For the first time ever, I watched an episode, too. It was interesting.
As I said, I generally love fast-paced, witty dialogue. I loved Seinfeld, so the New York Jewish thing in and of itself was not a problem. It’s the Joan Rivers-ish, aggressive, sort of whiny flavor that turns me off. I think I’ll just write this one off.
Oh, I’ve missed this show so! Watched 2 episodes last night and it’s just as good as Season 1.
(FWIW, I’m a huge fan of Seinfeld and from New Jersey originally, so the fast paced witty aggressive and whiny dialogue is not only something I enjoy but also rings true to how some people actually speak up north)
Not everything is for everyone. All my friends are currently doing the annual holiday “Love Actually” splurge, but they are all wrong, it is a horrible movie that I can’t imagine anyone ever liking…(obviously, they all do, but its a movie that leaves me feeling used).
Binged all of Season 2 and now waiting for Season 3.
I like the show and have seen two eps (loved Abe’s description of Rose leaving him, without realizing she left him). If you like Gilmore Girls or Bunheads, you’ll like this. I have the usual mild gripe that Palladino’s female characters tend towards being obnoxiously immature (Rose’s constant tantrums remind me of Lorelai and Emily) but overall a fun show with great period sets and costumes.
Episode 3 had me laughing so hard. “You actually call it the punishment room”
“Our Lady of Perpetual Sadness”.
I enjoyed episode 4 a lot also. Welcome Chuck from Chuck. I mean Zachary Levi.
My wife and I are limited ourselves to no more than 2 eps a day.
Oh, thank og. I don’t get the love of “Love Actually” at all actually. It is not a great movie, it is not even a good movie to me.
The Steiner Ranch episodes are fantastic.
Finished it last night. The bit with Rufus Sewell was good, as was her interactions with Zachary Levi. I would have liked to see more of Rose studying art at Columbia and she should have had a completely different reaction to Abe’s story arc, imo. I think my favorite was the telethon episode (and if you ever wondered if Danny DeVito would make a cute girl, you’ve got your answer in this one).
I would argue that Abe is probably the most obnoxiously immature person on the show.
Anyways, a really good season with some growth in Midge’s career (and some of the struggles of the comedy business, but only for a bit). Liked how they started exploring (just barely) some class issues between Midge and Suzy. The love story was charming as well. However…
The ending was completely jarring! It’s interesting that Midge thinks career > family, but to go back to Joel ‘for a night’ was shocking
I tried to watch the 2nd season of Mrs. Maisel and somehow ended up watching The Tony Shaloub Show.
Seriously, since when is he the star of the show? The Paris and Catskills episodes basically revolved around him. And who cares about his job situation?
Now, he was great in Galaxy Quest, Monk and did I mention Galaxy Quest? But he’s not the reason I’m watching this show.
What’s with the closing songs being from much later eras? There were great songs in 1959 they could use. And dancing to Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful Life” in Paris in 1959? Sorry, not without a time machine.
Luke Kirby’s Lenny Bruce reminds me of the HHGttG line: “… a liquid that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea.” So close but not at all right. If he tried acting less like Lenny it might work better.
And they way these people ignore the kids so much unless they need them as a plot device to Show Conflict. Egad.
I want my Midge. I want standup. I want the fun.
Because Tony Shaloub is great ;). And it seemed like this season wanted to flesh out a bit more of the background characters. Joel got far more time and more plot lines than he did in Season 1 as well. Though I do disagree that the Catskills episode revolved around him (I found it far more about the ridiculous situation of taking 2 months off all the while Susie trying to figure out how to get Midge bookings - although the Paris one may have).
And Midge did quite a bit of standup this season.
I’d go along with that for this season. Last season, he was managing Rose’s tantrums - this season (post-Paris) was pretty much all about his own tantrums.
As for the spoilers…
[spoiler] They prepped Midge for that choice with Lenny Bruce and Declan Howell making affecting speeches about the sacrifices art requires, though I’d have expected Midge to fight that mindset a little. There was no reason to think Benjamin wouldn’t have been supportive of her career. Her cheating with Joel left a sour taste…
I also felt Rose should have been furious with Abe. They left Paris so he could continue to teach and work at Bell labs - she gave up her happiness for him. Now he announces he’s throwing both away?[/spoiler]
I finished the second season yesterday. The thread title includes “spoilers,” so I’m not going to use spoiler boxes for anything (even though others have)…fair warning! 
I loved it, right up until the last 10 minutes. I loved that all of the characters got some development, and I loved Benjamin as a partner for Midge. But the reaction to seeing Lenny’s “all alone” act and feeling like that was her destiny should have been going to Benjamin – not going to Joel to cheat on Benjamin (“I need to be with someone who loves me”??? gag). Just like she should have told Benjamin about the tour as soon as she realized that she’d forgotten all about whether Abe was going to approve of Benjamin asking Midge to marry him (I thought Rachel Brosnahan acted that moment well, FWIW). I *kind *of understood Midge calling Joel when the club owner locked Susie in a closet and wouldn’t pay, but those other things seemed out-of-character to me. The season ended with me not liking Midge very much as a person, for the first time.
Joel was kind of annoying. All of his whining about wanting to be forgiven, and then accusing Midge of leaving him…he seems to have completely forgotten that he’s the one who said “no” to their reconciliation, because he couldn’t handle her comedy career. I thought maybe he was finally going to grow up and start getting past it, but then Midge showed up.
Yes, it’s mildly annoying that the kids are always an afterthought (literally, in one scene), but it doesn’t strike me as unrealistic. Wealthy parents have always had other people raise their children. Even though it’s a different time period and country I keep thinking about Downton Abbey, and how the children might have spent all of one hour per day with their parents; it’s less extreme on this show, but I don’t think the attitude of the wealthy toward child-rearing changed all that much in 50-60 years.
I think Rose was upset enough with Abe: reminding him that the university owns their apartment, etc. His spending time in Paris with her was both a testament to his love for her and a turning point for him, even though the latter didn’t manifest until the end of the season. Both Rose and Abe have changed. I’m definitely going to watch Season 3, but it might be mostly to find out what Abe has up his sleeve after that meeting with the (apparently) criminal lawyer!
The trouble with that is, if you did a proper Lenny Bruce these days, people would wonder what PeeWee Herman was doing in the show.
I rolled my eyes and gritted my teeth when my partner wanted to watch another of his highbrow, talky shows. I like my entertainment visual, like superhero shows, and I don’t apologize for it. But I found myself drawn into “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” and we binged several hours of it.
The lead is engaging and eminently likable. I can’t say I laughed out loud at any of her monologues, but they were cute and entertaining. I think the actress is very talented.
I find her mother annoying and slap-worthy. Especially the scene in which Alex Borstein’s character got tongue-tied and flustered while talking to her on the phone. I would think that such a brassy, don’t-give-a-damn character would have said, “Look, lady - I gave you all the information you need. Your daughter is going to be late and she needs you to watch her kids a while longer. You don’t need to know who I am, and any further information can come from your daughter.”
I did notice a couple of the anachronistic expressions, and I also wonder about the depiction of Jews, Blacks, and whites hanging out so casually in the 1950s. Can anyone comment on that?
Regarding the prep, I was fearing she was going to do the opposite. Realizing she had to make a choice and choose the safe family life - though yes it wasn’t as black and white that Midge made it.
And I did think Rose was pretty angry at Abe’s choice, but they also did cut before Abe laid out his plan. It could involve Paris after all.
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I agree with many who love the show, but were taken aback with the last 10 minutes of the last episode. These include (spoilers):
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I agree that Midge has done some very selfish, unlikabale things in this last show. She cheated on Benjamin and is teasing Joel. She gets a bit of a pass because she’s an attractive female character, but I didn’t like it. I wonder if there will be an accounting for this is seeaon 3 or if this will just be waved away.
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This show reminds me of “Masters of Sex” which I also loved in that the children are mearly props, to be ignored for episodes or days at a time, and trotted out when convienent. Her childern were of no consideration when she signed up for a 6 month tour.
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In short, she has become increasingly selfcentered and somewhat unlikeable.
When my Dad was little, his family was an 11-people household: parents, widowed mother, unmarried aunt, five children, cook and maid. You entered directly into a large square room from which one hallway led to the “grown-up” side, the other to the “service and children” side. I’ve seen similar flats in other Spanish towns; the large “service” side always included “and children”. So for me that’s one particular bit which doesn’t seem surprising at all.
Re. being too pretty: there used to be a kind of actor which in Spanish was called galán cómico; Dean Martin would have been an American example. A comedian attractive enough to be the loverboy. I think Mrs. Maisel would simply be the female version: yes, she’s pretty, but she’s mainly a comedian.
Someone told me Mort Sahl’s character was in the show. Is it a bad impression? I haven’t seen this (or hardly any TV shows)