The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 5, Episodes 1-3 Review
With the exception of a surprise flash-forward to the 1980s, the fifth and final season of Amy Sherman-Palladino’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel begins more or less where the last season left off. Mrs Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan), otherwise known as Midge, is tucked up in bed, half frozen having wandered through a blizzard, which parted just long enough to show her a prophetic billboard. The sign said, “Go Forward,” and, so when her manager Suzy (Alex Borstein) secures her an unlikely position on the writing staff of the popular Gordon Ford chat show she accepts the opportunity. The other writers, however, are not entirely accepting of a woman, and she struggles to get her jokes on the air. Meanwhile, Joel (Michael Zegen), Midge’s ex-husband, and his fiancée Mei (Stephanie Hsu) are on the outs which sends Joel into a hellraising, emotional spiral.
As with every other season of Palladino’s enormously likeable show, Mrs. Maisel Season 5 is peppered with a seemingly endless stream of one liners, that trip effortlessly off the characters’ tongues. Palladino certainly has an unmatched ear for funny, but occasionally her well-honed patter doesn’t quite fit into the mouths of her characters. For example, at the very start of episode one, Abe Weissman, Midge’s Dad, greets Susie at the door of his home. She has been invited to talk some sense into Midge, who is frost-bitten and delirious. Abe, for no reason other than to create comedy, has an iron shaped burn on his shirt. He says all his shirts came back from the cleaners like that. Susie, ignoring this, says she is going to investigate, meaning talk to Midge. Abe, presumably misunderstanding, thinks she’s going to investigate his shirt situation, and says that there’s no need. The laugh this gets is slight, and makes no sense. Abe, an intelligent man, would never make that mistake, and, not one for abstract wit, would never say that as a joke. To quote Mrs Maisel herself from later in the series when she dresses down her chat show host boss for cheapening a joke – it’s the wrong laugh. This has always been one of the show’s short-comings. But then it is all so darned likeable, and so determined to be liked that it’s easy enough to let these things go.
“Mrs Maisel herself has usually been the least interesting thing about The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, stuck as she is between being a supposedly transgressive comic and a kind of sane-ish surrogate for the audience.”
One of the strongest aspects of Mrs. Maisel has always been the supporting cast of characters, who are all flawed but winning, played by actors doing career best work. Honestly, Mrs Maisel herself has usually been the least interesting thing about The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, stuck as she is between being a supposedly transgressive comic and a kind of sane-ish surrogate for the audience amid all her neurotic, eccentric friends and family. Also, her stand-up comedy has never been shown to be especially daring, or more importantly, particularly funny. (Although, of course, comedy is highly subjective.) And while we’re on the subject, her development as a comedian has never made much sense; in past seasons she’s been able, at times, to just go on stage and deliver, seemingly off the cuff, perfectly timed comic riffs – the kind of thing real comics would have been honing for months. In one scene here, she comes on stage, starts trying to riff, but just talks a lot of inane nonsense, then stops, says let’s start again and kills with her prepared material. Why didn’t she just come on and do her set as planned? And, again while we’re on the subject, why does nobody ever have a clue who she is…? Hasn’t every season ended with her brushing closely with real fame and success. Doesn’t she ever present her credentials? Doesn’t her manager tell people who she is? What am I missing? Is this The Twilight Zone? But no matter, because it’s all, so, so likeable.
Fortunately, in this season Mrs Maisel is given perhaps her most interesting plot-line so far. Watching Midge struggle to find her place in an experienced writers’ room is both a fascinating evocation of the sort of environment once inhabited by future comedy superstars such as Larry Gelbart, Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, and Woody Allen, and an insightful exploration of early 60s workplace sexism. It’s as if The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel has suddenly become Mad Men with funnier dialogue. Another interesting twist, as previously mentioned, is that this final season of Mrs. Maisel includes flash-forwards, which indicate, that yes, Midge does become successful, but that her relationships with those once dear to her have been affected, and that she’s led a colourful life since finding fame. This gives an intriguing glimpse into the future, and creates a tension that is new for the show – not, is she going to make it? But how does making it turn her into this future Midge that we’re being teased with.
With the exception of Susie, who remains the MVP of the series, most of the supporting characters are served less well. Abe Weissman, played by the always brilliant Tony Shalhoub – who has seemed rather wasted since being implausibly moved from academia to writing for the Village Voice – is given a damp squib of a story. Here he contends with a flirty actress and the humiliation of misspelling Carol Channing in print. While Midge’s ex-in-laws, Moishe and Shirley, played gamely by Kevin Pollack and Caroline Aaron, are given little to do but some verbal sparring from the side-lines. Rose Weissman, Midge’s mother, played by Marin Hinkle, fares somewhat better with a storyline about her continuing spat with a dangerous cadre of rival matchmakers. Frankly, it all feels like filler, created in broad strokes, but the characters are so engaging, and so expertly played that one can’t help but want to know what happens in their frothy, funny lives.
Once again, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel provides a window into a glamourized version of the past, which purports to explore the world of show-business for an attractive young woman in the 50s and 60s, but is so preoccupied by being charming that it never does this convincingly. However, it’s all so delightfully funny, gorgeous to look at, and full of engagingly off-kilter characters that really any short-comings it has are rendered moot, and since it’s the last season it’s probably best not to quibble, especially when the show is just so bloomin’ likeable. Oh, did I say that already.
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 5 is available on Prime Video.
