MAISEL TOV!
NEW SEASON JUST AS ‘MARVELOUS’ AS THE FIRST
Midge Maisel says “f--k” a lot now.
It's a word you can get away with in the seedy clubs where she spends her nights, surrounded by the seedy drunks and comedians who would send her mother to her fainting couch. It's a word that belongs underground. And maybe Midge belongs there, too.
I tempered my expectations for the second season of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”; after all, the first season was so perfect that it seemed impossible to replicate. But through the first five episodes provided to critics, showrunners Amy ShermanPalladino and husband Daniel Palladino have proven they know exactly what they're doing.
Season 2 is grander, in every sense of the word. It's funnier and louder and brighter. They travel, to Paris and the Catskills. Midge (Rachel Brosnahan) keeps working on her act and Susie (Alex Borstein) keeps yelling at people who get in her way. It's a natural progression from last season, from the introduction of Mrs. Maisel, but at the same time, everything has changed.
Midge's story takes some time to get going, a little longer than I would like, but I'll excuse the delay because it gives us time with the deliriously untethered Rose (Marin Hinkle), who has fled her life and gone to Paris, adopted a dog and a regular restaurant and found freedom.
“She's questioning marriage and she's questioning motherhood... and she's also questioning her own choices on maybe having let go of a career,” Hinkle told the Daily News.
“She's having independent thoughts that are very similar to what Miriam's having, but she doesn't know that Miriam's having them.”
It's a common thread, this sense of unrest that threatens to unravel everything. Joel (Michael Zegen) is single, unemployed and living at home. Shirley (Caroline Aaron) and Moishe (Kevin Pollak) need money to keep their business afloat. Susie battles tradition and the patriarchy to make a name for herself.
“Susie's career is wholly dependent on whether Midge decides to make a career of this,” Alex Borstein, the Palladino favorite (“Gilmore Girls,” “Bunheads”) who plays the belligerent business manager, told The News. “Susie's always wondering if that old lover's coming back.”
That's not just Joel, although his constant presence always poses a threat; rather, Susie fears Midge's return to her old life of brisket and babka. Because without Midge, without Mrs. Maisel, Susie is alone.
Abe (Tony Shalhoub), too, is caught in the whirlwind, but rather than lean in, he resists, pushes back. The Columbia professor, in all his tweed and elbow patches and pineapple socks, hates change.
“He's at a point in his life and an age where he's good with things the way they are,” Shalhoub told The News. “When things start to unravel, he does not handle it well. He's always trying to get back to level. He's always trying to right the ship.”
But even Abe learns to adapt, because what other choice does he have?
“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” still makes plenty of time for the once and future Mrs. Maisel, for her standups and her meltdowns. The dazzling Brosnahan, the darling of last year's award season, still gets her time in the spotlight.
Hinkle described Rose's journey as a pinball machine, bouncing back and forth endlessly until success or failure. That's an apt metaphor not for just Rose but for everyone in the show who has been swept up in Midge's tornado of turmoil.
The second season of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” hits Amazon Prime Wednesday.