From Amazon Prime:
Winner of 8 Emmy Awards. In 1958 New York, Midge Maisel’s life is on track- husband, kids, and elegant Yom Kippur dinners in their Upper West Side apartment. But when her life takes a surprise turn, she has to quickly decide what else she’s good at – and going from housewife to stand-up comic is a wild choice to everyone but her. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is written and directed by Amy Sherman-Palladino (Gilmore Girls).
From IMDB:
Set in 1950s Manhattan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is a 60-minute dramedy that centers on Miriam “Midge” Maisel, a sunny, energetic, sharp, Jewish girl who had her life mapped out: go to college, find a husband, have kids, and throw the best Yom Kippur break-fasts in town. Soon enough, she finds herself exactly where she had hoped to be, living happily with her husband and two children in the Upper West Side. A woman of her time, Midge is a cheerleader wife to a man who dreams of a stand-up comedy career, but her perfect life is upended when her husband suddenly leaves her for another woman. Utterly unprepared, Midge is left with no choice but to reevaluate her life. When she accidentally stumbles onto the stage at a nightclub, she discovers her own comedic skills and decides to use this newfound talent to help her reinvent her life. The series follows the trajectory of Midge’s journey as she pursues a career in the male-dominated, stand-up comedy profession, and transforms from uptown.
From Amazon Prime you can stream two seasons of this wacky soap opera. Season 1 offers 8 episodes. Season 2 offers 10 episodes. All of the episodes vary in length but all are more or less close to one hour.
Upper middle class Jewish life centering around the Upper West Side of New York city was a new experience and revelation for me. For awhile I was skeptical that Midge’s father (played to riotous perfection by Tony Shalhoub ), a university math professor, could earn enough to support a large and gorgeous apartment in which the only woman in the production who did not wear an entirely different and obviously expensive outfit at every appearance was the family cook. Eventually I learned that the university owned the apartment, but THOSE CLOTHES!!! If nothing else, if you want to see a living catalog of the fashionable garments of the 50’s, you will appreciate this funny fantasy.
Rachel Brosnahan who plays Midge is strikingly beautiful. (And those clothes don’t hurt!) Her rapid delivery is astounding. How much did the cast have to practice to be able to do that? In fact that is the hallmark of the entire series: the rapid fire deliveries are almost a challenge to keep up with. When I finished an episode I would find myself thinking faster.
Don’t get me wrong: many of the other actors deliver their lines well. But Midge and her father Abe Weissman are standouts.
In the plot Midge, in her quest to become a famous comedienne, interacts with the famous comedian Lenny Bruce. You are hereby warned that throughout the series much of the language and the gags are vulgar. You will hear the F word very often. Recall that Lenny Bruce was often indicted (and jailed) for lewd comedy. There are still things you cannot say in 2019 on cable TV.
My suspicion is that you will either love or hate this show. For my part I LOVED THIS SERIES!
