If you followed along with Midge’s double life as wife ex-wife and dive-bar comedienne in season one, then you were surely excited for season two of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
However, the transition season felt more like a tilt-a-whirl inside a rainbow than the jolting and enthralling inner look at upper-town Jewish life that season one offered.
The Gilmore Girls writing duo pulled audiences in last year with the Amazon Prime Video original series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which won several Emmys after a successful launch.
Audiences were taken back to upper Manhattan into the homes of a Jewish family, set in the 1950s with all of the luxe and color afforded from department store B. Altman and the popular dive bar The Gaslight, where “Midge” (Rachel Brosnahan) makes her nightly escape to present risqué and impromptu standup comedy based on the events of her, nearly-perfect life.
With season one’s close, audiences are left hanging to the tendrils of promises by Lenny Bruce of a showcase for Midge’s act.
The act and hobby may be a secret from her parents, who believe her day job at the makeup counter is everything occupying her time, but to Midge, the thrill of being on stage and accompanying laughter is enough to be her next career.
Season two does not give the audiences the same rush as season one. We’re constantly being forced to care about Midge’s family and ex-family-in-law’s lives and are trying to find reason to invest in extraneous plots that don’t build based on the comedy.
Though Midge seems to develop a new love interest in season two, the audience is left feeling an odd connection to Joel, her ex-husband who seems to only be involved in the plot in scattered and emotionally detached story lines. The writers seemingly imply conflicted emotions from the couple during their dance scenes in the Catskills at the end of the season.
However based on Mrs. Maisel’s emotional and self-revealing monologue in the Parisian drag club at the start of the season we are to deduce that Midge knows her marriage is over, with no hope of salvation. Joel never seems to be clued in on this fact and the audience never seems to be clued in on why his character is still around. Hopefully, our writers will find a way to involve him more crucially in the plot, which is clearly supposed to revolve around Midge, during season three.
Season one allowed the comedy to speak louder volumes than any side character and Midge was the true star of the stage. This second season doesn’t allow her to let go of the past with her ex-husband, tries too hard at developing likable parent figures and includes sibling occupational drama that is, quite frankly, nonessential and a lull to the progression of Midge’s career.
In season two we are given more characters and story lines, seemingly to feed the act and give Mrs. Maisel fodder for the performance. However, the amount of time developing that side story makes the punch line fall flat as audiences get bored and buried under the characters.
If the casting of this show were not phenomenal, with Tony Shalhoub playing a very believable Jewish father, Abe, and Alex Borstein being way more than deserving of her Emmy, for her performance as Susie, the aggressive yet hilariously-lovable manager with an attitude and humor of her own, the extraneous story-lines would not hold the attention of audience members.
While the season seems to take several escapades through Paris, Pennsylvania and the Catskills, the flashy scenery can’t deflect audience attention from the blaring lack of plot progression.
Mrs. Maisel moves forward as far as booking gigs and having a small tour put together, but beyond that, there doesn’t seem to be much character development.
We get lost in subplots of Midge’s life as she tries to determine if she wants to ever be a wife, if the makeup counter is the ultimate goal and of course, everyone’s favorite question, has she even seen her kids in the last week? Yes, comedians base their comedy often on their lives, but for viewers, the amount of time needed focusing on those lives is minimal.
In season three we need less time watching Midge’s family members, and more time soaking in the comedienne who’s fast-paced act and quippy attitude kept bringing us back to The Gaslight, night after night, wondering how we might be offended next and never regretting staying out late.
Mrs. Maisel has lost her perception of “where the line is” for comedy and when the time is right, and so have the writers. The differences are on opposite sides of the scale. Midge creates humor far too often, especially as she ruins a Catholic wedding by accidentally, but accurately announcing the bride’s pregnancy.
However, the writer’s of this show have tried too hard to tell stories that don’t exist and leave out the humor that the audience craves.
Photo credit/ Amazon
