Its almost curtains up on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel , the award winning comedy is about to come to an end with its fifth and final season, let’s take a look back at what’s happened over the past 4 seasons.
Courtesy of Prime Video
The show which is set in 1958 New York City follows the many misadventures of Miriam “Midge” Maisel played by Rachel Brosnahan, a young Jewish-American housewife and mother, living on Manhattan’s Upper West Side who discovers she has a talent for stand up comedy, And what a journey it has been for Midge Maisel, battling sexism, discrimination, facing her family, forging new friendships and relationships, but most importantly, facing herself.
Created by Amy Sherman-Palladino. It also stars Alex Borstein, Michael Zegen, Marin Hinkle, Tony Shalhoub, Kevin Pollak, Caroline Aaron, Jane Lynch and Luke Kirby.
In season one Midge’s husband, Joel, performs stand up at The Gaslight Café. Midge considers it a hobby, unaware the untalented Joel wants to be a professional comic. After a particularly dismal performance, a dejected Joel leaves Midge for his secretary. Midge, upset and drunk, returns to the Gaslight in her nightgown and stumbles onstage. In a bawdy impromptu set, Midge vents her predicament to the audience, then is arrested for obscenity. In the police car, Midge meets comic Lenny Bruce, also arrested for using obscenity. Gaslight manager Susie Meyerson bails Midge out of jail after having seen her performance the night before, and Midge later bails out Lenny. Recognizing Midge’s raw talent, Susie coaches her to be a stand-up comic. The season ends with Midge declaring herself in front of the audience at the Gaslight as Mrs. Maisel, in a triumphant return to the place where it all started for her. Midge takes her place in the spotlight now ready to begin a new career regardless of what anyone else thinks.
In the second season, Midge hones her comic skills at the Gaslight. As Susie works to book paying gigs, meanwhile Midge works to hide her new career from her family. Susie and Midge hit the road for a short comedy tour. Touring is harder than expected and female comics are discriminated against by their male counterparts. Midge later runs afoul of Sophie Lennon, a famous Great Depression-era female comedian who performs as an uncouth housewife from Queens. Midge rejects Sophie’s advice to develop a similar gimmicky persona to compete in the male-dominated field. When Midge ridicules Sophie’s corny act during a Gaslight set, a vindictive Sophie has her blacklisted from most clubs. To her families dismay, Midge continues to pursue stand up comedy professionally. Season 2 also ushers in a new romantic interest for Midge, a successful doctor named Benjamin (played by Zachary Levi). The pair bond over their shared love of the arts and similar values, leading Benjamin to ask Abe for Midge’s hand in marriage. Everything seems perfect until Shy Baldwin who Midge met during a Telethon hires her as his opening act for a six-month tour. Even though her feelings for Benjamin are genuine, Midge realizes that she’s too ambitious to settle down again so soon after her separation from Joel and spends one last night with him before she sets off on tour.
Courtesy of Prime Video
In the third season, Midge’s career is on an upswing touring with Shy Baldwin going from city to city. After ending her engagement with Benjamin, her parents are now furious. For Midge balancing her comedy career and family life is difficult. Although Midge and Joel are divorcing, they remain in each other’s lives, even as both navigate new romantic relationships. Midge is furious when Susie agrees to manage the eccentric and unpredictable Sophie Lennon, Midge then realizes Susie needs multiple clients to financially survive. Joel forges a different path into the entertainment industry by opening a nightclub in Chinatown, later discovering his landlords run a gambling den downstairs. Midges parents are seemingly coming to accept her new profession as they come and visit her on tour, but when Joel visits Midge in Las Vegas, a drunken night leads to a big mistake. Season 3 focuses more on the relationship between Midge and Lenny Bruce. In the final episode, Midge opens for Shy’s big showcase at Harlem’s legendary Apollo Theater. Nervous about the whole experience, Shy’s manager Reggie (Sterling K. Brown) encourages her to talk about Shy and the USO tour, however, some of her jokes nearly out Shy to the audience. As a result, the season ends with Reggie kicking her off of the tour without warning.
The fourth season finds Midge enraged and humiliated after being fired from Shy’s tour. She struggles to restart her career and vows to only do headliner gigs, not opening acts. To complicate matters, a Daily News reporter continually disparages Midge’s performances in print. Meanwhile, a jealous Sophie Lennon once again thwarts Midge’s career. Rose Weissman, Midge’s mother starts a matchmaking business, much to the anger of the other women who “own” the New York matchmaking scene, Susie is under the influence of two seemingly sweet, but still very dangerous, mobsters after having gotten into some money trouble, Joel’s landlords are unhappy that his successful club draws attention to their illegal activities. Joel also copes with girlfriend Mei’s unexpected pregnancy, his mother’s meddling, and his father’s heart attack. It feels like a lot was going wrong for Midge and her family in season 4, at one point Midge even became the comic emcee at a strip club. In the final episode Lenny Bruce gets Midge out then helps reboot her career. Lenny tells Midge he has recommended her to replace him as Tony Bennett’s opening act at the Copacabana, but she refuses. Still not wanting to take opening acts. In a moment that has been building up since the very first episode, we finally get to see Midge and Lenny cut the sexual tension in the room as the two finally slept together after years of anticipation. Things soon took a turn when Midge discovers an injection vial and a syringe in Lenny’s travel case the morning after, though he brushes off her concern. Things come to a boiling point at the end of the episode at Carnegie Hall when Lenny finally tries to talk some sense into Midge about deciding not to take the gig opening for Tony Bennett that he helped secure. The season ends with Midge walking out into a blizzard, not sure of where she’s going but the question remains, will she take Lenny’s advice? Only season 5 will tell.
In season 5 Midge finds herself closer than ever to the success she’s dreamed of, only to discover that closer than ever is still so far away.
Season 5 of Mrs Maisel will premiere on April 14th on Prime Video.
Fangirl and Writer with a huge passion for entertainment.
