After five marvelous seasons, we sadly close the time-travel vault and say farewell to Prime Video’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. In its final season, show creator Amy Sherman-Palladino, gave us new belly laughs, past season references, and classic Maisel-Weissman family dynamics.
Colorful sets, fantastic outfits, and incredible dialogue aside, the final season closed out the most important theme throughout all five treacherous seasons of Midge’s career as a comic— why she’s never been taken seriously by most men, including her ex-husband and her father.
The Final Season
I’ve always said this show is so good because it’s basically live theater and episode four proves my point with actual musical numbers. All the greats eventually do a musical episode and at least this one wasn’t just a dream. It’s done the marvelous way—Midge doing a favor for Suzie where she’s performing for a private demolition and waste management company in a three-act promotional musical at a conference.
Here, we’re introduced to a new chapter in Midge’s career and it’s not rushed. There’s a new love interest I wasn’t afraid wouldn’t get the time it deserved. New Suzie secrets are woven into decisions that impact Midge’s career, and while season four’s family carousel scene will forever be one of my all time favorites, Zelda’s wedding is up there too. The jokes still zing (always will) and the orchestrated chaos continues to deliver unpredictable dialogue.
Introducing new plot points in a final season is so hard to do in a show this big, but when the foundation is built by Sherman-Palladino, anything is possible. Especially when we meet a grown, genius Esther in episode one. It’s 1985 and she’s in her therapist’s office in Cambridge talking about her mother. For a moment, you wonder if it’s going to be one of those final seasons with flashback tell-alls but it’s not. It all makes sense in the end.
Epilogue elements are intertwined throughout rather than getting a snippet of life after. And I enjoyed a slow farewell instead of a choppy two-second goodbye. Even the cast was sad to say farewell to this world. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel will always be considered a classic for me and will forever be a case study for exceptional dialogue and depicting the lack of boundaries within messy family dynamics.
Midge Is Finally Seen
For five seasons of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Midge has been trying to prove herself worthy to the most important men in her life––Joel and Papa. Joel’s growth in these five seasons deserves a standing ovation. From feeling demasculinized by his wife’s sense of humor in season one, to his proud goofy smile at the end of Midge’s four minutes in that last episode, I’d say Joel redeemed himself.
So did Papa after the Wiessman eldest boy theory received a new result––the women in the family can also be the true genuses. Abe’s epiphany about Midge being remarkable triggered my first-born daughter vein. We go from Abe being ashamed at the Catskills, to finally being proud of his daughter on stage.
Tits Up for Susie and Midge
Suzie’s career is finally taking off. She makes things happen and is the best example of “fake it till you make it.” Seeing Suzie become the best manager in the biz was truly something worth waiting for. Almost as if her love for Midge held her back all these years and the blurred line of friendship between talent and manager needed better boundaries. In episode six, we get a nod to the original roast from episode one. This time, it’s for Suzie as a testi-roastial send-off.
Back in the show’s current timeline, Midge does her biggest Suzie trust fall and becomes a writer on a late-night talk show. It’s a great career growth pocket between something old and a new challenge to deliver jokes on the hour. Proving herself to an all-male writing staff (and convincing her in-laws that she has leverage for free tickets) will make you play The Man by Taylor Swift on repeat.
As someone who grabs the mic with tits up, saying goodbye to Midge reminded me of how far we’ve both come in our ambitions. And her story left me with tears as I laughed with Suzie and Midge in that final scene. After all these years, these two are still making each other crack up and I have a feeling they always will––even when Suzie comes back as a skunk and Midge as a cute squirrel making acorn bank at Central Park.
What The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Will Always Mean to Me
My writing career grew with Midge and an unexpected agenting career sprouted like Suzie’s. This show started in 2017 and that was a really important year for me. Like both these women, I fought tooth and nail for a seat at the table. We all took our shots and learned to take those four minutes as ours because you never know when a risk will be worth a new reward.
Did Midge get lucky? Sometimes, but she’s a go-getter. Did Suzie work her ass off to make things happen? Definitely, she’s a hustler. They made their luck and it didn’t come easy. It takes time to make it and sometimes there will be no’s for stupid lady reasons. The same words Midge wrote for herself back in college will forever hit home. And it’s when Hedy tells Midge, “Don’t. If the credit is yours take it—just take it. That’s what the boys do.” It made me want to write that on a post-it note and put it in a bottle too. Don’t give up on your dreams. Don’t stop pushing the patriarchy. And don’t forget…tits up!
