“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” Season 3 Review by Josh Davis
January 6, 2020 7:45 am |
Season 3 of Amazon’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” sees our intrepid hero going on the road, opening for pop sensation Shy Baldwin during the birth of the 1960s.
The season opens on a military base with Midge Maisel (Emmy and Golden Globe winner for the role Rachel Brosnahan) performing during a USO show. Of course, she knocks them dead. Freed from the confines of cigarette addled New York nightclubs, her standup act is able to evolve on the road, from Vegas to Florida, as at each stop she learns to mine new material from her surroundings.
Her parents (Tony Shalhoub as Abe Weissman and Marin Hinkle as Rose Weissman – both equally commanding and hilarious) are also transient, leaving their longtime posh New York apartment to move in with Midge’s once and future in-laws.
While they’re busy fighting over money and status, Midge’s ex-husband (Michael Zegen as Joel Maisel) is trying to open a nightclub in a building that shares space with an underground Chinese casino.
All of these challenges help push the characters in new directions. Midge and Joel get divorced and remarried and divorced, and in the process finally appear to have some closure. He moves on, while she moves forward.
Midge’s father, prior to leaving their flat, adopts a ring of beatniks that seem to multiply across the first several episodes, before he realizes the futility of his ways and searches for deeper meaning, to mixed results.
The returning cast continues to be stellar. Brosnahan delivers rapid-fire comedy better than anyone working today. She’s also a hell of an actress, ranging from spoiled Jewish middle class, to revolutionary comic in the blink of an eye. She’s constantly unsure of herself and overly self-aware, but her raw talent both as a performer and a character on the show is stunning to watch.
Shalhoub and Hinkle continue to deliver in the b-plot. An episode when Rose goes home to ask her wealthy family for more money shows off her depth and ferocity, while Abe deadpanning with beatniks is a highlight, as is his speech before former college students toward the season’s close.
Joel, previously cast as a one-dimensional lout, becomes more rounded and that’s thanks both to great writing and a more nuance performance by the actor.
Midge’s agent Susie Myerson (Alex Borstein) continues to be a fantastic foil, the vinegar to her oil, and gets plenty to do in Season 3 in side-plots involving both managing a diva actress (Jane Lynch as the awful Sophie Lennon) and her increasing struggles with a gambling addiction.
In a supporting role, Leroy McClain as Shy Baldwin can be a scene stealer, and his turn from slick pop star to battered victim of apparent sexual abuse in Episode 6 is both heartbreaking to watch and breathtaking as an acting clinic. At one point, Midge finds him bloody in the cabin of a boat and helps him put on just enough makeup to cover his bruises, and he gets back on stage to croon during a set when softly breaks our hearts.
Also a highlight is the welcome return of Luke Kirby as Lenny Bruce. Always excellent in the role, Kirby and Brosnahan get the majority of an episode together and the sexual tension between the two could melt through steel. He’s good enough to warrant a spin-off and, of course, there’s a mountain of mineable material in the legendary story of Lenny Bruce. But, it also would be a crime not to see more of he and Midge together.
The other star of the show is, of course, the setting – that period of excitement when the safe, slick, wholesome 1950s gave way to the bold, radical, technicolor 1960s. The turning tides of gender roles, race, sexuality, free speech – all of it is vibrant and vital in a way that reminds the viewer how far society has come, but also how much further it still needs to go. Only a show so beautifully written, acted, directed and costumed could pull that off so authentically.
Season 4 ends on a shocking moment highlighted by the performance of the two managers, one protecting Shy Baldwin from the world (Sterling K. Brown as the no-nonsense Reggie), and one (Borstein) fighting to keep her young comedian’s moment going.
Already renewed for Season 4, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” continues to be one-of-a-kind: sharply acted, well-paced, and able at any moment to either make you laugh or break your heart. Simply put, it’s a marvelous thing to watch.
PCL Rating: Tupperware
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: FRESH 🍅
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Tags: Josh Davis, pop culture leftovers, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel 2019, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Amazon Prime, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel: Season 3
Categorised in: Television Reviews
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