The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 1 available November 29 on Amazon.
It takes a special kind of talent to handle the lightning-fast patter of Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino, and on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Rachel Brosnahan matches Gilmore’s Lauren Graham and Bunheads’ Sutton Foster in embodying Sherman-Palladino’s ideal of the sharp-tongued, hyper-literate woman of substance, who takes no crap from anyone, least of all herself.
While Gilmore and Bunheads both took place in quaint small towns full of almost fantastical quirks, Mrs. Maisel is more rooted in the real world, specifically 1958 New York City. That’s where upper-class Jewish housewife and mother Miriam “Midge” Maisel (Brosnahan) has her seemingly perfect life shattered when her husband of four years leaves her for his secretary.
Mr. Maisel (Michael Zegen) had been trying his hand (poorly) at stand-up comedy, but his wife turns out to be the one with real talent, as she proves when she barrels, drunk, onto the stage of the Greenwich Village coffeehouse where her husband had previously performed. The hyper-organized and fiercely observant Midge had been taking comedy notes for her husband, and she puts those insights to use in a burgeoning career overseen by gruff coffeehouse manager Susie (Family Guy’s Alex Borstein).
Although certain aspects of Midge’s career are inspired by real-life female comedians of the 1950s (including Joan Rivers and Phyllis Diller), she’s a wholly original creation, and Brosnahan imbues her with an infectious vibrancy that’s equally entertaining whether she’s performing onstage or dealing with her judgmental traditional Jewish family. It’s not surprising that Sherman-Palladino’s dialogue sparkles, but she also effectively captures the time period, injecting just the right amount of quirkiness into the historical context. The set design, costumes and visually inventive direction (often from the creator herself) lavish as much attention on Midge’s home life as her professional aspirations, filling both with rich, rewarding detail. Marvelous is an understatement.
