Tony Shalhoub as Abe Weissman, Marin Hinkle as Rose Weissman and Rachel Brosnahan as Midge in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.Courtesy of Amazon Prime Video
Let us now consider how much allure certain series can retain after a long absence. Two shows that accumulated Emmy awards and much critical praise, not to mention audience adoration, are returning. One is Killing Eve, which returns this weekend for season four (it will be reviewed in the Saturday column) after a COVID-19 pause, and the other has already revealed the first two episodes of its pandemic-delayed fourth season.
That would be The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (streams Amazon Prime Video), and it’s been so long since the last new episode that you might need a refresher. Back then, season three ended with Midge/Miriam (Rachel Brosnahan) unknowingly destroying a career upgrade in comedy. Booked as an opening act for singer Shy Baldwin (LeRoy McClain), a Johnny Mathis-like figure, and with an international tour coming, all looked rosy. Then Midge made so many dodgy jokes about Shy that it seemed she was outing him as gay. She was fired from the tour and, unknown to her, manager Susie (Alex Borstein) had gambled away her earnings.
As this season opens, Midge is back where she started, doing stand-up in a dingy club, releasing all her raw fury at the world and only sometimes being funny while being angry. Furious at being dropped from the tour, she has a meltdown in a cab and discards some of her clothes. It’s a terrific scene, although one element is outright lifted from a classic scene in Fawlty Towers, in which Basil gives his car a good thrashing with a tree branch. Brosnahan is at her best, all physical frustration and razor wit.
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The appeal of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel has always been rooted in one key premise: In the late 1950s (we’re now into 1960) a nice middle-class Jewish wife and mother sashays with gusto into showbiz and from the stage unleashes her resentments with forceful acerbity.
Here in season four, it looks as if Midge is back to square one on her journey. The early scenes are followed by curious stretches of screwball comedy as Susie tries to recoup the money and Midge’s ex, Joel (Michael Zegen), tries to make peace with the Chinese family running a gambling den in the basement of his nightclub. High jinks and silliness ensue. The same applies to Midge’s family, with Tony Tony Shalhoub as Midge’s dad, Abe, given acres of space to steal scenes.
At this point, if you absolutely adored the first three seasons, no matter the flaws, you will follow Midge through this fourth season and, probably, the eventual fifth and final season. The visual opulence remains stunning and Midge wears clothes to die for. That’s still part of the draw.
But there is now a feeling that the series is treading water. Unless there’s a rather quick shift, the series goes in reverse and Midge is again that upstart comedian, trying to make in a man’s world by mining her own life for scathing commentary on sexism and the tyranny of marriage. We have been there, and while the exuberance of Brosnahan hasn’t diminished, you must wonder where this season and a final one will take us, and whether the series has the gas to get there.
Right now, the series is not so marvellous.Christopher Saunders/Courtesy of Amazon Prime Video
We will find out slowly, since this season unfolds with two episodes arriving every week. This is part of a shift away from the binge-watch trend, amid a new reluctance to unveil an entire season at once. The way HBO’s Succession worked as a once-a-week hit is often cited as another example.
When The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel first arrived in March, 2017, it looked stunning and felt stunningly fresh. The awards and praise heaped on it, for everything from the premise to the decor and the soundtrack, were deserved, if a bit extravagant. (Killing Eve arrived a year later and had a similar impact.) Right now, the series is not so marvellous, but one hopes creators Amy Sherman-Palladino and her husband, Daniel Palladino, know exactly how they are taking this show toward a rip-roaring conclusion.
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