The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is a comedy TV show that is an Amazon Prime Original. The first season is eight episodes long, with each episode ranging from 50 minutes to an hour long. The show takes place in 1958 New York City where we are quickly shown just what type of person Miriam “Midge” Maisel is. There is a quick flashback of her life, and we see that she was a thorough person, with a clear goal of what she wanted to be ever since she was young. She turned out to be quite successful, coming from a well-off family, now happily married with two kids.
Her husband isn’t too bad either, being the Vice President of a company; however, he has a hobby of being a stand-up comedian at a bar at night. The pair seems happily in love, even though he isn’t very original or funny. It feels a bit normal and uninteresting early on but due to unfortunate circumstances, Midge ends up getting into stand-up comedy herself. Granted, this is not a bad thing since we’re shown she had more talent that her husband anyway, and this is where the show quickly gets its act together.
So Midge’s happy life starts to collapse around her. It touches on the social norms of the times, and how restrictive this can be for Midge. There are certain expectations of her, such as staying at home, being a good wife and needing a husband. Midge struggles to break through these expectations. Also, her happy life turns out to be full of holes as the truth starts to come out and they weren’t as perfect as it had seemed. Midge’s life, despite her riches, is not an easy one, particularly with all the things she is currently dealing with in her life. She acts against the norm, and it can be sad to see her being treated so unfairly just because of the times.
With the show being the journey of Midge turning into a stand-up comedian, we will get to see her routines. It is not as funny as the show wants to make it seem, as a few jokes seemed forced. However, it is amusing and funny enough to get by but can get crass and crude so it can be cringeworthy when a particular joke doesn’t work. Midge contends with her domestic issues, and as she was such a pampered person all her life, she is experiencing the same struggles that normal people do. She works for the first time, all bright-eyed and excited, until the reality that is boredom hits her. While she is a natural comedian, when she tries to do it professionally, it gets to her and she bombs, hard, and multiple times. The acts that she fails at can be very hard to watch.
Midge’s husband is shown in a negative light, and he is truly extremely selfish. The show is good in that it focuses more on Midge’s life in the 1950s, and it’s interesting to see how things worked back then. She carves her own way and you support her. That isn’t to say that her father and mother are unlikeable, since they want what’s best for her. In fact, her parents are some of the best supporting characters of the show.
The final episode contains, as you would expect, one of Midge’s best shows, and it is genuinely fairly funny. However, the season finale doesn’t truly wrap all the plot threads up and leaves more than a few just dangling. So it can be jarring when the episode just ends and you’re left wondering what the resolution of a lot of things was.
Overall, the first season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel has plenty of potential and it delivered on several fronts. It is not perfect, but Midge herself is very charming and you can’t help but be keen on how she will manage to forge her own path when she is so disadvantaged in those older times (and yet still very recent). The evolution of her personality and her life over the course of the season was done well, with normal but relatable struggles that the viewer can get behind.
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