The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

I'm surprised that there isn't already a thread for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, so I'll break the ice with this post.

Official trailer for season 3

Having just watched the season in its entirety...

• I was personally disappointed by the extreme flip flopping of Midge and Joel’s relationship this season. They spent two seasons working through his cheating and then him supporting her career. It was obvious they still loved each other. With their wistfulness about the divorce early in season 3 and their Vegas remarriage, I couldn't help but think Joel was a bit of an asshole falling for Mei, and subsequently his reacting poorly to remarrying Midge in Las Vegas even though they were elated together. I feel like the writers are keeping Midge and Joel apart for the sake of extending the plot even though they are clearly the loves of each other’s lives. Id like to see their relationship develop instead of constantly taking one step forward, two steps backwards.
  • Also, it's kind of interesting that both Mei and Benjamin were doctors. Midge and Joel are both creative types, and rebound with academic, "great on paper" types. It makes Mei’s competition with midge in the finale interesting (“I’m going to be a doctor.”) In season 4, Mei's relationship with Joel will progress, but she’ll ultimately dump him with an iteration of “you’ll always love Midge and belong with her.” Which is what everyone else has been saying to them, like the judge and Susie.
  • The thing about Midge and Joel is that I’ve enjoyed their complicated dynamic, but I think that’s because I genuinely like Joel and his character development throughout the three seasons. And it's not all one-sided. He did some terrible things in the past, sure, while Midge is doing some not-so-great things in the present (Amy Sherman Palladino has a real knack for writing self-sabotaging female characters). Joel seems to be learning and moving forward. Even saying to his own dad that “you have to let people live how they want”. And he clearly believes his own words. He genuinely supports Midge in ways that really matter; taking the kids on basically full time so she can pursue her dreams is huge, both by 1960s standards and by 21st century standards.
    So in a way, having them get drunkenly remarried in Vegas was a way for the writers to say that this thing they’re doing is a marriage, not the type of marriage people of the late 50’s/early 60s would recognize, but definitely a marriage. Yes everyone keeps saying they still love each other, but I think the remarriage was more a commentary on the way they’ve set up their lives than the feelings they have for each other. To be clear I do still think they’re in love, but I think there’s more to it than that. Their non-marriage-marriage is healthier than literally everyone else’s in the show this season.
• Speaking of Benjamin, the whole piece about Midge breaking up with Benjamin via a "Dear John" letter feels like poor writing on the show's part and out of character for Midge. I dunno, it seemed like a retrofitted way for the show to tie up a loose end, and maybe cater to shippers who felt mad at Midge for dumping Benjamin. I'm like, yeah, Benjamin's got a point that her leading him on was wrong, but...she realized she didn’t love him. She loves Joel more than she loves Benjamin, and she loves her comedy as much as, if not more than she loves Joel. She was on a path towards the wrong goal with Benjamin- remarrying for the sake of being married- so ending it was definitely the right thing to do. Now, cheating on him with Joel, not so much. But the theme is that comedy and Joel are her two great loves, as complicated as it makes her life. If she ends back up with Joel, it will be because she loves him- not because she needs to be married.

• Midge getting fired from the Shy Baldwin tour. Well, you could see that coming a mile away while she did her show at the Apollo; not quite when or where the news would be delivered, but you knew it would. And I felt every bit of her pain and humiliation on the tarmac. I actually began to cry myself during Reggie’s speech, because I truly believe that Midge was just dealt a bad hand, had a lapse in judgment, and ultimately didn’t intend to out him.
  But, sadly, in this particular situation, intentions don’t matter. If Shy was offended by her set, then it was offensive. Neither Midge nor Susie get to gaslight him by claiming it was just some harmless banter or that she was just doing what she was told to do. This isn't an "I slept with your wife" bad. This is a "I almost ruined your entire life and career (plus all the people that depend on Shy, like manager, family, production team, dancers...). If I didn't intentionally mean do that, I'm an asshole, and if I said that without thinking, then I am a liability" bad. Either way, it's a lose-lose for Shy. And that right there is the tricky part, because in 1960 the language surrounding how we talk about sexuality/racism/discrimination in America did not exist as it does today.
  The only thing Midge can really do here is just admit she screwed up, get back on her feet, and try to do better in her comedy and in her life. And of course, bear in mind, this whole incident was foreshadowed twice in the preceding two episodes: just an episode earlier, before she went to do that spot on the radio for Phyllis Schlafly^note before this episode, I knew Phyllis Schlafly was racist and awful but I didn't know she was so openly anti-semitic, Abe advises Midge to really think about how she uses her voice, and Midge's way of doing it in that case was brilliant. And again, in a less obvious way, with Benjamin at the diner: she just assumed the way Benjamin would react to/handle her career in comedy. She can’t see outside of her own incredibly narrow world view. Getting kicked out of the tour will hopefully mean some more character development for Midge in season 4. She is trying to make a career out of her astute observations, but really can’t seem to see herself.

• I'm with Susie after Sophie's bad theatrical debut. There's a clear difference between how Midge and Sophie work. Midge strives to move forward. But Sophie is stuck in the past.

Edited by dmcreif on Dec 6th 2019 at 3:18:26 AM

My biggest issue with the season was Abe's storyline. He had one of the strongest arcs over the first two seasons, going from progressing to the height of career to having his success slowly degraded as he discovered the rotten underbelly of academia and the government while slowly losing his sanity and poise. He was also hilarious. This season, they turned him into the butt of the joke, giving him a completely shallow storyline with the newspaper. It got a little better at the end, but I was still annoyed.

The season had its highlights, though. Hands down, the most heartbreaking moment was Shy's painful look at Reggie during the stool set.

Everyone's allowed to have their own opinion. Personally, I can't stand Joel. He sacrifices everything good that ever comes to him for his brittle pride. Midge deserves better.

3x08 - why did Benjamin have to look like an idiot in the diner? He never struck me as the kind of person who out of the blue would just show up the diner and confront Midge. Yes, Midge was selfish and someone had to call her out on this. But Benjamin's more methodical and waited a long time. So why confront her in public with Midge and make a scene?

Also, How is it possible that Midge's renewal contract was not signed? She used it as collateral for her apartment with Moishe. As the shrewd businessman that he is, wouldn't he have realized/demanded that it wasn't executed before selling? Also, that's the dumbest reason to void a contract, Reggie, "that it wasn't signed". If there was a poison pill clause that says that Midge can be released from her contract if Shy feels she steps out of line, which was missed due to Suzie being too busy/inexperienced with the legality of contracts, I might've bought it.

After watching the first season my thoughts were that I liked it, but I want to beat Joel with a tire iron.

Resurrecting this thread because I want to see if Amazon releasing two episodes a week encourages discussion, because I want to talk about how Sophie Lennon is turning into a supervillain.