We just finished last night. A few observations/thoughts in no particular order:
[ul]
[li]I read Midge’s Apollo act as careless, but not as much as maybe some other people did. Like, Shy’s in show business - of course he’s going to have nice clothes and maybe be a bit of a “dandy,” and everyone knows it. The Judy Garland line was over the top, and maybe if Midge hadn’t been riffing (if it was a written, tested joke) she would have found different wording that could have stayed on the safe side of the line.[/li][li]Alex Borstein is a great cryer. She really broke my heart in that scene in her apartment in the last episode.[/li][li]Sometimes the physical resemblance between Midge and Rose is really remarkable. Good casting.[/li][li]My wife has been doing a lot of sewing during our self-quarantine, and taking some online classes in couture techniques. I don’t know how many times we paused the show to try to figure out how a particular garment was constructed. Apparently there are a lot of older garment patterns that have become scarce due to this show reviving interest in the fashions of the era.[/li][li]Put me in the category of people who just took for granted that Midge, as a young woman who grew up with money, would have very little to do with the day-to-day raising of her kids. Didn’t shock me or throw me off in the least.[/li][li]It would have been too hack-y to write a scene in which both Cary Elwes and Wallace Shawn got to act together, wouldn’t it? I still wanted it. :D[/li][li]Is it wrong that I kind of wish those Catskill summer “camps” were still around?[/li][li]The actress who plays Imogene (Midge’s tiny blonde friend) has stunningly beautiful eyes.[/li][li]For a good portion of Season 2, I was afraid that Shy Baldwin was going to hit on Midge and then throw her off the tour if she turned him down (especially after she had that conversation with the bass player about how to handle herself on the road). I’m glad they didn’t go that way.[/li][/ul]
I thought Seasons 2 and 3 were a bit uneven, like maybe they weren’t plotted through as completely as Season 1, but I still enjoyed it enough to stick around for Season 4.
[quote=“carlb, post:141, topic:803565”]
We just finished last night. A few observations/thoughts in no particular order:
[LIST]
[li]I read Midge’s Apollo act as careless, but not as much as maybe some other people did. Like, Shy’s in show business - of course he’s going to have nice clothes and maybe be a bit of a “dandy,” and everyone knows it. The Judy Garland line was over the top, and maybe if Midge hadn’t been riffing (if it was a written, tested joke) she would have found different wording that could have stayed on the safe side of the line.[/li][/QUOTE]
I agree with this. It was a time when people were even giving lip service to the idea that someone like Liberace was straight. A few laughs about him being a “dandy” didn’t cross the line from her perspective. Now, from his, it’s easy to see why he wants to stomp on any hint that he’s gay.
Back then, the only thing worse than being a black man was being a gay black man. She totally crossed the line, but…
They didn’t cross the line from her perspective because she thought everyone in the place already knew. She naively took the promoter’s “this is his hometown crowd, they know all about him” bit too literally. She never would have made those jokes otherwise.
But she wasn’t thinking clearly, since she had just met people backstage who were trying to set up Shy with their daughters. I think she got some laughs with her first stories about Shy and just kept on going, without thinking about what it might mean (much as she made the joke about her friend being in a shotgun wedding, without thinking about the idea that it might be true).
As The Wife and I were watching the Apollo routine, I was saying “Midge just got herself kicked off the tour.”
Just a note that Season 4 drops on Feb 18.
Huh. I assumed that it had ended after 3 seasons.
Oh wow. Now me and the missus are on a deadline to finish Succession.
I just binge-watched the first 3 seasons (except the final episode, which won’t play).
I was around in the late '50s, and I noticed way too many anachronisms, in phrases and music: Was “ask” a noun back then? And Streisand’s first album didn’t come out until '63.
But I loved the fashions and the NYC Jewish in-jokes.
My favorite part: Abe in Paris. This was before we found out what an idiot he is (And why wasn’t Rose literally screaming at him?).
I loved Alex Borstein. This is the first thing I’ve seen her in.
I’m not as critical of Joel as most people. Sure, he started out as a prick, but evolved. At least he cared about the kids, more than Midge did.
Regarding Midge’s performance at the Apollo: Shy being gay was a lot more complicated than today’s people realize. I really don’t know whether the black Harlem audience at that time would have picked up on the references. Sure, Judy Garland was a gay icon back then, but did that audience make the connection? My god, people even thought Liberace was straight. Would Midge herself have made that connection?
Season 4 Trailer
Is anybody else going to buy a cape for their next visit to the theater? I am.
You can also wear it to fancy strip clubs!
My wife and I have watched the S4 eps that have dropped and are repeatedly and increasingly asking each other, “Did we used to LIKE this show?” Probably culminated w/ Susie’s catatonic staring and Abe’s cluelessness in eps 3-4. And let’s GET somewhere w/ the unbelievable strip club stuff. Everyone sure seems to have no end of $, tho, despite their supposed adversities.
Since there are only 8 eps per season and only 1.5 seasons to go, I may keep hate watching, but I’m not sure. I suspect these 8 eps will end and I’ll feel, “That’s all?”
The colors are wonderful, tho.
This is apparently the “Susie now cares about other people” season. The real comedy gold is still Abe. I’d love to see an office spin-off about The Village Voice in the early Sixties.
Abe’s cluelessness in the synagogue after writing the review. That is comedy gold? Not realizing that admitting arson might be a bad idea? I guess that character lost me when he quit his job and was too stupid to realize that that meant giving up his apt.
Hell, yeah. Character defects are the essence of any humorous character. I see Abe’s kind of self-centered obtuseness all around me in ways that do real harm. It’s fun to watch it continuously backfire on the practitioner.
Yes. I was on the floor laughing on that scene. Abe has never realized how his ‘principled stances’ will lead to consequences and having to face that people don’t get his editorial independence stance will get him in trouble with the community was hilarious.
We are really loving this season. It feels a lot funnier that last season. The strip club comedy scenes are really amusing IMO and having to see her family deal with her being a comedienne in a strip club was great. Suzie trying to build up her business - and not understanding she was indebted to the mob because she was in awe of the office - has been pretty good as well.
Different tastes are not to be argued.
I wonder if my wife is going to want to watch the 2 new eps tonight? If she doesn’t mention it, I’m not sure I will. On the one hand, I’m mildly curious what will happen, and even tho I don’t really like it, I acknowledge it is well done and different than much else on TV. OTOH, last week I just got more and more displeased over the course of the 2 eps. Of course I COULD do something other than lie in front to the TV! 
I discovered in ep 5 that they live in the same apartment building on Riverside Drive that I lived in, when I first moved to NYC in 1970. They’re in apt. 9C, and I was in 7C, overlooking Riverside Park and the Hudson River. They have the entire apartment, but mine was subdivided.