that's the main arc of the show's Season 2: eight episodes arguing about which opera house is better. Sounds so vapid, but...

So why did we watch it? Some do it for the clothes, but watching women wear window drapery is not exactly exciting. Some do it for the acting, which ranges from basically banal (Louisa Jacobson as Marian Brook, essentially the central character, is a blank canvas devoid of a brushstroke) to master class (what Christine Baranski, who plays Marian's aunt Agnes Van Rijn can do with a tilt of an eyebrow without uttering a word should be taught in every acting school). Which is all fine and good, but...

But we were watching it to see if we get a Jew! You see, the crux of the show is the upper class struggle ("struggle" is really the wrong word here) of the nouveau riche pair, played by Carrie Coon (another wonderful actress) and Morgan Spector. Spector is Jewish in real life, and recently played a main role on a very different HBO show, "The Plot Against America". Could a secret Jewish past be revealed to make it into a real struggle? Alas...

Does that mean we're going to watch Season 3?