When your life seems like it’s falling apart around you, what do you do? For Midge Maisel, the answer is stand-up comedy.
“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” which just wrapped up its fourth season, premiered on Amazon Prime Video in 2017. Set in New York in the late 1950s and early ‘60s, the series stars Rachel Brosnahan as Miriam “Midge” Maisel, a young Jewish housewife who pursues a career in stand-up comedy. After discovering her husband Joel’s (Michael Zegen) affair, Midge performs an impromptu stand-up routine at the Gaslight Cafe in Manhattan. Recognizing her natural comedic talent, a Gaslight employee named Susie Meyerson (Alex Borstein) convinces Midge to become a comic and offers to become her manager. As she explores the world of stand-up comedy, Midge has to deal with her concerned parents (Tony Shalhoub and Marin Hinkle), her nagging in-laws (Kevin Pollak and Shirley Aaron) and several key figures in the New York stand-up comedy scene. The show’s first three seasons were acclaimed by critics and received several accolades, including Emmy Awards Nominations for Brosnahan, Borstein and Shalhoub.
At the start of the fourth season, Midge’s comedy career has hit a roadblock after she loses her spot as the opening act on a popular singer’s national tour and is forced to return to New York. Strapped for cash, she moves back into her old apartment with her parents and starts working as the emcee at a Manhattan burlesque club. Meanwhile, Midge’s ex-husband runs a nightclub in Chinatown,her mother Roseworks as a matchmaker, and her father Abegets a job as a theater critic for a local newspaper.
As usual, the season is fast paced and ambitious, covering a myriad of plotlines that keep pace with the hustle and bustle of midcentury New York. Although the episodes’ one-hour runtimes allow the series to feature plenty of characters, the plots that highlight the antics of Midge’s friends and family members tend to pull focus away from her own story. As Midge settles down in New York in the first few episodes, it’s easy to feel a sense of déjà vu: finding herself back where she started in season one. It seems like the plot is going around in circles, where quite literally in the season premiere, Midge explains her predicament to her family while riding a Ferris wheel in Coney Island. However, the series gradually picks up momentum and settles into a comfortable rhythm, introducing new characters and storylines that culminate in an entertaining and emotional conclusion.
In keeping with past seasons, “Maisel” is a visually stunning watch, with vibrant costumes and sets that transport viewers back to the 1960s. Its lively soundtrack highlights the music of the era, and its use of ‘oners,’ or long scenes filmed in one continuous shot, is an impressive feat of cinematography. The series is elevated by witty, mile-a-minute dialogue that demands viewers’ attention; don’t watch this show if you’re merely looking for something to leave on in the background. However, the upbeat and polished tone of the show tends to overlook many of the challenges of 1960s America, leaving viewers to wonder whose voices are being left out of the story.
Brosnahan and Borstein are the heart of the show. Their chemistry and comedic banter makes the show a joy to watch, and Brosnahan brings a confident quality to Midge that makes her character hard not to like. Shalhoub and Hinkle stand out among the supporting cast as Midge’s parents Abe and Rose Weissman, and guest stars Jane Lynch and Luke Kirby steal the spotlight as fellow New York comics Sophie Lennon and Lenny Bruce.
Making a show like “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” is no easy feat. Tasked with recreating 1960s New York, juggling a host of characters and plotlines and keeping viewers’ attention with likable characters and sharp humor, the series is mostly successful. The series will return for its fifth and final season next year, which will hopefully provide a satisfying ending to Midge’s story.
