An Amazon original series, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel won 4 out of the 6 Emmy Nominations it was up for this year. So I had to give it a shot.
It’s the 1950’s, Miriam Maisel a.k.a Midge is a perfect Jewish Housewife with a perfect Jewish family who lives on the Upper West Side in their perfect apartment when her life starts to fall apart and she finds herself down in nightclubs in Greenwich Village when she discovers her hidden talent, stand up comedy.
So is it worth your time? Yes.
The show was written and directed by Amy Sherman-Palladino, who also wrote Gilmore Girls. The show reads like a Broadway play and at first you feel as though everyone is overacting and it’s a little uncomfortable. While I don’t think the show is laugh out loud funny, it still captivates me for multiple reasons; the strong feminist message, the shattering of the glass ceiling, the destruction of a idyllic housewife, the sisterhood of a stand up comedian and her female manager in an male dominated world, and good ol’ fashion entertainment. Girl fucking power all without being overly political.
Midge’s character is a lot to take in so you have to be patient with her. She’s bold, loud, and crude. She talks too fast and her character is a bit hard to believe. It’s unlikely that his perfect Jewish housewife and mother of two would have find the time to be on a stand up stage without any experience, stage fright, or without any road bumps. But she grows on you. She starts to feel like that instagram account you have been following since they were had less than 10k followers. You watch her grow as a comic, you feel like you know her personally, you’re now invested in her rise to fame. Her jokes become funnier. She learns how to deal with the hecklers and she stands on her own two feet.
But time pieces are hard in that they have to stay true to its time and the lack of diversity in the cast is noticeable. People of color are only found as background extras or guest role appearances. And so the feminist message is really inclusive of white women that leaves the women of color voiceless and ignored. True to its time, but a message white women in 2018 should avoid. Lift as you climb, ladies.
Lets hope next season brings that strong feminist message to include all women.
