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chuckroMidge Maisel has it all: A successful husband, two kids, rich parents, and no worries. At least, until it becomes clear that her husband is sleeping with his secretary and she realizes she never wanted most of this in the first place: She wants to be a stand-up comedienne!
The 50s New York setting gets shown off more than the plot often actually calls for. There’s a bit of “you built this set / put in this scene just because you could, didn’t you?” Similarly, I have to wonder if Gilmore Girls would have had a lot more blue language if they hadn’t been on network TV. If this is any indication, Sherman-Paladino is not the slightest bit afraid to work blue.
Episode 5 was rather cringe-worthy, as we watch Midge bomb on stage twice. And I realize, for the season to have an arc and a real sense of drama she needs to have some setbacks, but still, eeeugh.
By the halfway point, Jethrien was curious as to why they kept bringing Joel back, given that it was clear Midge didn’t want anything to do with him. And he mostly gets a bit in each episode that shows how much of a schmuck he is. (I liked his parents, though!) The late-season twist that they might get back together (and that Midge wants him back) recalls the worst parts of the later Gilmore Girls storylines, when they drag out romantic drama (and extremely poor decision making) that nobody actually wants, when they should be spending that time on wacky hijinks and witty banter. If they had phased out Joel and focused on the solo career vs. Burns and Allen decision and a growing romance with the comic from the parties, I would have been much happier.
The timeline is a goddamn mess. In the last couple of episodes, Midge’s dad claims that Joel came back “about a month ago” (though he has every reason to be lying about the timeline to try to minimize his wife’s upset) and Midge says this entire nonsense took “about three months” and that makes no goddamn sense. In order for that to work, Midge would have to be going out (to shows, to parties, to standup gigs) practically every night, Joel would have needed to be living with Penny (and everyone found out about it) for less than a month, which puts Penny at middle-school levels of sudden infatuation. Combine that with Suzy’s line that Midge put together her “tight ten” in “just a few months,” which only works with the compressed timeline if she started counting the first night Midge got up on stage, rather than (more logically), after Midge stopped doing the party circuit and really buckled down on perfecting her stand-up routine.
I think my biggest problem with this is similar to my biggest issues with the Gilmore Girls finale miniseries: We’re following the life of someone (two people, really, if you consider Joel a main character) who have been thoroughly and carefully insulated from any of the bad choices they’ve made in their lives. Upper-class Jewish society (then as now) is about tone-switching, but within the right circles you can be a LOT more blatant that wider society allows for. Midge does badly in court because she doesn’t know (and doesn’t want to know) the meek-and-mild Christian-woman, “Yes sir, I was bad, I’ll never do it again.” Midge adopts a “speaking to a hen party” tone for her stand-up, and keeps that because it gets her a lot of laughs. But it’s also what royally bites her in the ass in episode seven, and she doesn’t know how to deal with that because she’s so used to being “rescued” by her parents from anything resembling disaster. My only sympathy for Midge—and it’s a significant difference from Rory—is that her control over her own life has been minimal at best. She clearly has no interest in motherhood, she doesn’t actually want the society-prescribed traditional marriage, and she’s most excited by a career that would never be considered acceptable for her. Her rebelling (and subsequently making a bunch of terrible choices) in light of that is much more understandable.
Joel has this same problem of being insulated from his mistakes, but in his case, he’s an incompetent schmuck. I think my only acceptable ending that involves the two of them getting back together is if he discovers that stay-at-home fatherhood is his true calling, and can be content with Midge and her comedy career being the family breadwinner. I’m willing to accept, “Society forced these people into roles they were grossly unsuited for, but successfully rejecting them allowed them both to grow into better people and better partners.” I’m skeptical we’ll get that, and even more skeptical it’ll happen before a last-episode surprise-cancellation emergency wrap-up.
Overall: The standup bits are hilarious. The banter is wonderful. The life choices are atrocious and occasionally warrant a, “I know you’re smarter than this, what the &*%$ are you doing?!” I’ll likely wait on the reviews of season 2 when it drops before I make any decisions.
The 50s New York setting gets shown off more than the plot often actually calls for. There’s a bit of “you built this set / put in this scene just because you could, didn’t you?” Similarly, I have to wonder if Gilmore Girls would have had a lot more blue language if they hadn’t been on network TV. If this is any indication, Sherman-Paladino is not the slightest bit afraid to work blue.
Episode 5 was rather cringe-worthy, as we watch Midge bomb on stage twice. And I realize, for the season to have an arc and a real sense of drama she needs to have some setbacks, but still, eeeugh.
By the halfway point, Jethrien was curious as to why they kept bringing Joel back, given that it was clear Midge didn’t want anything to do with him. And he mostly gets a bit in each episode that shows how much of a schmuck he is. (I liked his parents, though!) The late-season twist that they might get back together (and that Midge wants him back) recalls the worst parts of the later Gilmore Girls storylines, when they drag out romantic drama (and extremely poor decision making) that nobody actually wants, when they should be spending that time on wacky hijinks and witty banter. If they had phased out Joel and focused on the solo career vs. Burns and Allen decision and a growing romance with the comic from the parties, I would have been much happier.
The timeline is a goddamn mess. In the last couple of episodes, Midge’s dad claims that Joel came back “about a month ago” (though he has every reason to be lying about the timeline to try to minimize his wife’s upset) and Midge says this entire nonsense took “about three months” and that makes no goddamn sense. In order for that to work, Midge would have to be going out (to shows, to parties, to standup gigs) practically every night, Joel would have needed to be living with Penny (and everyone found out about it) for less than a month, which puts Penny at middle-school levels of sudden infatuation. Combine that with Suzy’s line that Midge put together her “tight ten” in “just a few months,” which only works with the compressed timeline if she started counting the first night Midge got up on stage, rather than (more logically), after Midge stopped doing the party circuit and really buckled down on perfecting her stand-up routine.
I think my biggest problem with this is similar to my biggest issues with the Gilmore Girls finale miniseries: We’re following the life of someone (two people, really, if you consider Joel a main character) who have been thoroughly and carefully insulated from any of the bad choices they’ve made in their lives. Upper-class Jewish society (then as now) is about tone-switching, but within the right circles you can be a LOT more blatant that wider society allows for. Midge does badly in court because she doesn’t know (and doesn’t want to know) the meek-and-mild Christian-woman, “Yes sir, I was bad, I’ll never do it again.” Midge adopts a “speaking to a hen party” tone for her stand-up, and keeps that because it gets her a lot of laughs. But it’s also what royally bites her in the ass in episode seven, and she doesn’t know how to deal with that because she’s so used to being “rescued” by her parents from anything resembling disaster. My only sympathy for Midge—and it’s a significant difference from Rory—is that her control over her own life has been minimal at best. She clearly has no interest in motherhood, she doesn’t actually want the society-prescribed traditional marriage, and she’s most excited by a career that would never be considered acceptable for her. Her rebelling (and subsequently making a bunch of terrible choices) in light of that is much more understandable.
Joel has this same problem of being insulated from his mistakes, but in his case, he’s an incompetent schmuck. I think my only acceptable ending that involves the two of them getting back together is if he discovers that stay-at-home fatherhood is his true calling, and can be content with Midge and her comedy career being the family breadwinner. I’m willing to accept, “Society forced these people into roles they were grossly unsuited for, but successfully rejecting them allowed them both to grow into better people and better partners.” I’m skeptical we’ll get that, and even more skeptical it’ll happen before a last-episode surprise-cancellation emergency wrap-up.
Overall: The standup bits are hilarious. The banter is wonderful. The life choices are atrocious and occasionally warrant a, “I know you’re smarter than this, what the &*%$ are you doing?!” I’ll likely wait on the reviews of season 2 when it drops before I make any decisions.
