I think we can start the marathon of great series finales and this Friday Amazon Prime Video started not so much with ‘Citadel’ but with the latest episode of ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’, the great comedy by Amy Sherman-Palladino that has been fired forever after five seasons.
It’s funny the journey we’ve had with the series. Starring Rachel Brosnahan as Midge, began as the pretty girl of the public, critics and awards with its first seasons and then began to go unnoticed. Sometimes with more reason and others with less.
In fact I had my misgivings with this season 5since the magic seemed to have vanished but, fortunately, the comedy returned with renewed strength and with the desire to show, above all, the evolution of its characters with, in addition, the promise that we would finally see our protagonist succeed.
And so it has been, with a ninth episode in which we had a look at the future of the characters and we were shown the rise (and fall) of the comic, a journey in which for some reason his friendship with Susie (Alex Borstein) was over and her husband Joel (Michael Zegen) had been in jail.
four minutes of fame
As we discovered the reasons, in the present we were seeing how Midge was looking to try to get her big break. Opportunity that has finally arrived in ‘Four minutes’the final episode of ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ whose central arc is that, after countless refusals and goings-on that do not sit well with perpetrators and those affected, Midge will have the opportunity to be in front of the cameras in ‘The Gordon Ford Show’ .
I am not going to dwell on the details and the conflict that erupts in the tense minutes of television. I’m just going to say that Palladino and company give us “four minutes” (I have not timed them, but I will trust what they say in the episode) absolutely wonderful and hilarious for the comic It had been a long time since I had laughed so hard, which also allowed me to be carried away by the emotion of the moment.
Something that is possible precisely because at that point not only of the episode, but of the season (and of the series itself) there is no longer the pressure to close dozens of subplots, for telling us what comes next… because they have already been telling us and solving it throughout the eight previous chapters. Anything but something very specific.
Saying goodbye to Lenny and Susie
If there has been a referent? Constant in Midge’s career that’s Lenny Bruce. The comedian played by Luke Kirby had been largely absent (except for a chance encounter at the airport) throughout the season. This final episode we find out how we find him in his lowest hours, completely gone trying to put on a decent act in a San Francisco joint in 1965 (a year before his death).
This is the bitterest note from the conclusion of the series, a gloomy look that, fortunately, does not stop there because we have three endings. Or, rather, an ending and two epilogues. The first epilogue takes us six months earlier, to the epiphany night season 4 ended with Bruce and Midge having dinner at a Chinese restaurant.
The second is a flashforward to 2005, with our aging protagonist having a moment to watch ‘Jeopardy!’ at a distance with Susie, who is a continent away. Two epilogues on that optimistic note and even tender about the importance of being accompanied, of finding someone who complements you. Palladino’s series revolve, above all, around that, lasting friendship and this ending emphasizes it.
As I said a little earlier, ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ has had a career with quite some ups and downs… but always keeping a good level. This season has not been an exception. and, in fact, there are issues of the final stretch (the sudden departure of Mei or the Zelda thing) that have not finished working for me. However, I do think that it has recovered that lost magic and has left us with a rather memorable and, of course, hilarious ending. Boobs up!
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