For the rest of the summer, I will focus on completing a draft of my novel. I’m simplifying my newsletter by writing the same thing every week- a brief talk-through of an episode of television that I find interesting. I hope you enjoy it, and I’ll be back with essays in September.
Last week I surprised even some of my closest friends with the vitriol that oozed from my every opinion about The Bear’s third season. I stand by it.
This week, I’ll veer in the exact opposite direction. Season three episode five of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is an episode of television that I absolutely love, adore, admire- and I can’t really put my finger on why it's so great. Interesting how it’s so easy to identify why something isn't working, but harder to nail why something is fantastic. Especially because I don’t think the show’s creator, Amy Sherman Palladino, cares that much about those “screenwriting basics” that I seem to be so fond of.
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel isn’t for everyone, but it is definitely for me. The start of season 2 is rough (all of the Paris nonsense was a misstep), but I really enjoyed the rest of its five seasons.
Comedy or Cabbage, the episode in question, opens up with Midge at the Fontainebleau in Miami, on tour with Shy Baldwin. If you’ve never seen Maisel, the whole thing is a very stylized fantasy of the life of a female comedian in the fifties, almost like a Broadway show but without singing. Except when there is singing? Which is, in fact, pretty often. Anyways, the story sometimes meanders, and sometimes whole scenes happen for seemingly no reason (a pet peeve of mine) except…they kind of do matter, which is what makes the show so good. It’s like…rules…were meant…to be broken???
Miami is a fantastic new setting at this point in the show, because Miami is almost a fantasy in and of itself. The beach and the sun! The bathing suit bodies! In the fifties! It’s great fun. And not a lot happens in the A story. At least, not much advances in terms of Midge’s career, her relationship with her family, or her love life. Here are the scenes:
-Midge and Susie arrive at the hotel.
-Midge gives Susie swimming lessons. Susie heads back to New York for another client, leaving Midge alone.
-Midge has a conversation with the female bassist in Shy’s band where they commiserate about dating as women on the road. The bassist (Paris from Gilmore Girls) tells Midge to get a gun, painting a depressing, possibly dangerous picture of dating. (Technically, no story beats happen in this scene at all, but it sets up how magical the rest of the events of the episode are.)
-Midge writes at the bar. Lenny Bruce drops in to say hi and promises they’ll go out.
-Midge’s parents arrive.
-Midge opens for Shy and kills, with material inspired by her parents.
-Lenny was watching. He asks her out. She says yes and wants him to critique her set.
-They go to a tv appearance Lenny has to do. He does a bit where he invites Midge onto the tv show and introduces her as either his sister or his wife. (Again, not really moving the story forward, but my god, are they siblings or romantic? If that doesn’t get at theme, I don’t know what does.)
-He takes her to a Cuban club. (Again, technically no story beats in this scene.)
-They go back to Lenny’s place. He tells her her set was sensational. Midge gets a taxi home.
So not a ton of forward momentum there. But IT. IS. MAGICAL. MAGICAL!
Lenny Bruce cuts a strange figure on Maisel. He’s the only historically real character, so he occupies this liminal space where he’s a fantasy within the fantasy. We know that there’s no real future with his character because of how his real life ends. So every time he appears on the screen, he’s almost operating as Midge’s manic pixie dream magical comedian/unattainable love interest. In some ways, I think that Lenny is really just Midge’s comedic superego- he’s the version of herself she knows she can be. A legend. His character externalizes the conversation she’s having with herself about her own greatness.
I specifically love the scene where they go to the Cuban club, even though nothing really happens. So much of Maisel is already pure fantasy. They all speak like they’re characters in Singin’ in the Rain or Guys and Dolls. But this, this scene is high, high fantasy. A singer steps out from a bamboo screen and sings the shit out of a sultry song. It’s Miami, it’s sexy, a little bit dangerous- do these masked dancers cross a line, Amy Sherman Palladino? She makes you a little nervous…
And then after all of that setup, the camera finally lands on our couple. And we get this.
LENNY: What do you think?
MIDGE: I just wish it had a little bit more atmosphere.
Oh my god!!! It was not just a transition into fantasy-world, where Midge and Lenny could actually be together, it was the setup for an absolutely killer joke. I was floored. A sexy, sexy setup for a very funny joke.
And not only is that funny and entertaining. It gets at the theme of the entire show. This is Midge’s whole thing- is she a woman or is she a comic, and how can she be both? No scene with Lenny ever really moves the plot forward. He exists outside of the show in that way. But it moves the STORY forward because he so perfectly activates Midge's conflict.
They go back to his place. He invites her in. The shot is perfect, they frame his bed inside. She asks what she really wants to know: how was her set? He says she was “sensational.” My insides melt. He loves her, he loves her talent, it’s all the same. And that’s what Midge wants, more than anything else. To be loved whole. It doesn’t even matter if he loves her just for her talent. It makes it even better, because that’s who she is. This scene is just…killer. She gets what she needs but maybe not what she wants, and goes home. Before she leaves, Lenny asks if they’re gonna happen one day. Before he dies. She promises yes.
Then the camera lingers. And it’s so sad. So tragic and gorgeous. Midge can’t really be with him- we know he’s ill, struggling with addiction, on his way to a tragic death. If Amy Sherman-Palladino is a little light on story sometimes, good lord does this woman understand TONE. She is the Queen of Tone. This episode works, despite the fact that it stalls the overall story of the season, because the detour gets at the heart of Midge’s character.
I also would be remiss not to mention the smoking hot chemistry between Lenny and Midge. Oh my lord. Do I think it’s an accident that Rachel Brosnahan’s real life husband, Jason Ralph, shows up as a character in the next season? I mean…there’s no way to know, BUT. (Jason Ralph is a very charismatic actor that I like very much, but oh man, Luke Kirby!!) So maybe, on some level, really fantastic chemistry just makes something work, too. But that’s the thing- Palladino knew that, and knew she could hang this episode on these actors. Absolute perfection. Mastery. All hail the Queen.