1960s dramedy follows woman’s path to stand-up
TV REVIEW
What’s that old saying about life handing you lemons?
That’s what happens to Miriam “Midge” Maisel in the new comedy drama, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” which is pretty marvelous itself.
The nine-episode series, whose first season becomes available today on Amazon Prime, was created by “Gilmore Girls” creator Amy Sherman Palladino and her husband, Daniel Palladino.
The dramedy is set in 1960 New York as Midge (Rachel Brosnahan) marries her college sweetheart, Joel Maisel (Michael Zegen). They move into an upper West Side apartment in the same building as her parents, Abe (Tony Shalhoub) and Rose (Marin Hinkle) Weissman, which is convenient once they have kids because Joel fancies himself a stand-up comic and the Maisels have a place to park the kids when Midge accompanies him to open-mic night at a downtown club.
Midge takes a brisket each night to bribe the manager into giving Joel a better time slot and writes copious notes when Joel is onstage to help fine-tune his performance. Trouble is, the performance is sometimes OK, but the routine he’s doing was already done by some guy who is getting a lot of network attention after the release of an album called “The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart.”
The reality is, however, Midge has far better comic instincts than her husband. A series of events leads to her stumbling onstage herself and, drunk and dressed in a nightgown under her coat, she delivers a brilliant comedy routine in the form of a rant against her life.
It’s not completely credible, of course, but then again, neither was “Gilmore Girls,” and that show did as well as “Maisel” should.
Fact is, there’s an appealing quaintness about the look and feel of the show. It’s perfectly period, of course, with convincing attention to detail in costumes and design, although there are a few phrases in the dialogue that seem to be from the 21st century.
The performances are vivid and engaging, beginning with Brosnahan, who easily evolves from the model of spouse-supportive ‘60s perfection to a woman of strength and independence.
Shalhoub and Hinkle are spot on as Midge’s parents, especially playing off each other.
Zegen makes Joel more than just a bad husband with a pipe dream; Kevin Pollak is hilariously over the top as Joel’s father; and Luke Kirby is terrific as Lenny Bruce.
But great as everyone else is, the standout, once again, is Alex Borstein, who plays club manager and would-be personal talent manager Susie Meyerson. She is not only the woman of many voices, including Lois on “Family Guy,” she also almost walks away with every live action show she’s in. Susie puts on a tough, leather-clad front, but she’s a total pussycat and Borstein’s scenes with Brosnahan are simply brilliant.
The writers take their time getting Midge out of the house and onto the comedy stage, but that enables them to develop the character naturalistically.
It wouldn’t be credible if Midge became an overnight comedy star in the first episode. Bit by bit, though, she finds her comedy legs, and we can happily wait for the punch line.