Amy Sherman-Palladino's series have
a rhythm and breakneck back and forth that very few TV writers, with the
exception of Aaron Sorkin in his prime, have been able to match. Working with
her husband, she created two of the most iconic females in all of TV, Lorelai
and Rory Gilmore on the incredible Gilmore
Girls. One of the greatest series of
the 21st century, she has never quite been able to equal it, though it should
be admitted that in neither of her previous incarnations, did she get a fair
shot. That, however, may be about to change.
The
Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is a major change of pace for the Palladinos, in that
it is a period piece set in early 1960s New York City .
Midge Maisel starts life as the complete opposite of every woman in a Palladino
series - she's happily married, she has two children, and in addition to her
husband, Joel, having a successful job, in their spare time, he works as a
stand-up comic in Greenwich Village . Very quickly,
though, the bottom falls out. Joel leaves her for his secretary, Penny Pan, and
her parents Abe and Rose give absolutely no support - Abe (Tony Shalhoub, who hasn't been this good
in years) tells her she should have tried harder, and Rose (Marin Hinkle,
equally good) goes to her gypsy friend to find a cure for this impending
divorce. You wouldn't think that things
could get worse from her, but they do, as her father-in-law (Kevin
Pollak) tries to control his son's relationship, and then when it becomes clear the marriage is doomed,
takes their upper West Side apartment from them.
This is a scenario that Lorelai no
doubt endured, but this being the 1960s, Midge has even fewer options. So she
finds herself getting hammer, and going to the same nightclub her husband did,
and delivering a far more blistering and hysterical routine than Joel ever did.
(Of course, the fact that he 'borrowed' his best material from Bob Newhart
didn't help.) She is spotting by the talent manager, an obvious lesbian, Susie
(Alex Borstein) who tells her that she may have some of the greatest potential
she's seen in awhile. She has to avoid
getting arrested at the end of each of her routines, but then I've only seen
two episodes so far.
A Sherman-Palladino series is,
inevitably, only as good as its lead actress. For Gilmore Girls, she got the terrific Lauren Graham. For the
criminally undervalued Bunheads, she
got the legendary Sutton Foster. And for this show, the title role is being
played by Rachel Brosnahan. At first glance, Brosnahan would seem an unlikely
fit for this creator - her main work has been in drama, notably House of Cards and Manhattan . But considering that most of her
material revolves around delivering hysterical monologues, Brosnahan more than
demonstrates that she is up to the challenge. She's always been a great talent
before; Mrs. Maisel demonstrates that
she can definitely carry a show, particularly considering how heavy the talent
is for this series.
At this point, I should probably
mention that this is an Amazon series, so not only are the Palladinos able to
turn out fewer scripts than they have to, they can use all the foul language
that the WB never let them (and that we never quite got to hear on Mad Men, which this series does echo at
times.) The series has already gotten heavy award consideration from both the Golden Globes and
the Broadcast Critics, with nominations for both the series and Brosnahan. It
may be too early to say that this will be the first real shot this talent has
for an Emmy (did I mention how badly they were jilted for the entire run of Gilmore Girls?), but its clear that this
has some of the potential to be one of the best shows on any platform. Let's hope that the Emmys consider this like
they did Transparent and not Mozart in the Jungle.
My score: 4.5 stars.
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