The Amazon Prime original series “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” is back with its fourth season of delightful and entertaining television. The entire eight-episode season is available for viewing on Prime now, including the season finale which aired on March 11.
While the COVID-19 pandemic briefly halted production, Season 3 left our beloved Miriam “Midge” Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan) and her robust manager, Susie Myerson (Alex Borstein), standing defeated on the airport runway as the plane carrying their hopes and dreams of going on Shy Baldwin’s (Leroy McClain) tour flew away to Prague without them. Fired from her big break as Shy’s opening act and gutted by her failures, Midge enters Season 4 at an all-time-low, with her prospects for success as a stand-up comedian appearing unfortunately dismal.
Season 4 opens with Midge back on stage in the club where it all began: The Gaslight Café. Dressed in a well-fitted black shirt and pants, she pulls a drag from her lit cigarette and smoothly exhales into the microphone as the single spotlight shining from the rafters outlines her calculated, dainty and surprisingly powerful posture. It appears that our favorite quick-witted, fast-taking foul-mouth of a comedian has made her way into the limelight again.
Establishing both the season’s tone and her internal motivation, Midge’s perfectly lined lips breathe her newly self-selected motto into the mic: “revenge.” This “revenge” Midge speaks of comes in the form of honesty and individuality in her acts. Unwilling to let another pot-hole in her road to success enable her from achieving her stand-up dreams, Midge enters the fourth season with a refusal to censor her thoughts, jokes and self for the sake of others. She acknowledges that her success as a comedian comes from her authenticity, and therefore vows to say “exactly what’s on my [her] mind” without regard for critics, and in the most fabulously dressed way possible. In doing so, Season 4 marks a rebirth–spawned from devastation but destined to result in exaltation.
Predictably and thankfully, Season 4 is as funny as ever. Sparkingly with a new title sequence for each episode, the season remains cohesive to its preceding seasons yet original in its delivery and on-screen magic, making it charming to the fullest extent and for so many reasons.
Unexpected plotline, new family drama within the Maisel and Weissman households and an air of hope all occupy Season 4. This continues to vividly transform watchers into the enthralling experience of New York City in the 1960s through the culture and traditions of two Jewish families that live, breathe and yell all things NYC.
With terrific performances from its star-studded cast that includes Alex Borstein as Susie Myerson, Michael Zegen as Joel Maisel, Marin Hinkle as Rose Weissman, Tony Shalhoub as Abe Weissman and the front and center magnificence of Brosnahan as Mrs. Maisel, the show is as wonderful as ever. Notably, the show maintains an expectation for diversity within its cast and crew and has good BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ representation among its performers as well.
Midge’s new occupation in Season 4 as an emcee for a Burlesque-like strip club takes the show to an all-new, extremely detailed setting. The burlesque house has period-accurate dressing rooms, backstage areas, bars and orchestra pits, making it the perfect time capsule of showbiz in the ’60s and a great setting to enjoy visually. Also, the costuming is thoroughly delightful. Mrs. Maisel’s endless supply of adorable dresses, shoes, purses and hats — yes, she has a hat to match nearly every outfit — has watchers increasingly envious of her wardrobe with each new episode.
For three seasons, audiences have watched this former housewife once controlled by her husband and household duties step into the inspiration and independence of her own destiny. Like an unrefined piece of coal turned precious diamond, the one-of-a-kind stand-up comedian has become a feminist icon–using hilariously dirty yet relatable humor and her sardonic wit to tackle the male-dominated profession of comedy.
Now in the show’s fourth season, creator Amy Sherman-Palladino’s ambitions work to continue the feminist themes, especially surrounding Midge’s roles in a man’s world. There is awareness of the inventive example Midge set for women during her time, making this season more than just watching Midge rebuild her career as an entertainer.
Importantly, Season 4 focuses on Midge and Susie’s continued pursuit toward rewriting the expectations of the entertainment industry in its entirety — especially in regards to the limiting confines placed upon women in comedy during the show’s 1960s setting. Time and time again, the show demonstrates this struggle through the endless battles the comedian and manager pair face. Even friend and fellow comic, Lenny Bruce (Luke Kirby) warns Midge of the incompatibility between comedy and womanhood.
“We’re comics,” Bruce stated. “We don’t wear aprons and discuss potty training.”
Thus, Midge’s vow of honesty and loyalty to herself when performing becomes a powerful example of a woman refusing to conform to or be destroyed by the oppressions of an industry tirelessly working to exclude them from its spotlight. Midge shows she can be both a woman and a comic, a mother and a jokester, and she continuously demonstrates through the impressive volume of the laughs her jokes enact that it is valuable to hear a woman’s perspective in comedy.
Additionally, Sherman-Palladino’s attention to a need for authenticity within this season casts a light on an important consciousness surrounding Midge’s power as a comedian with a working microphone and listening audience. With a platform comes power, and as Midge shares onstage during the last few minutes of Episode 1, “If you’re gonna have a voice, you better be careful what that voice says … but it can’t do anything if you keep your mouth shut.”
“Certified Fresh” by Rotten Tomatoes, the fourth season of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” earned a tomato meter score of 91%, exemplifying its popularity amongst long-time watchers. Also cementing the fourth season’s success, Amazon Studio announced that “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” has been greenlit for a fifth and final season.
Clairesse Schweig is an intern for the 2022 Winter quarter. They can be reached at cschweig@uci.edu.
