[7.5/10] I don’t want to keep going on about my dislike for Joel. But I also don’t want him and Midge back together. I don’t know why/how we’re supposed to think he’s been redeemed, or him yelling at Midge about the mob or about her hairspray when she says to drop it and that she’s got it under control is supposed to be endearing. It’s sweet that she comes to visit him in jail in the far-off future of 1987, but even then, he’s a little officious and entitled. I don’t get why we’re supposed to like him. Or maybe we’re not?
The best you can say is that he clearly cares about Midge and wants to keep her safe. But you also rarely get the sense that he respects her. And the fact that he wants a medal for not just washing his hands of his ex-wife isn’t endearing either. I get that there’s still some attraction between them, but god help me, I hope this is The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel exorcizing the last bit of it rather than, as I’ve long feared, starting to put them back together. (Just gotta remind myself that 60 Minutes said she had four marriages!)
That said, I also don’t want her to end up with Gordon Ford? In contrast to Joel, he is clever, witty, and charming. (On a side note, I’m used to Reid Scott playing an absolutely horrific asshole on Veep so seeing him play such a smooth operator full of playful banter is a trip!) He laughs off Midge’s misadventures. He does at least seem to respect her at least a little (if it’s not all just a prelude to telling her that it was all an act to try to sleep with her and he actually thinks she’s terrible down the line, which is a distinct possibility). He comes to see her show, and the pair have good chemistry.
But, uh, he’s her boss, who continually uses his position to pressure her into dating him despite being repeatedly told no. This is a show set in 1961, so I actually kind of appreciate that nobody comments on this or sees it as wrong, and even Midge doesn’t really cognize it as inappropriate. But it means it’s tough for me to root for any of the romantic options on the table right now, as the series draws to a close. (Unless Zachary Levi wants to pop back in for a quick return as Benjamin.)
That said, even if this isn’t the exact reason Midge has a problem with the prospect of “a thing,” I like her reasons for turning it down. She doesn’t just want to be “Gordon’s Girl”. She doesn’t want people questioning how she got the writing job. She doesn’t want to have to wonder when (not if) she gets on the show, whether it was because of sleeping with the boss. She doesn’t want to deal with snickers and whispers in the office. Regardless of whether any of the men in her life respect her, Midge respects herself too much to go for anything like that.
And still, they dance. They dance in the same restaurant where she once danced with Joel amid wedded bliss. And I’m uneasy about wherever the show is going with this.
Speaking of things that are a bad look, holy hell the Weissmans’ practically ruining Zelda’s wedding! What the hell!? I think the show wants us to find this charming and funny. But good god, Abe and Rose interrupting Zelda and Yanuscz’s vow so they can inquire about whether she’s leaving her job, and then haranguing her after the ceremony about showing them how to vacuum is the height of self-centered and entitled behavior that occasionally infects Sherman-Palladino’s shows. Charitably, I think the show wants the joke to be on Abe and Rose, particularly in the form of their obliviousness to “the help” coming back to bite them, but it really makes them seem like jerks through this whole thing.
That said, once again Moishe and Shirley are very sweet with Shirley’s constant restitching and Mosieh getting mushy over the wedding. And the discussions of Rose’s wedding day, whether men or women are scared for their wedding nights, and Joel and Midge’s premarital proclivities are all funny bits that land.
Going from land to sea, I love both the comic and more dramatic and then comic elements of Midge’s exploits on a Hudson River cruise to please some diaper-dealing sponsors. The chance to hobnob with some sponsors who George the Producer is keen on, but Gordon disdains conveys Midge’s go-getting ingenuity. This is a chance to ingratiate herself with George and make a good impression. And for a while, it seems like it works swimmingly! (No pun intended.) Her set kills. It plays well with George. She’s not only shown she can handle an audience, but helped George achieve something he was clearly high on despite pressure from his star. All is right in the world.
Until Midge stands up for what’s right in a way that's not convenient. As much as this show avoids having anyone anachronistically complain about the boss hitting on his employee, it does show Midge recognize when a poor waitress is being cornered by one of the suits on the boat. Her intervention leads to a contretemps from the suit, an unfortunate assault and piracy(!!!) charge when the guy says he hit her, with a coast guard arrest, and perhaps most noteworthy, puts her on George’s bad side. This episode is not full of the best looks, but Midge standing up for someone in a service position, a fellow woman who’s made powerless in the way she’s been before, and that coming at a cost, is redemptive of some of the less savory stuff here. (And not for nothing, leads to some great pirate humor, including an unexpected but very welcome needle drop from living legend Tim Curry and Muppet Treasure Island.)
That just leaves the misadventures of Susie trying to get one of her comics (the one from the diner last season) a dramatic movie role. It’s fun to see her stalk some bigwig producer to a bathhouse, and there’s some amusing gags seeing her team hounding the office with phone calls, IRS deceptions, and Eartha Kitt impressions. I like her reverse psychology approach with the producer, but her daydreams about being a bigwig herself suggest that this is going to get worse before it gets better. Though again, the 60 Minutes flash forward that suggests she hits it big one day is oddly reassuring through all of this.
Overall, there’s a heap of questionable relationship material for Midge in this one, and a very bad look for the Weissmans’ as they all but screw up their housekeeeper’s wedding, but some fun and low-key inspiring hijinks from Midge, and a nice lighter B-story for Susie.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2023-04-30T18:24:50Z
[7.5/10] I don’t want to keep going on about my dislike for Joel. But I also don’t want him and Midge back together. I don’t know why/how we’re supposed to think he’s been redeemed, or him yelling at Midge about the mob or about her hairspray when she says to drop it and that she’s got it under control is supposed to be endearing. It’s sweet that she comes to visit him in jail in the far-off future of 1987, but even then, he’s a little officious and entitled. I don’t get why we’re supposed to like him. Or maybe we’re not?
The best you can say is that he clearly cares about Midge and wants to keep her safe. But you also rarely get the sense that he respects her. And the fact that he wants a medal for not just washing his hands of his ex-wife isn’t endearing either. I get that there’s still some attraction between them, but god help me, I hope this is The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel exorcizing the last bit of it rather than, as I’ve long feared, starting to put them back together. (Just gotta remind myself that 60 Minutes said she had four marriages!)
That said, I also don’t want her to end up with Gordon Ford? In contrast to Joel, he is clever, witty, and charming. (On a side note, I’m used to Reid Scott playing an absolutely horrific asshole on Veep so seeing him play such a smooth operator full of playful banter is a trip!) He laughs off Midge’s misadventures. He does at least seem to respect her at least a little (if it’s not all just a prelude to telling her that it was all an act to try to sleep with her and he actually thinks she’s terrible down the line, which is a distinct possibility). He comes to see her show, and the pair have good chemistry.
But, uh, he’s her boss, who continually uses his position to pressure her into dating him despite being repeatedly told no. This is a show set in 1961, so I actually kind of appreciate that nobody comments on this or sees it as wrong, and even Midge doesn’t really cognize it as inappropriate. But it means it’s tough for me to root for any of the romantic options on the table right now, as the series draws to a close. (Unless Zachary Levi wants to pop back in for a quick return as Benjamin.)
That said, even if this isn’t the exact reason Midge has a problem with the prospect of “a thing,” I like her reasons for turning it down. She doesn’t just want to be “Gordon’s Girl”. She doesn’t want people questioning how she got the writing job. She doesn’t want to have to wonder when (not if) she gets on the show, whether it was because of sleeping with the boss. She doesn’t want to deal with snickers and whispers in the office. Regardless of whether any of the men in her life respect her, Midge respects herself too much to go for anything like that.
And still, they dance. They dance in the same restaurant where she once danced with Joel amid wedded bliss. And I’m uneasy about wherever the show is going with this.
Speaking of things that are a bad look, holy hell the Weissmans’ practically ruining Zelda’s wedding! What the hell!? I think the show wants us to find this charming and funny. But good god, Abe and Rose interrupting Zelda and Yanuscz’s vow so they can inquire about whether she’s leaving her job, and then haranguing her after the ceremony about showing them how to vacuum is the height of self-centered and entitled behavior that occasionally infects Sherman-Palladino’s shows. Charitably, I think the show wants the joke to be on Abe and Rose, particularly in the form of their obliviousness to “the help” coming back to bite them, but it really makes them seem like jerks through this whole thing.
That said, once again Moishe and Shirley are very sweet with Shirley’s constant restitching and Mosieh getting mushy over the wedding. And the discussions of Rose’s wedding day, whether men or women are scared for their wedding nights, and Joel and Midge’s premarital proclivities are all funny bits that land.
Going from land to sea, I love both the comic and more dramatic and then comic elements of Midge’s exploits on a Hudson River cruise to please some diaper-dealing sponsors. The chance to hobnob with some sponsors who George the Producer is keen on, but Gordon disdains conveys Midge’s go-getting ingenuity. This is a chance to ingratiate herself with George and make a good impression. And for a while, it seems like it works swimmingly! (No pun intended.) Her set kills. It plays well with George. She’s not only shown she can handle an audience, but helped George achieve something he was clearly high on despite pressure from his star. All is right in the world.
Until Midge stands up for what’s right in a way that's not convenient. As much as this show avoids having anyone anachronistically complain about the boss hitting on his employee, it does show Midge recognize when a poor waitress is being cornered by one of the suits on the boat. Her intervention leads to a contretemps from the suit, an unfortunate assault and piracy(!!!) charge when the guy says he hit her, with a coast guard arrest, and perhaps most noteworthy, puts her on George’s bad side. This episode is not full of the best looks, but Midge standing up for someone in a service position, a fellow woman who’s made powerless in the way she’s been before, and that coming at a cost, is redemptive of some of the less savory stuff here. (And not for nothing, leads to some great pirate humor, including an unexpected but very welcome needle drop from living legend Tim Curry and Muppet Treasure Island.)
That just leaves the misadventures of Susie trying to get one of her comics (the one from the diner last season) a dramatic movie role. It’s fun to see her stalk some bigwig producer to a bathhouse, and there’s some amusing gags seeing her team hounding the office with phone calls, IRS deceptions, and Eartha Kitt impressions. I like her reverse psychology approach with the producer, but her daydreams about being a bigwig herself suggest that this is going to get worse before it gets better. Though again, the 60 Minutes flash forward that suggests she hits it big one day is oddly reassuring through all of this.
Overall, there’s a heap of questionable relationship material for Midge in this one, and a very bad look for the Weissmans’ as they all but screw up their housekeeeper’s wedding, but some fun and low-key inspiring hijinks from Midge, and a nice lighter B-story for Susie.