The Marvelous Mrs Maisel Season 4 Review: Rachel Brosnahan and Alex Borstein return with their spark but the show is burdened with déjà vu

By Vandana Srivastawa

on February 17, 2022 06:11:07 PM

Show: The Marvelous Mrs Maisel Season 4

Cast: Rachel Brosnahan, Alex Borstein, Marin Hinkle, Tony Shalhoub, Michael Zegen, Kevin Pollak, Caroline Aaron, Luke Kirby, Kelly Bishop, Milo Ventimiglia, John Waters, Jason Alexander

Director: Amy Sherman-Palladino

OTT: Amazon Prime Video

Rating: 3 Moons

Like so many series that went off air or ended just before the pandemic hit us, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel Season 4 takes off from when it ended its third season in December 2019. The audience are expected to remember at what juncture the show ended and since so much has happened in the last two years that it is a little jarring to realise that these shows return without having really moved forward at all.

So to jog your memory a bit, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel Season 4 starts off from where the third part ended with Miriam Maisek aka Midge (played by Rachel Brosnahan) unceremoniously dumped at the tarmac of the airport after she unwittingly came dangerously close to outing singer Shy Baldwin’s sexuality at his tour. Eventually the singer’s manager, Reggie decides to cut ties with Midge and hire someone else for the opening gig of Shy’s European tour. The mistake or the blunder felt like a climax where Midge seemed to be coming out of her 1950s affluence and would eventually face the realities of the coming 1960s. However, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel 4 does not give into this magnanimity and Midge still goes on with her rants, albeit with more anger without any remorse whatsoever.

After having watched the first two episodes of the show that were provided for review, the show is poised to either follow Midge’s reactive nature that eventually shows up in her acts on the stage or it could finally introduce us to a new facet of her personality. From the first two episodes of the show the underwhelming part is a little more prominent because you get the feeling of déjà vu. Midge’s storyline is put in the same template with the adults talking non-stop and somewhat unnecessarily and the children being voiceless and faceless individuals.

Midge’s manager Susie (Alex Borstein) also finds herself in a tight spot when she gambles away her client’s money and is also caught between a little insurance fraud. Midge finds herself in a soup because she has bought back her old apartment by borrowing money from her former father-in-law Moise (Kevin Pollack) giving her Shy Baldwin European gig as collateral. However, both of them find themselves facing financial woes and out of their elements much like the writers of the show. Midge’s ex Joel (Michael Hegen) is still facing problems for opening a club in downtown Chinatown but his plotline remains uninteresting. However, on the upside is Midge’s father Abe’s (Tony Shalhoub) newfound literary pursuit as a theatre critic for the Village Voice after the lacklustre university professor. His story gives a glimmer of hope that somewhere down the line he and Midge might join forces and understand each other more from the earlier seasons.

Amy Sherman-Palladino and her husband Daniel Palladino return to direct and write the show but while the first three seasons made everyone applaud the storyline that gave a woman protagonist an opportunity to say exactly what she wants to say, but in the first two episodes this USP seems a bit lacking. The Palladinos are facing a major challenge seeing how the last season shook things up. The season kicks off with the trademark chaotic family conclave of Maisels and Weissmans in a whole Coney Island trip atop a ferris wheel with the entire family sitting in separate booths and yelling and revealing their problems at the top of their lungs.

Midge faces the indignities of being disrespected for being a woman and a single mother and the challenges of facing sexism in her chosen profession as well as in the world. The show is still relying on the previous season’s energies which brings us back to the point, ‘Why are we back here again?’

Rachel Brosnahan is still energetic and a livewire on screen with her impeccable act. Alex Borstein gives her ample support and their banter is one of the highpoints of the episodes. Hopefully, they will be able to shoulder the responsibility of carrying the season forward with able support from Marin Hinkle, Tony Shalhoub and Kevin Pollack. But we hoped that the Lenny Bruce (played by Luke Kirby) love-triangle was introduced early in the show to give Midge some wind beneath her wings to fly.

The show is a winner when it comes to costume and production design part and manages to bring a picturesque frame in every scene. The Coney Island scene is especially remarkable and the production design department deserves brownie points for it. Midge’s costumes remain eye-catching and praise worthy.