The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is fun and wacky and not exactly like those fun and wacky movies of the 50s and 60s that it tries so hard to copy. There’s a lot of swearing and a bit of nudity. There’s also the whole marriage breakup and the over the top Jewishness of most of the characters. Not something you saw a lot of in Doris Day and Cary Grant movies. Then there’s a woman transvestite who may or may not be homosexual. All we know for sure is she likes wearing men’s clothes.
The bulk of the story revolves around Mrs. Maisel’s many rude awakings. Her husband has been having affair. He leaves her for his dimwit secetary. She knows nothing about money or how the bills are paid. And so on and so forth.
She finds her calling when she goes to a comedy club and storms the stage. This leads to her being arrested and meeting Lenny Bruce. She is brillant at improve. But she has no business sense at all.
I’ve always loved Gilmore Girls and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is from that show’s creator Amy Sherman-Palladino. This show has a lot of the same elements. The hero is a woman whose husband left her. She has a tumultuous relationship with her ridiculously weathly parents. Her one ally is a grumpy person who serves drinks and wears a hat at all times.
I like The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel a lot. Great sets and costumes. Great actors. Amazing writing. And the musical choices have been perfect.
My main problem with all these off broadcast tv shows is there aren’t enough of them. I know the BBC likes a season to be six episodes, but I want closer to twenty six. After eight episodes of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel I feel both short-changed and overloaded. So many characters have come and gone already. The people are like the endless bits of Midcentury kitsch crammed into every frame. A little too much at times.
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is a fun show and well worth watching. I just think it would be better with a little breathing room.
