Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

As a huge fan of Amy Palladino I have been meaning to watch The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel for quite a while now and I just haven’t gotten a chance to do so yet. And by haven’t gotten a chance I mean I accidentally keep rewatching things I’ve already seen 12 times. Now I think anything Palladino does is gold and I have really only heard and seen good things about this show so I couldn’t wait to dive in.

The show starts at the wedding of our main character. It is very clear that she is a storyteller, she’s got a great stage presence and she likes to start trouble a little bit. There is then an immediate 4 year time jump and Joe is trying to make it as a comedian but they make it very clear that the driving force behind his career is his wife. Not only does she works the club owner to get him the time slot he wants but she also studies his act and the reactions so she can help him improve it.

Miriam doing all of her skin and hair care after he falls asleep and before he wakes up is truly insane. Especially 4 years into their marriage, like seriously that is batshit crazy. Men if you don’t realize that a woman is wearing makeup then you are truly a special kind of stupid.

Miriam essentially acts as his manager, when she finds out that he stole his act from a major comedian she clearly doesn’t understand. The lady at the club clearly knew that he stole his act and she greatly disapproved which is why they once again need to fix his time slot, she makes him wait. Only this time he is performing in front of his friends and it turns out that without someone else's material he isn’t funny. He starts to fall apart on stage and it's very upsetting. He then decides that he is gonna leave her…this seems wildly out of left field. Especially considering that he clearly relies on her for everything. This is obviously a man that can not function on his own and seriously my biggest problem with this is that he keeps trying to leave her with her suitcase. And he’s been screwing his secretary. Wow this guy sucks super hard.

When she tells her parents, they are immediately overdramatic and they blame her. They basically tell her that she is weak and she can’t function without a husband. I think we can all guess how I am feeling about this reaction.

Miriam drunkenly gets on stage and starts rambling about how her life just fell apart and she kills. The audience loves her and Susie also takes to her. Susie takes over as her manager, gets her a lawyer, bails her out of jail and even calls her parents for her.

I love the premise of this. So all Joel wanted to do was be a stand up comedian but he sucked at it. He took all his frustration with his failure out on his wife and now she is going to be a stand up comedian and actually be good at it. That fills me with such a sadistic sense of joy. I am so happy that he failed, that his life is screwed, that she is successful at the thing he failed at. It's so fantastic. Also this is really a women helping women story. Susie bonding with Miriam and helping her is the sweetest thing.

This show is fantastic. I love that the first season is really focused around a woman’s life falling apart and her finding her new path in life. The first season is extremely well crafted, the writing is witty and smart. You can absolutely tell that Palladino wrote it, the pace and snap of the dialogue do definitely feel like Gilmore Girls. I will for sure continue to watch this show and we will take these thoughts season by season as I am watching it for the first time. I am in awe of the brilliance of this show.