I finished **The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel** and really enjoyed it. Another great production from "Amazon Studios". Very solid acting all around and I loved how it delved into (aka made fun of) the rich New York Jewish community/stereotype in addition to the standup comedy scene from the late 1950's. The episodes are a bit long at times coming in at a full hour, but the writing and delivery of all the characters is very well done. Rachel Brosnahan who plays the main character, Midge, is hilarious, and plays the Jewish housewife entering a life crisis to the T.
The only disappointing thing is that this show was obviously written as a two season order from the get-go (which it was). Season 1 definitely ends at a pretty big cliffhanger moment with a lot of things kind of hanging in the balance and more story to go, but that's more natural since a second season was already green-lit when this ordered. I would have preferred to get a little more resolution during the season finale, but it does have me wanting/begging for more. I also really wish that it was based on a true story, but alas...
Really looking forward to the second season coming ASAP.
I like to think that TV, as a medium, has come a long way from what it was about a decade ago, where network TV was still dominant. Now we love that TV is every little bit as good as movies, there are real stories, characters that act like real people (as opposed to characters that act like tv characters), and you wouldn't find it hard to believe that what you're watching is real or could be real (unless the separation from reality is intentional).
Obviously, network TV is still around and despite their best efforts to keep up with the times, this type of content is still being made there, but rarely elsewhere. Plus, the entrance of Netflix and other streaming platforms, including *Mrs Maisel*'s Amazon, has pushed the needle on this front, to the extent that you'd find it hard to believe that a show could be made, netowrk-style, somewhere that is not network TV.
Enter **The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel**, a show that is set 1958 but could've been litterally on air in 1958 and it would fit right in, a show so network TV it's hard to believe that it's on Amazon.
It's not a bad show, per se, it's not doing anything new, really. Amy Sherman Palladino is just doing a period Gilmore Girls with one chick in the lead instead of two. You know, too much dialogue, walk and talk to give the illusion of something is happening when it's not really, and everyone is a cartoonish version of what they're supposed to be (e.g. overly jewish parents), and everything is rosy and nothing is grim about the world that the characters live in.
It's all fine, maybe you like this kind of stuff (which is okay), but I always felt like we have left this stuff behind to real stories with real people with real problems that might not go away magically just like that, which is not the case here, you can always count on the fact that the eponymous Mrs. Maisel would come out on top in almost every episode, which -- frankly -- starts to get annoying real quick.
It's a good show, maybe in 2005. Right now? it's just another brick in the wall.
@redouaaane if you want real people, real problems and real stories; I would suggest you to turn off your TV and step out of your house and start taking walks around your city, meet and talk to people (real ones) about their life, their desires, their problems. Go to the source.<br />
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Don’t forget, TV any kind of TV is Entertaiment Business. It’s not very wise to let TV shape your idea of how the real live, because everything in it is just a product of fiction.
@abetancort really, man? I can just wak out of my house to '50s New York and talk to upper middle class jewish folks about how they lived their lives? Brilliant!<br />
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And I get to meet Lenny Bruce too? Oh, man! This is dope!<br />
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Way to miss the point, buddy. TV as a medium has evolved beyond what **Mrs. Maisel** has to offer, although this doesn't necessarily mean the viewers evolved with it too. Which is why this show exists and is loved by many, many people who aren't me, which is a good thing.<br />
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I never said it's a bad show, it's just so _Passé_.
@redouaaane That’s why, you have to take it for what it is fictional portrayal, full of stereotypes, of New York‘s upper middle class jewish families of '50s. Like shows about set in the present time are still a fictional portrayal full of stereotypes. <br />
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Take them for their face value, entertainment, you either like the story, setting, acting, photography or whatever or not. But neither, shows set in past or present, are “real”. <br />
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Nothing to be surprised anyways, when even most of today’s tv news programs don’t actually care about facts, they’re in the entertainment and not in the News business.
@abetancort Sir, I invite you to watch shows like The Wire, The Sopranos, Six Feet Under and Rectify, you'll find that there's nothing stereotypical about them. Only bad writers write in stereotypes, it's lazy, unoriginal, and very boring.<br />
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I know that **Mrs. Maisel** aims only to entertain, it's not a bad thing to aim for, but entertaining is the bare minimum you expect from a TV show, which makes it a low bar to aim for. You can entertain and have a story/characters grounded in reality, and the more real it is, the more I'm likely to relate to it.<br />
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I repeat, I'm not against the show, I'm only against it in these times of #PeakTV.
@redouaaane I have watched the Sopranos and Six Feet Under, The Wire is in the queue and I didn’t knew about Rectify and in each of the first two there are as many stereotypes as you can expect in any work of fiction, there are many episodes that shouldn’t have made the cut as there are master pieces. <br />
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It’s unfair to compare anything to the Sopranos, probably the best tv series ever, and also to a masterpiece as Six Feet Under. The charm of **Mrs. Maisel** comes from the fact that it doesn’t aim to develop a “realistic” fictional portrayal of life but the simplistic fictional portrayal of life that in the late 50s was the common wisdom, was what society expected your live ought to be. Is it mocking about that era?
@abetancort <br />
My good sir, I did not compare **Mrs. Maisel** with any of the aforementioned shows, I was merely presenting them as examples of non-stereotypical shows, and so I disagree with you labeling them as stereotypical, but going into that argument shall take us on a longer discussion than I would like, and so I shall not say any more on that front.<br />
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I'm not sure if my rating does appear on my review, I have given **Mrs. Maisel** a rating of 7, which does at least indicate that I do appreciate what the show did, whilst my review/rant was more about what the show didn't do. It would be a lie to say the show gave me the experience of the life in '50s New York in a jewish family, but rather a stereotypical experience of a stereotypical housewife and her steretypical jewish family in stereotypical '50s New York, there is a big difference.<br />
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Stereotypes aren't necessarily bad, a writer writes stereotypes even without intending to do so, but if you're writing a formulaic show that is mainly comprised of stereotypes, I think that warrants a different kind of discussion.<br />
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To sum up what I'm trying to say: **The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel** is basically **Gilmore Girls** in a period garb. GG was good, but doing the same show with a different shtick is hardly progress.<br />
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I remember a saying that goes something like "When the steamroller of progress rolls in, if you're not on the steamroller, you're part of the road".
@redouaaane "I repeat, I'm not against the show, I'm only against it in these times of #PeakTV." <br />
Why are you against the show? it's not like the show is polluting airtime and squeezing out something better? People are choosing what they want to watch and when they watch it. <br />
There are multiple types of enjoyment one can find in watching TV shows or movies, and even though you're arguing that this show has no value other than pure entertainment (which I disagree with) , why should that be a bad thing? Sometimes I don't want to watch something that will make me think about real world problems. Sometimes I just want to relax with something more simple and lighthearted. <br />
I joked that this is the perfect companion to The Handmaid's Tale, since both shows are approaching feminism from totally different angles.
@chronosus _The Handmaid's Tale_ is torture porn, _Maisel_ is stereotype porn... well, at least _Handmaid_ is trying to say something (although, not doing a very good job of it as of late), which gives it value. _Maisel_ has no value, and serves no purpose beyond passing the time. I don't see it as feminist, at least not any way that's significant. One of the many things that feminism fights is stereotypes, while _Maisel_ embraces them.<br />
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It's a rant, you don't have to agree, I shouldn't have put this rant on here because what I wrote goes beyond _Maisel_, but I'm gonna leave it up here for those of us who are still looking to watch things of value in these times of neverending content.
Amy Sherman-Palladino creates great characters! And, this series has cast actors that excel in filling out her characters, the quirkier, the greater the performance. The production values are high and the wardrobe is magnificent (did Midge ever wear the same outfit twice?). The dialogue holds all the wit, fast moving quips and cultural eggs for which Palladino is known (with GILMORE GIRLS we had to keep on our toes to get all the pop culture references but now we have the instant gratification of Google). If left to these criteria, I would give it the highest of ratings, however, I think the show is devalued by the vulgarity of the humour. Midge is drawn as an intelligent, quick thinking woman, she doesn't need dick jokes to be funny and surely the writers can elevate above lewd and drunken behaviour to get a laugh. (I think it's ironic that Sophie Lennon is the antithesis of Mrs. Maisel yet in many ways the show stoops to the same shortcuts to jokes that is mocked in Sophie.) My mom taught me that foul language and base humour are the hallmark of a lazy mind. Wit can be so much more clever than that. Another annoyance popped up for me in the third season - what's with the long musical numbers? I'm not opposed to a good soundtrack but did the writers get too busy to write dialogue or did they run out of ideas for content? I found myself fast forwarding great swaths of meaningless music that does nothing to advance the plot. So, my rating for this series is 7 (good) out of 10, but it had the potential for so much more. [Comedic Drama]
@nancy-l-draper For me, I fully agree with the first half of your comments. The second half is where I think differently in two areas. First is the language and her comedy subject matter. Apparently, she's supposed to be the female Lenny Bruce. Have a feeling that they are afraid to go in some of the same directions that the real Lenny went because of our crazy PC culture, though there's no reason why she must be exacting that way. Mrs. Maisel is controversial so she's got to have controversial material. That's what makes her her. Though I will concede in one area regarding language - there are far too many F bombs laced throughout the show. Though I personally couldn't give a darn about that at all but it bothers me on a historical level. They just weren't flung that freely back then. It only ends up pulling me out of that time period and I don't want to leave until they start pulling us back with the outro song of each episode which is always something later than the date that takes place within the show. Always good selections too and they always seem to act as a time travel device to help pull us back. <br />
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My second thing is that I personally love, love, love all those musical scenes, and they are done so well. Of course, I've always been a big fan of music so it only makes me love the show that much more. When she did the TV show with Lenny Bruce (Miami After Dark, I think it was called), I was totally blown away with the production values, especially when you first see everyone take their marks and then you get a view where they pull you from the sound stage through the TV screen to what the viewer sees on the set itself. It was almost surreal. Such artistry that you rarely ever see in film let alone on a TV show. <br />
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Not part of your commentary but I'm throwing it in now is Rachel Brosnahan's ability, not just as an actress, but her ability to so very convincingly portray a stand-up comedian. Many good actors couldn't pull that off because the delivery is so meticulous and essential to be believable. She rattles that stuff off like she was born to the comedic stage. I've seen comedians who couldn't even get that right. <br />
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Yes, that wardrobe! Beautiful and spot on for the period. If I could only find some of those clothes, I swear I would wear them even though they are so dated. They were made to make a woman look good and if it makes you look good, sometimes that's all that matters.
I found the first several seasons entertaining enough to stick with: the quirky characters were engaging and the plots and humor were good enough to go on with.
It was interesting to watch them jump the shark in the final season, but the quality of the show suffered in places because of it. Some of the subplots became very silly and unrealistic, and their “This is Us” forays into the past and future seemed derivative and contrived. Susie and Mrs. Maisel seemed to be drawn larger than life and almost above the fray, and the rest of the cast wasn’t quite strong enough to do the heavy lifting of moving the story along. I am not saying it caused me to dislike the show or stop watching, because it didn’t. But as someone who writes novels myself, I felt they were so eager to build an edge into the events of the show, they may not have noticed that in gaining that edge they lost their graceful story arc.
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is Marvelous. It is one of the best series I have ever seen. Story, acting, filmmaking and producing is great. I wish it does not ended by season 5.
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