"The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" has won the hearts of many Amazon Prime subscribers. As a comedic drama, it brought in many viewers in need of a good laugh and a good cry.
Synopsis
The show follows Miriam "Midge" Maisel (played by Rachel Brosnahan) in the 1950s-1960s as she struggles to make a career as a Jewish woman in comedy. Throughout the show, Midge struggles with relationships of all types, landing jobs, and parenting.
Season five opens with the Weissman Thanksgiving and introduces a new divorce plotline, a possible new job, Joel's announcement that he'll marry a woman he impregnated and hasn't introduced to the family, and Mei privately states that she will no longer marry Joel and that "there is no baby."
Lows
For the next two episodes (all episodes that were released), it is heavily insinuated that Mei had an abortion (illegal during this time). Joel even accuses Midge of convincing Mei to get the abortion, which she says was Mei's choice. Episode three ends with Joel's mother crying to her husband and holding up a pink and blue bootie that she'd made for her future grandchild. In its fourth season, Mei happily announced to Joel that she was pregnant and accepted his proposal. The couple is excited and kisses at the end. This is not an accurate depiction of someone who will get an abortion and loses some points here from me because of its heavy inaccuracy. Since this is a review, I will not be stating my personal views on abortion here.
It could also be assumed that this is reflective of the creator's views since Mei goes from excitedly accepting a marriage with a man she's serious with and discussing her pregnancy that she wants to have, to having an abortion, rather than asking for him to split abortion costs and then having an abortion. The character of Mei deviates so heavily that it feels inorganic to the show and makes the audience wonder whose idea it was. There is no definitive proof released yet, but it might make sense that this is the work of the creator, Amy Sherman Palladino. However, she claimed long ago that she doesn't use art to deliver messages, according to ThinkProgress in 2012, so we may not know definitively why this character acts completely out of character and out of any logic in this season.
Highs
Seeing the Maisels in 1981 is a very interesting concept. I believe that the casting of characters who needed to age up was fitting and that Midge did appear to be older. It sets up the ending of Midge's story and makes the audience wonder what got her where she is now. There's a lot of character development that the audience is hoping to see by the end of the season in order to fill in these gaps. However, this was confusing the first time that it was introduced— they could've begun with Midge, instead of her daughter, so the audience didn't have to check if they were actually watching "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel."
The show still has some hilarious jokes ranging from JFK Jr.'s upbringing and Elmer Fudd. Susie's sarcastic attitude is still alive and well, Abe is still as dramatic as ever, and Rose makes moves to continue her matchmaking business.
Rating
The first three released episodes of "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" have received a 4/10 rating from me. There were a plethora of laughs, but there was not a logical bridge from season four to season five. Midge didn't feel to be the main character, but rather Mei, and how everyone felt about her implied abortion.
