On a lot of levels, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel was made for me. I’m an East Coast Jew, with family in NYC, and while I never lived that specific life, I know people just like that. I knew people who went to the Catskills, people who would have had made cracks about surprise the food wasn’t kosher (the stories of my parents’ wedding and the cream lives on). It’s also an Amy Palladino show, and I greatly enjoy her stuff. The hat tip to one of my favourite jazz artists, Blossom Dearie, in season two? I listen to her self-titled album regularly.
But this kind of show, a rapid-fire snappy-dialogue dance with multiple generations of (mostly) Jews, a queer who doesn’t really come out, that was a very specific target audience. I never expected this show to be the biggest hit on the planet. It was, however, always going to be a show I enjoyed a hell of a lot.
On April 14th, the final season comes to Amazon Prime with a 9-episode, 7-night event.
Every episode has me laughing.
And the part we here at LezWatch.TV cared about is, of course, Susie Myerson.
Wrapping it All Up
The first thing to know about the final season is that it is a final season. This season was written to be the end, to bring the storylines together, to answer questions, and to let us know where it all ends.
This involves the classic tropes of flash-forwards, where all the actors play their older selves. Seeing everyone being older-them is a hoot, and it’s not done for laughs. The series has always been committed to amazing costumes and sets, and their use of both make the relative-future believable. That’s how I remember New York in the 80s and 90s, it’s how I remember Israel too.
Oh yes, we’re going there.
We get to see how the kids grow up, how people move on, and how much a mess Midge makes of every single aspect of everyone’s lives. I mean, come on, you know her kids are going to be in therapy when they get older. It’s practically a requirement.
Susie Steps Up
One of the longstanding disgruntlements about the show is that Susie doesn’t get a lot of her own plot. To be fair, the show isn’t called “The Stupendous Susie” and everyone is going to revolve around Midge. But at the same time, it leaves many characters left only lightly shaded and formed.
With Susie, the reason it’s frustrating is that… well Susie’s queer. We know it, it’s been confirmed, and yet the show always dances away from something as simple as giving Susie a love interest. Midge had one, Joel had one. Hell, even Rose had some people very interested in her and became a matchmaker. All of those characters get to have full fledged lives outside of Midge, except Susie.
Susie lives for her work, which was kicked off by Midge, and everything revolves around that. If she isn’t working for Midge, she’s working for Jackie (he’s the magician) or James (the actor who happens to be black). And while Susie moves mountains for her clients, to the point of working with the mob (remember those guys?), that really is the whole of her existence. She has very little personal life to the point that deaths in her family are glossed over, unless her reaction to the deceased negatively impacts Midge.
While the majority of the final season does still have this issue, we are getting more glimpses into Susie’s life. Like Susie actually does know why someone’s estranged from their spouse. The downside is that it’s still a shallow glimpse no matter how you paint it.
A Good Bye
The show is ending. And the silly fun I got watching the styling sass of Mrs. Maisel will be consigned to the bin of block-watch later.
All I can tell you is that the final season does it’s best to bring it all home, give us that last, good, fare well.
And don’t forget.
Tits Up.
Sad that the show is ending but this now frees up Tony Shalboub to do the Monk movie.