Opinion
Mrs Maisel really is marvellous
It's unapologetically Jewish, with none of the usual tragic narrative
March 1, 2022 10:14
3 min read
It's unapologetically Jewish, with none of the usual tragic narrative
March 1, 2022 10:14After the underwhelming offering that was Sex and the City’s reboot And Just Like That (or as I like to call it, Meh and the City) the long-awaited fourth season of The Marvellous Mrs Maisel couldn’t have come at a better time. Having been hooked since its debut in 2017, ‘Mrs Maisel’ (as we abbreviate it in our family) has become my quickest route to a serotonin hit. It helped me get through a breakup, kept me sane over lockdown and is one the biggest celebrations of Jewishness ever to have graced our screens.
If you’ve not seen it, the basic premise sees Midge (the titular Mrs Maisel) as the pretty and ‘perfect’ Jewish 1950s housewife who seems to have it all. Then one day her husband Joel abruptly leaves her for his secretary, and she goes on a drunken rampage, winding up at Greenwich Village coffeehouse The Gaslight. Staggering over to the mic and squinting into the spotlight, she drunkenly recounts what’s just happened to her, turning it into an impromptu stand up set, which brings the house down and thus kickstarts her comedy career, with The Gaslight’s gnarly hostess Suzy offering to be her manager.
Given the light hearted, screwball nature of the show, it’s probably not a grittily realistic portrayal of a woman trying to make it in the cut throat, male-dominated world of stand up, especially in the 1950s. But it’s not meant to be – The Marvellous Mrs Maisel is joyous. The cast, the sets and costumes are dreamy. It’s unashamedly girly, offset with a dark - and often dirty – sense of humour. It’s a celebration of Jewish New York and a paean to chutzpah in a pretty pink hat.
With most of the funny lines written and performed by women, it’s a clap back to that old adage that women aren’t funny. What makes Midge work so well as a character is that she doesn’t try to be one of the boys to get ahead. She’s proud to be a woman and loves clothes and makeup, while still delivering killer one-liners on stage. I’ll admit that Midge’s actual stand up material is fun to watch but not laugh-out-loud hilarious. In fact, the funniest lines come off-stage from Midge’s cranky, foul-mouthed manager Suzy, played by the Jewish actress Alex Borstein. Suzy’s upbringing has been a lot more brutal than Midge’s and her humour is a lot blacker as a result. Her bad temper and hard-bitten cynicism serve as the perfect foil to Midge’s sunny energy. (“No. I don't want to read your diary.” / “It's not my diary.” / “I don't care what your first time felt like.”)
Legendary Jewish screenwriter Amy Sherman Palladino, who co-created the series with her husband Daniel, is famous for her whip-smart dialogue and for conjuring up worlds that viewers instantly fall in love with and want to escape to. Her previous series, Gilmore Girls, was set in the fictional location of Stars Hollow – an impossibly cheery all-American small town which somehow worked as the setting, and we were all hooked. Similarly, Mrs Maisel’s depiction of New York in the 50s is like stepping into a vintage perfume ad, the TV equivalent of noshing a pink macaroon, with a side helping of gutter humour and a great deal of F-bombs. Yes, the main actress, the (albeit wonderful) Rachel Brosnahan isn’t Jewish, which is a shame, but it doesn’t take away from the show’s Jewish spirit. (British-Jewish comedian Sarah Solemani almost landed the role and I always wonder how she would have played it.)
But it’s not all pretty frocks and fifties nostalgia, with a few gags thrown in. Midge and Suzy’s ride-or-die partnership is as beautiful, chaotic and hilarious as any strong female friendship. Her crazy, chaotic Jewish family are relatable to all of us. And the subplot of the budding relationship between Midge and real-life comedian Lenny Bruce is enough to keep us transfixed – the scene where they go out dancing in Miami in Season 3 was one of the most mesmerising depictions of unresolved chemistry, rivalling anything Nora Ephron could have come up with. And as we know, the real Lenny Bruce tragically died young of an overdose – whether that dark truth will be written into the storyline remains to be seen.
Love it or hate it, The Marvellous Mrs Maisel is one of the very few celebrations of Jewishness in mainstream media, without the usual ‘tragic’ narrative – and for that reason alone, it should be applauded.