“VENGEANCE SHALL BE MINE!”

“Shouldn’t we leave vengeance to the Lord?”

“Not if we want it done properly.”

If you are a regular viewer of “The Gilded Age,” Julian Fellowes’ American follow-up to “Downton Abbey,” you likely know who is speaking these lines in the upcoming fourth season and exactly what the conversation sounded like. But I’ll tell you anyway: It’s Christine Baranski’s imperious matron Agnes van Rhijn, furious over yet another perceived snub, and her soft-voiced sister Ada Forte (Cynthia Nixon), who knows that it’s not worth getting in the way of Agnes’ wrath but feels compelled to lodge a routine objection anyway. And it’s dialogue like this, delivered in operatic tones by a brilliant cast, that makes the show so much fun. Well, that and the hats.

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Premiering in 2022 (the fourth season begins streaming on HBO on Sunday ) and set in 1880s New York, “The Gilded Age” had a slow start.…