The real Gilded Age in American history was a time of rampant political corruption, flagrant consolidation of wealth, and grotesque racism. Depressing, right? Let’s talk instead about The Gilded Age, Julian Fellowes’ opulent period drama featuring sumptuous costumes, swoony romance, and an all-star cast that clearly delights in bringing this lavish soap to life. In the upcoming third season, Fellowes and his team continue to focus largely on the beauty of the titular era rather than its uglier realities. But the new episodes of HBO’s Gilded Age finally deliver stories for its Black characters that are as robust as those for their white counterparts — and the result is the show’s most satisfying and entertaining outing yet.

Though the season 2 finale aired nearly a year-and-a-half ago, the new episodes pick up just a few months later. Kindhearted Marian Brook (Louisa Jacobson) and her wealthy beau Larry Russell (Harry Richardson) are courting in secret, due to Miss Brook’s recent failed engagement to another man. Marian’s aunt Agnes van Rhijn (Christine Baranski) is usually quick to disapprove of her niece’s romances, but the stately socialite is too busy adjusting to her new penniless reality — and the fact that her widowed sister, Ada Forte (Cynthia Nixon), now holds the purse strings.

Over at the mansion across the street, Larry’s younger sister, Gladys (Taissa Farmiga), is sneaking around with her milquetoast suitor, Billy Carlton (Matt Walker), even though she knows her mother — the formidable Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon) — wants to marry her off to the Duke of Buckingham (Ben Lamb). While Bertha’s husband George (Morgan Spector) opposes pushing his daughter into a marriage she doesn’t want, he remains more focused on his work acquiring the land and money needed to build a cross-country railroad line. As for the downstairs crew, the Van Rhijn’s footman, Jack Trotter (Ben Ahlers), waits anxiously as Larry Russell begins seeking a buyer for his patented alarm clock design. Meanwhile, the Russells’ butler, Mr. Church (Jack Gilpin), and his staff seek to ferret out a spy who’s been leaking details about the family’s private life to the press.

For the first two seasons, the only Black character to have any interaction with the Fifth Avenue crowd was Peggy Scott (Denée Benton), the Brooklyn-based reporter and aspiring writer who also works as Agnes’ personal secretary. Though Peggy and her family — including her mother, Dorothy (Audra McDonald) and her pharmacist father, Arthur (John Douglas Thompson) — had their own storylines, the show never really delved into the world of the well-to-do Black elite who existed at that time.

With season 3, Fellowes and his co-writer, Sonja Warfield, correct this by extending its focus to the concentric social circles of Black and white New Yorkers — and at times even letting them shift and intersect. Theater lovers will be thrilled to learn that Gilded does, at long last, find a way to have McDonald’s Dorothy and Baranski’s Agnes share some scenes — under circumstances I won’t spoil. More importantly, the new season takes us inside Black high society. Peggy meets a handsome young doctor named William Kirkland (Jordan Donica), and much of their courtship takes place in Newport, R.I., where his affluent parents, Elizabeth (Phylicia Rashad) and Frederick (Brian Stokes Mitchell), live year-round.

The Gilded Age is equal parts history and fantasy, so it’d be unfair to expect a fully realistic depiction of the racism Peggy and company would actually face. Still, this season Fellowes allows the characters to have their most pointed conversations about race so far. Agnes informs the Scotts that she was brought up to treat everyone with “simple good manners,” prompting Arthur to respond, “I’m not convinced good manners will prove an effective cure for two and a half centuries of slavery.” Peggy and her family even encounter bias within their own community — specifically from Elizabeth, who disapproves of the Scott family due to their darker skin and Arthur’s past as a slave.

As always, Fellowes and Warfield balance the social issues of the time with domestic drama. Adding to Agnes’ umbrage about losing her fortune is Ada’s decision to get involved in the burgeoning temperance movement, which she sees as a way to honor her late husband. A well-known Fifth Avenue wife is blindsided when her husband announces he wants a divorce, which will leave her exiled from New York society — as per the rules established by the city’s social arbiter, Lena Astor (Donna Murphy). This gross imbalance of power between men and women is what drives Bertha to push Gladys into marriage with the Duke, because she understands the grim fact that a woman’s value is inexorably tied to the man at her side. Still, her unwillingness to take her daughter’s feelings into account — as well as a crisis in George’s business dealings — begins to put a strain on the Russells’ marriage.

The performances remain stellar. Baranski reigns over every one of her scenes as Agnes, who wields her inflections as a master artist wields her brush. (“I’ll spend the rest of my days with society’s cast-offs, and women of ill-repute!”) Nixon brings a gentle strength to Ada, and Coon is haughty perfection as Bertha. Not only do we get the thrill of seeing Baranski and McDonald on screen together, but the latter’s Dorothy also has a gripping face-off with Rashad’s Elizabeth. (What a time to be alive!)

Once again, the guest cast is superb: Bill Camp, sporting a magnificent handlebar mustache, is gloriously gruff as Wall Street power broker J.P. Morgan, who joins George in his railroad scheme. Andrea Martin is suitably theatrical as Madame Dashkova, a so-called medium, and LisaGay Hamilton makes a welcome appearance as suffragist Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, who recruits Peggy to her cause. Merritt Wever arrives as Bertha’s sister, Monica, who is as grounded and unfussy as Mrs. Russell is grand. (Apologies to the many, many other actors in this vast ensemble; you’re all due individual accolades, but this review is already running long.)

The season’s only misstep comes in the finale, when the growing tension between George and Bertha builds to a climax that is somewhat confounding and — in this viewer’s opinion — out of character for George. The revelation feels particularly tacked on in an episode that’s otherwise filled with glamour (two balls!), a romantic proposal, and hard-fought social victories. But it’s a small quibble, and after three increasingly enjoyable seasons, perhaps it’s best to trust that Fellowes and Warfield know what they’re doing. As Bertha says to her disapproving husband, “I won’t question your business if you don’t question mine.” Grade: A-

The Gilded Age season 3 premieres Sunday, June 22 at 9 p.m. ET/PT, on HBO.