The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Season 1)

So weird story, but when Rachel Brosnahan hosted SNL after her success in this show earlier last year, I, having not watched the show yet, only knew her as the prostitute from House of Cards. Fast forward a year later, after watching the first season, I had totally forgot that she played that role in House of Cards and only see as Mrs. Maisel now. It's great how a role can change things so quickly.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel follows the story of Miriam "Midge" Maisel (played by Rachel

Brosnahan). She is an upper class Jewish housewife living with her husband, Joel (played by Michael Zegan) in 1958 New York City. From the start, Midge is a powerhouse woman. She takes care of their two kids, is active with her friends and family, is incredibly charismatic, never balking at an opportunity to talk and make people laugh, and most important, presents herself as the perfect wife to her husband who is a business man wanting to break into stand up comedy.

However, after one bad night at the comedy club, Joel reveals to Midge that he's having an affair and that he is leaving her, very, VERY abruptly. I'll talk a little bit more about this when I dive a little deeper into the character of Joel, but this break up seems to come out of no where in the season premiere episode. I'm not saying its bad, especially since it is the catalyst for the entire driving effort of the show, but it does seem very odd, even after you finish the first season.

Anyway, after drinking a good amount of wine, Midge goes back to the comedy club where her husband had bombed that night and she goes on what she thinks is just a drunken rant, but actually turns out being a really strong and funny stand up set.

It's noticed by the manager of the club, Suzie (played by Alex Borstein) and she convinces Midge that she has the potential to be a really great stand up comedian.

The rest of the season is Midge working with Suzie to develop her stand up skills and routines while at the same time trying to hide her new secret life from her family and friends, including her husband, her quirky father, Abe (played by Tony Shalub), and her overbearing mother, Rose (played by Marin Hinkle).

And overall its a pretty fun ride.

If you have read this blog in the past, you might notice that this show is definitely not in the usual wheelhouse of shows I watch. And obviously, it didn't appeal to me when it first came out. It wasn't that it looked bad, it just didn't jump to the top of my watch list. I'm usually not the type who will watch a show about people just going about their every day life without some kind of high speed action, magical additions, or something strange going on. I just haven't really enjoyed shows about every day life, even if its set in the 1950's. The closest equivalent was Mad Men and I didn't even get through all of that because my interest faded after a binge of the first four seasons.

But there is just something calming about Maisel that makes it a really funny and relaxing show to watch. It's not like there is no drama, and I will talk about the stand up element of the show, but even the drama in the show is just a little bit different because its drenched in smart comedy, unique characters, and helped by the fact that you love all these characters, especially Mrs. Maisel herself.

The most interesting thing about Midge Maisel is that in this show, she is essentially a super hero. By day she goes about her business, taking care of her kids, balancing her family and work. But at night instead of fighting crime, her super power is stand up comedy because the stand up sets she and the other comics she meets are really good.

One thing I will say about that is that it feels like the comedy is funnier when its a character you like. I think I always found Midge's stand up really funny because I was invested in her character and I wanted to see her succeed. And I would bet that they put a lot more work into her stand up sets than the other people who show up for one bit and we never see them again.

One other thing that I'll say about the stand up is that they slightly indicate that the show is going to go beyond her doing stand up and instead delving into a feminist political speaking out message. Don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed to the female empowerment message of the show, but there is a difference between her doing stand up for the purpose of making people laugh, and delving into a Nanette style stream of consciousness about how much life sucks. There is a time and place for that, and the show does well enough spreading a message of empowerment just through the journey of this character, the fact that Midge's stand up makes me laugh and isn't just blatant, "WOMEN ARE POWERFUL" actually makes the message stronger in my opinion.

But the other reason this show is so calming is just how low the stakes really are, but how high they feel in the eyes of our main character.

Tony Shalub and Marin Hinkle are just brilliant as these quirky Jewish parents and there is so much to love about the dynamic the two of them have but also the relationship they have with their daughter. Midge clearly loves them a lot, but the relationship is often strained because of what they expect of her and how that contradicts with what she ends up wanting for herself.

I have since binge watched the second and third season so maybe this is coming from a wholistic view of the series all together, but it is so great seeing how much Midge changes from the beginning of season one to the end of it, while at the same time maintaining the persona and vibe that you fall in love with at the beginning of the show. I believe all these characters are related and that's part of why the situations that they get into are so funny.

But I think another element of why the show is good is that it continues to highlight the humanity in characters in any other show we would absolutely hate and that's shown in the character of Joel Maisel perfectly.

Joel is a really complicated character because at the beginning of the show, there isn't a whole lot to like about him. He's selfish, he's short sighted in his seemingly perfect relationship with Midge, and he just comes off as this privileged guy saying woe as me.

But even in the first season, I didn't totally hate him and that's probably because you figure out pretty quickly that Midge doesn't hate him, not completely. They still try to make the relationship of parents to their children work and their families are so close that its impossible not to be involved in each others lives.

I'll probably talk about Joel more in the review(s) I do for the subsequent seasons, but I think it's most prevalent in the first season when I say Joel is the despised spouse in a TV show.

The best example of this is Skyler White from Breaking Bad. There was so much vitriolic hate towards her when Breaking Bad was running that people eventually started feeling bad for the actress who played her because her character that she put a lot of work into was so despised.

There is definitely a conversation to be held about the differences between Skyler White and Joel Maisel, especially on how they're treated based on their gender, but I think there are a lot of interesting similarities, mostly that the show both paints him as this privileged douche but also it makes him an interesting character with hopes, dreams, and ambitions that happen to contradict that of the main protagonist that we probably are rooting for more.

Again, the show never definitively says that Joel is a bad guy, even though I initially thought they were going to. He causes harm to Midge and its easy to call him a little bitch boy, but is still a sympathetic character with an intriguing part of this series, especially in the later seasons.

I'm going to cut this review a little short because I feel like there is a lot more to say about the show with a full series as it stands review, which will be coming soon, but I wanted to create a review for this first season to say that I blasted through this season in a day because it was so funny, so interesting, and so captivating, whether its through the characters, the plot, or just the art of stand up comedy that I find myself interested in from the get go.

If you haven't started The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, the first season is a great introduction to this character and the world she and her family lives in. A lot of shows I've been watching take a little bit to get into but Maisel hooked me from the start and I'm not really surprised that me viewing the seasons of the show overtook my review writing. Its a surprise for Amazon which has previously had shows that feel like they drag on and are slow as hell. Maisel maintains the same quality, but keeps me engaged from the start. I highly, HIGHLY recommend Mrs. Maisel and I'll probably be writing more about it in the future.

But those are my thoughts, what did you think of the first season of Mrs. Maisel? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for TV shows or movies I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on  future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

Thanks for reading!