The Marvelous Miss Maisel-Review

If you were ever a fan of fast talking women, The Gilmore Girls, or even just great acting with great writing; then this is the show for you.

Written and created by the brilliant Amy Palladio. She’s always had a knack for quick dialogue littered with pop culture reference, in a world sprinkled in a little bit of pastel and soft hues.

The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, tells the story of a young happily married Jewish Girl from the upper east side, with a perfect apartment, two lovely children, and a perfect husband. Husband business exec, and stand up comic on the side.

That is all told to us in the first 45 mins of the pilot for AmazonPrime.
She is the latterly the perfect 1950s housewife, loving wife and mother, who managed to keep her figure over the four years since her marriage, as she points out doing her measurements.

The real gem of this show isn’t just the acting/costumes/ location, but the writing itself.
Having grown up with a screenwriter for a sibling, he hammered it in my head that great story telling is in the dialogue, the characters can say so much about who they are without really saying anything at all about themselves.

It was regular viewing growing up watching Gilmore Girls, sometimes just for the writing. Her dialogue was a test for actors it seems.

Typically in screen writing, 1 page of writing equals 1 min of screen time, but with her it seems that 3 pages of writing can equal a minute of screen time. It’s quick, bouncy, and a joy to listen to.

Often like listening in to real conversations. It may seem unnatural on the screen to hear people speak so fast, but the reality is real people really speak that fast to one another, and that jumbled too.

Now I haven’t said too much about what the real story is about, because I fear I could write an essay on modern feminism in not so contemporary times, etc.
But Mrs. Maisel has her life tilted and she is forced to adapt, in the typical way then and sadly now.
Advice from her father, played by the brilliant Tony Schluab,

{The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Source AMAZON PRIME}

Papa: When I agreed to send you to that fancy goyishe college, what was the one thing I told you?”

Mrs. Maisel: “They’ll have terrible deli.”

Papa: “The important thing I told you?”

Mrs. Maisel: “That was about deli too/“

Papa: “/The other important thing I told you?”

Mrs. Maisel: “Don’t pick a weak man.”

{AMAZON PRIME}

—-FAST FORWARDING A BIT—-

PAPA: “Life isn’t fair. It’s hard and cruel, and you have to pick your friends as if there’s a war going on...You’ll want a husband who’ll take a bullet for you, not point to the attic and who says ‘they’re up there’”

Mrs. Maisel: “ how could you say that about Joel? You liked him.”

Papa: “ I knew what he was.”

Mrs. Maisel: “Why didn’t you tell me then?”

Papa: “I did tell you.”

Mrs. Maisel: “When did you tell me?

Papa: “When you first came home with him, that night, I asked you ‘is this the choice?’ And you said yes.”

Mrs. Maisel: That was you telling me?”

Papa: “I have to spell it out for you?”

This scene had me laughing, reminded me of Emily Gilmore and Lorelai.

{WB Network- Gilmore Girls}

Shortly after this scene ends Mrs. Maisel has a nervous breakdown, her parents encouraging her to win him back home, otherwise what will happen to her after all she’s a woman past her prime in then1950’s.
She after downing a bottle of wine for set for an important dinner, she travels by subway in her full priced Saks coat and nightie to Greenwich village, and takes the stage to where her night began, after her husbands failed Stand up routine. She takes the stage to complain to the wall, but begins a routine of her own that kills with the 145am crowd.

After ending her bit being arrested, she is convinced she may have a new calling. And in that small brief moment, she believes it, and in herself striding down the street in the morning still looking beaten down, but she has a glow and confidence in herself that she perviously was using for her Husband.
She’s a new woman.

I wish I could give a better far more analytical review, but it’s been years since my college review write ups on the such.

I do recommend checking it out, if you are a fan of great writing and interesting characters. I’d say this is a new gem for me.