The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Laer Carroll

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On Christmas night my lady friend and I finished watching the last several episodes of "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel." We loved it. Others have too, enough to nominate it for two Golden Globes: Best Television Musical or Comedy and Best Actress in a Television Musical or Comedy. Here's a link to the trailer, which well captures the feeling of the series.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOmwkTrW4OQ

Here's what I posted on my web site.

“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” is funny, touching, sad, and happy in turns, and sometimes in the same instant. Inspired by the rise of female comics like Joan Rivers and Totie Fields in the late 50s and the 60s, it has been greenlit for a second season. It’s almost a superhero movie in its heroic exaggerations, but it is also very effective because of the exact opposite. This is its subtly understated sets and costumes and seemingly incidental scenes which evoke the times. The show and the lead actress, Rachel Brosnahan, have been nominated for the Golden Globes 2018.

The show is the mature creation by the team best-known for “Gilmore Girls” – Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino. For more info, see its Wikipedia page. And to see how to get it, go to its IMDB.com web page.
 
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Laer Carroll

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Update: MMM won a Golden Globe for the series and for actress Rachel Brosnahan.
 
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LAgrunion

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I too enjoyed this show. Rachel Brosnahan brings a lot to it. She's funny and likable. I remember watching her on House of Cards; she is so different in the two shows.
 

Maryn

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We're about halfway through it and enjoying it, although we understand it makes a few goofs about the stand-up business in that era. (It's entertainment, not a documentary, so I don't care.) Among the things I'm liking at the wardrobe and sets.

I do get frustrated at some of the plot elements. SPOILER (highlight to read): Midge isn't stupid, so why would she take those damned index cards prepared by Wallace Shawn and attempt to perform them without reading them first? That's just dumb.

And somebody's got to say it: She's sure expecting a whole lot of free childcare from her mother, who no doubt has other things to do. Between her job and the comedy, she hardly sees her kids and makes little attempt at quality time with them when she's there.

Maryn, still watching
 
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I just spotted this thread and wanted to add how much I love this show. My favourite scene is at the end of the first episode where (spoilers) Midge asks Lenny Bruce whether he loves comedy.
 

Laer Carroll

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She's sure expecting a whole lot of free childcare from her mother, who no doubt has other things to do. Between her job and the comedy, she hardly sees her kids and makes little attempt at quality time with them when she's there.

The focus is on her as a comic, not other elements. Though as the series progresses, it begins to widen out so that you see more of the secondary characters like her mother and father and gonna-be ex-husband. At first they are more types than real people, but then they begin to become unique and real.
 
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I watched the first couple of episodes and I felt it was good but felt I probably wouldn't binge watch it, then a week later I watched a another couple of episodes and I was hooked. Binged watched then all and love it... can't wait for season 2.
 

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I've watched all there is so far, and there are some issues my husband and I agreed were serious, the worst being that she is a smart, driven woman who repeatedly does really stupid things that have great impact on her career, and unlike genuine smart people, learns nothing from major mistakes.

To say more would be spoiling, and I'd like the show to find its audience without ruining plot points.
 

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In my perception of her character, she doesn't see how smart and lucky she is because she's naive, sheltered, privileged, and lacks self-awareness (smart isn't worth a damn if you lack introspection). I felt like the show did a good job of highlighting that (her manager is an excellent foil and one of my favorite characters on her own merit), and I hope she'll become more mature and aware and self-aware as her character arc progresses. (Otherwise she'll just be an annoying rich white girl being an annoying rich white girl.)
 

Laer Carroll

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...she is a smart, driven woman who repeatedly does really stupid things that have great impact on her career, and unlike genuine smart people, learns nothing from major mistakes.
Even genuinely smart people don't instantly realize they've made a mistake, and WHY they made it, AND avoid the mistakes in the future. Becoming a better and more successful person in all parts of one's life is a journey, a marathon, not a sprint. That's one of the appeals of stories like this one, that we follow along on the journey, cheering their successes and cringing at their mistakes.
 

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It's comedy, not meant to be realistic drama. The main point is to amuse; everything else is secondary. In comedy, even likability is secondary. Midge comes across as both amusing and likable - that is more than sufficient. She is smart too. Definitely witty, and you can't do that unless your CPU clocks at a high speed. And Midge is frequently bold in surprising ways that make me admire her.

Smart does not necessarily mean wise. If characters in comedies were wise, it'd probably be a pretty boring show. Not that smart can't be funny, but it's just that doing dumb things is funnier. Doing dumb is also more relatable. I know I've done plenty of dumb things, and sometimes over and over again (without the benefit of being funny at all).

Look all the good comedy shows. You'll find people (dumb and smart) doing dumb things. For example, see the show Seinfeld. George is not dumb, but he is hardly wise. He makes a lot of mistakes and doesn't seem to learn much from them. But he is funny and remains an endearing character, at least to me.

Like Seinfeld and many other great comedies, Mrs Masiel exaggerates the follies of its main character to make the audience laugh. Keep in mind that this is the first season. Perhaps Midge will grow, and that's fine as long as it remains funny. But even if her wisdom curve remains flat, it won't bother me. Seinfeld ran for a long time. It was funny at the beginning and funny at the end. I'm not sure if the characters grow much at all during the series' run.

But I understand that humor is highly subjective.
 

Fi Webster

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I don't see any remarks about The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel in four years. Has anyone watched the latest season? I've fallen head over heels for the character named Lenny Bruce—who seems like so much more of a mensch than the historical Lenny Bruce.

I love the way the strip club gets better and better production, both behind the scenes and on stage, under Midge's influence.

However... however...
I didn't buy Midge's apology to Shy. It seemed tacked onto the end of her bitter speech. And why doesn't she want to be his friend again? She seemed pretty heartless in her rejection of him.

All in all, she has less heart in this season—less empathy, less kindness. I'm disappointed. There are plenty of threads to keep me watching, but the soufflé they served up so nicely seems to be collapsing.
 

Lyv

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I don't see any remarks about The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel in four years. Has anyone watched the latest season? I've fallen head over heels for the character named Lenny Bruce—who seems like so much more of a mensch than the historical Lenny Bruce.

I love the way the strip club gets better and better production, both behind the scenes and on stage, under Midge's influence.

However... however...
I didn't buy Midge's apology to Shy. It seemed tacked onto the end of her bitter speech. And why doesn't she want to be his friend again? She seemed pretty heartless in her rejection of him.

All in all, she has less heart in this season—less empathy, less kindness. I'm disappointed. There are plenty of threads to keep me watching, but the soufflé they served up so nicely seems to be collapsing.
I'll spoiler mine, too.
I watched the first seasons, not loving it, but it was pretty good. However, I think it was in the first episode of the latest season that I was done with Midge Maisel for good. She wants her life back, after outing Shy, which caused him harm, and instead of remorse, she plays the victim, while stiffing merchants who were probably living less posh lifestyles than the one she was conniving and cheating to get back. I hated her. I thought maybe there would be a redemption when she realized what she had done, but I didn't have much faith in the showrunners. Guess I was right to stay away.
 
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Fi Webster

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I'll spoiler mine, too.
I watched the first seasons, not loving it, but it was pretty good. However, I think it was in the first episode of the latest season that I was done with Midge Maisel for good. She wants her life back, after outing Shy, which caused him harm, and instead of remorse, she plays the victim, while stiffing merchants who were probably living less posh lifestyles than the one she was conniving and cheating to get back. I hated her. I thought maybe there would be a redemption when she realized what she had done, but I didn't have much faith in the showrunners. Guess I was right to stay away.

I agree with you, Lyv. (I don't think I need to worry about spoilers in this post.)

I purposely put on blinders about Midge's absurd and annoying assertion of privilege in the first epi, for all of her subsequent behavior in fact, in order to follow the other threads that amused me: the strip club, the matchmakers, her dad's career as a theatre reviewer, Joel and his Chinese girlfriend and his funny parents, and of course Lenny. I dig Lenny so much.

The show has some fabulous character actors. I've been a big fan of Tony Shalhoub and Kevin Pollak for decades, and I'm intrigued to learn more about Michael Zegan and Luke Kirby. And my beloved John Waters even has a cute cameo!

It's as if I've decided the show isn't about Midge and Suzy anymore. (Suzy's character also seems oddly flat, one note, this last season.) It's about all the other people, so likeable in contrast. But the collapse of my interest in Midge, my no longer even finding her comedy funny, has probably dealt a death blow to my commitment to the show.

I'm gonna rewatch Hacks.
 
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Woollybear

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I don't see any remarks about The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel in four years. Has anyone watched the latest season? I've fallen head over heels for the character named Lenny Bruce—who seems like so much more of a mensch than the historical Lenny Bruce.

I love the way the strip club gets better and better production, both behind the scenes and on stage, under Midge's influence.

However... however...
I didn't buy Midge's apology to Shy. It seemed tacked onto the end of her bitter speech. And why doesn't she want to be his friend again? She seemed pretty heartless in her rejection of him.

All in all, she has less heart in this season—less empathy, less kindness. I'm disappointed. There are plenty of threads to keep me watching, but the soufflé they served up so nicely seems to be collapsing.
Lenny said something to Midge about how you never turn down Carnegie Hall (or whatever the venue was), standards be damned, and I thought that was a fine, and remarkable, and memorable (though I've forgotten the specifics) scene.

It actually dovetails great with the Writing the Breakout Novel exercise we did on Sunday (I run workshops) in which the task was to find the motivations under the motivations. Lenny has integrity, but he also understands marketing.
 
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Lyv

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The show has some fabulous character actors. I've been a big fan of Tony Shalhoub and Kevin Pollak for decades, and I'm intrigued to learn more about Michael Zegan and Luke Kirby. And my beloved John Waters even has a cute cameo!

It's as if I've decided the show isn't about Midge and Suzy anymore. (Suzy's character also seems oddly flat, one note, this last season.) It's about all the other people, so likeable in contrast. But the collapse of my interest in Midge, my no longer even finding her comedy funny, has probably dealt a death blow to my commitment to the show.

I'm gonna rewatch Hacks.
Tony Shalhoub was a big draw for me. Now I want to do a Monk rewatch. I have liked Luke Kirby in everything I've seen him in so many I should just fast forward through everything but their scenes. I think I first saw Luke Kirby in this movie that no one I know has ever seen, Mambo Italiano and I thought he looked about 12 (he was 25). Now I have to tell my friend, who adores John Waters and goes to his camp every year about the cameo (though he probably knows).

Hacks is so good.
 
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