frelling_tralk: (Lucy Hale By sietepecados)
frelling_tralk ([personal profile] frelling_tralk) wrote2019-12-26 02:49 pm

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 3

I have noticed that a lot of people seem more frustrated with the character and the show in season 3, but I still found it very entertaining to watch with this latest season. I absolutely loved the set design and the cinematography, Shy’s songs were so catchy that I certainly had zero complaints about the time spend on them. I can see now why Amy wasted so much time on the musical in Gilmore Girls as it’s obviously something that she’s really into, but while I hated it on that show, I thought it fit perfectly in the world of Mrs.Maisel

Also love Suzie, and love the double act between her and Midge of course, the friendship is so adorable and heartwarming to me. Midget attempting to teach Suzie to swim was an especially cute touch! I did think it was weird that Suzie losing all of Midge’s money didn’t come up with them though, I was expecting a dramatic revelation in the final episode when Midge found out about it, instead it seemed to be pretty much handled after Suzie burnt down her mothers house for the insurance money? I guess that could still come up as an issue again in season 4 though? NOT a fan of Suzie asking Joel to handle Midge’s money from now on though, wtf??!

I still don’t really care about Joel as much as the show seems to want us too, I find it hard to sympathise with a character whose main trait seems to be feeling insecure around confident women... I did like Mei’s character as I thought the actress was very good, but I wasn’t won over by their romance particularly, honestly I thought it was a bit odd that a show set in the 1960’s would have nobody bringing up the interracial controversy? It was nice to see it accepted of course, just didn’t seem very realistic.

Oh and Lenny Bruce’s guest appearance and his almost romance with Midge absolutely stole the show for me in episode five, their chemistry is just insane. My interpretation of Midge turning Lenny down was that it was for the sake of her career, and not wanting to be accused of getting fame through her romantic attachment to another comedian? At least it is after she asks what Lenny thought of her set that she seems to make the decision to leave?

I’ve seen some complains about the writing of Midge’s parents in this season, but I enjoyed them anyway 🤷‍♀️ I thought it was especially nice to see Rose deciding that she could no longer be patronised by her family following the example of her daughter, and while some of Abe’s storyline dragged for me at times I guess, overall I thought it was pretty funny when he was dealing with those young people and trying to go back to the ideals of his youth. And I enjoyed seeing them having to cope with living with their in laws as well, I thought that led to some hilarious moments

My biggest complaint would be that I thought that Sophie Lennon was very overused. I liked her cameos in the past, but you can definitely have too much of a good thing, and I didn’t particularly enjoy watching Susie having to work with her and her ridiculous demands as much as she did, although there was a good payoff at least when you see how hurt and frustrated Susie was at Sophie not believing in herself enough to commit to a dramatic performance away from her usual character

And then of course there’s the ending...I actually found it really hard to watch, I had such a feeling of doom from when Reggie first suggested that Midge just joke about Shy and talk about what goes on on tour, and I had to watch most of her set through my fingers. I did think it was well handled in how you think that Midge just about got away with it, and then there’s that final gut punch when Reggie tells them that Shy doesn’t want Midge opening for him again after that. And really ouch at Reggie and Shy waiting until they got to the airport with all of their luggage before breaking it to them!

But I 100% got why Shy would have felt betrayed, it was hard enough for me to watch Midge constantly skirting too close to the edge and praying that she wouldn’t go too far, so goodness knows the tension that Shy would have been going through backstage! I got that she was very nervous about the audience and just going with what she saw as working, but she did take it way too far and she showed zero awareness towards how Shy would feel about her winking towards how feminine he came across as


And sorry that I’ve sucked so much at posting and commenting lately! I actually haven’t been visiting LJ hardly at all lately, I find myself spending more and more time on twitter these days in fact, but ultimately it is nice to come back to a blog when you can ramble on to your hearts content and not have to constantly worry about editing yourself down to fit the word limit *g*

[identity profile] rromantic.livejournal.com 2019-12-26 04:29 pm (UTC)(link)

Very well said, this neatly sums up my experience of season 3 as well. :)


Joel lost my interest completely when he asked Midge to tell her parents about him walking out on her vs telling them himself. I know the dialogue might have been meant as banter but she did end up telling them (he didn't) and Joel remains a total coward to me, a soft and weak character. Him jumping up on stage at the Catskills was just too little, too late.

[identity profile] frelling-tralk.livejournal.com 2019-12-26 05:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Yep, I can see where they’re going with trying to redeem his character in seasons 2 and 3 and show his reasoning more, but you’re just never going to create a favourite character to me out of someone who left his wife for his secretary because he felt overshadowed by how witty and brilliant she was. It would have redeemed him more for me maybe if they showed that he had changed his old patterns with Mei, but instead he was still caught up with exactly the same obsession with feeling intimidated and not wanting to be shown up by a more gifted partner

Joel’s treatment of Midge obviously left its mark on her too after we see her breaking off the engagement to Benjamin partly because she was convinced that no man would ever be happy with his wife having a career as a stand up comedian, just because Joel couldn’t cope with it. I was really glad that they brought Benjamin back to have his say actually, the actor did such a heartbreakingly good job there of telling Midge how she had broken his heart. I know that Midge gets a lot of crap for being a flawed and self absorbed character, but I do feel like the show is aware at least of her less than perfect moments, and she generally does get called out for them (sulking over Suzie having another client until her friend points out the reality of Suzie’s situation, her standup at her friends wedding effectively ending their friendship, Shy breaking off their contract after her routine went too far etc etc)