The Lilith Blog

November 28, 2017 by Nina Mozes

Your Jewish and Frankly Feminist Review of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”

Amazon announced that it has ordered up an unprecedented two seasons of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, a television drama from Amy Sherman-Palladino (Gilmore Girls, Bunheads) about a young Jewish woman who finds herself becoming one of the first female comedians.

The first season airs November 29, 2017. Is it stunning and slightly problematic? Yes. Should you still watch it? Yes.

It’s the 1950’s, and Miriam “Midge” Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan, House of Cards) has everything she’s ever wanted, or at least everything she thought she ever wanted: a seemingly nice and funny Jewish husband (Michael Zegen); two healthy, if not beautiful children (one has a forehead large enough for her to question); and an apartment on the Upper West Side spacious enough to get lost in and close enough to the home of her parents (Tony Shalhoub and Marin Hinkle) that she can cavort downtown while they babysit. And by “they,” we mean Zelda, the maid. To top it all off, they finally got the rabbi to say yes to Yom Kippur break-fast.

But in the first episode, which aired on March 17, life forever changes for Midge. She’s been going downtown, taking vigorous notes for her husband Joel’s act (Joel is the first one to dream of comedy), only to discover that not only has he been stealing Bob Newhart’s jokes, but he is struggling to do them at all. And after bombing a set in front of his wife and friends, he decides that his life is not what he thought it would be, and tells Miriam that he is leaving her. He can’t stand to be a failure in his wife’s eyes. Oh and also, he’s been sleeping with his secretary. What a guy.