The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Looking forward to you watching Mrs. Maisel Morbs!!

FInally on the Catskills episodes. So much to look at.

I do generally like the use of music in this, the way the jazz-pop of the day is emphasized. but man they are really getting a lot of mileage out of Blossom Dearie's catalog lol.

The end-of-episode songs are usually well-chosen, but one was utterly baffling (unless someone can explain how "Cities In Dust" relates to Midge being irritated at Susie for threatening Sophie Lennon).

Feel like the big surprise for Midge in final episode is very implausible

The end-of-episode songs are usually well-chosen

that's true, although I found the XTC one a little surprising

Transvision Vamp!

I remember there was great use of XTC in Gilmore Girls.

anyway the mark of a great oldschool comic is the material only works when he/she does it (Groucho, Hope, Lewis, Gracie etc)

Oswalt spent the entire first half of that essay saying this, and exactly none of it saying that Bruce was never funny

Saved up the last 4 episodes to watch last night. I was wondering aloud if Shy Baldwin was supposed to be Johnny Mathis and won a huge bet with my spouse who didn't realize Johnny Mathis is black.

I love this show so much. Although I am so blech about why Joel gets so much screentime.

Also I had the Odyssey and Oracle cd stuck in my car's cd player for over a year once so was delighted with the end song for the season.

this show is bad i think. i may just struggle with every non-gg and bunheads sherman-palladino thing but the writing and characterization are wildly uneven, and the acting even lost me when alex borstein attempted a classic gg-esque yelling speech toward the end of the first season. the show is pretty and has good music however

Yeah, I’m tapping out

S2 jettisons all bearings to reality and becomes a weird fantasy melodramedy

I just had to look up the actor who plays Joel because I feel like he was miscast. He played Randall on Walking Dead lol!

You say that like it's a bad thing.

xp

really don't see the major distinction between season 1 and 2 you all are calling out.

John Pod (who loves the show) was spot on about this: "The most potent form of nostalgia is for a time you never knew in a place you do and imagine was at its peak before you came along".

Idk if there’s that clear a division as much as an accumulation of factors that become tiresome

Xp

I took this show to be, as someone described upthread, a musical without the music basically. Very choreographed and stage-set. shit, the moving into the catskills cottage scene was straight out of a Wes Anderson film.

I liked it a lot, but I also had some issues with the blatant weath and Midge's blatant ignorance of it in the face of her supposed friend's poverty that she *never fucking helped her out with*.

Honestly, when she said she was waiting for her bags to brought up to their room from the lobby, I was hoping they'd gotten stolen.

Yeah that bit made me raise 3 eyebrows. I think I even muttered "how sheltered is this woman!?". But overall I loved the dialogue and movement and liveliness of the show.

Found season 2 much funnier and more interesting than the first one, more than I expected, aforementioned flaws aside. Οὖτις OTM re 'weird fantasy melodramedy' tho that's not necessarily a flaw.

I liked it a lot, but I also had some issues with the blatant weath and Midge's blatant ignorance of it in the face of her supposed friend's poverty that she *never fucking helped her out with*.

It's kind of the same issues people had with Lorelai. For some weird reason I thought Midge was more 1950s middle class for NYC? Her parents don't even own that apartment.

I literally have no clue because of all the hats and coats.

it is hard for me to figure out how her parents afford any of htat stuff (apartment, housekeeper?) on a professor's salary but I assume things were absurdly different in the 50's than they are now.

Tv made it seem like there were a lot of housekeepers.

I haven't watched this show but I enjoyed reading Emily Nussbaum's minority report on it.

Her list of less pretentious shows is odd (i've watched half of them, Ex GF, Glow, Younger, Broad City). But I agree that Joel is totally given a baffling amount of time.

Nussbaum otm

it is hard for me to figure out how her parents afford any of htat stuff (apartment, housekeeper?) on a professor's salary but I assume things were absurdly different in the 50's than they are now.

― akm, Thursday, December 27, 2018 1:11 PM (twenty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Columbia (where Abe teaches) owns the apartment. But yeah, things like flying to Paris weren't cheap.

Also -- and this bugged me way more than it should have -- the long distance calls between Paris and NYC were undertaken so casually, but that shit was expensive then! Those were $75 phone calls!

I have watched two episodes. I was put off within minutes by her comment about her fat college roommate and was hoping, but not really expecting, that to be addressed somehow. Also getting a Gilmore Girls-eque feeling that this somewhat obnoxious and oblivious characters is meant to be winning and adorable.
Still, I don't actually dislike Gilmore Girls, I just find the main characters kind of annoying sometimes. And I like the look of this, the warm artifice of the visuals. It seems soothing, I guess.

I watched GG while it was on regular tv and really loved it. When I rewatched it all again recently I was put off a couple of times by cringey jokes, frustrating behaviours. But even Broad City has stuff like trans jokes that stick out terribly upon rewatching now. I winced at some of Maisel, but a lot of what it has going for it was, like, customized for me. I decided I am going to make this my holiday viewing every year because of that artifice and fantasy nostalgia.

I am surprised they didn't get Kelly Bishop for the Catskills episodes.

midge's perky dewy wide-eyed perma-consternation is driving me up the wall

and her standup is bad not good, while everyone respectfully listens and laughs uproariously even on the NON LAUGH LINES

that nussbaum piece linked a few posts ago is soooo otm

There was a ersatz (though Jewish-run) deli in Toronto that served bad pastrami and played Barbara Streisand on the stereo and the goys loved it, but I hated it and think I have the same problem with this show.

I think it got noticeably worse in season 2

Agreed

I like the show more than Emily Nussbaum but I think one problem the show has is its humor lands less frequently than it would like, and it tries to get by on rapid-fire dialogue exchanges and spot-on timing with line readings, and the actors are almost good enough sometimes to make you realize there aren’t any jokes in the banter. It’s just banter.

Maybe the reason Bunheads remains the best Sherman-Palladino show is because it only lived for one season.

Blossom Dearie has been a revelation to me because of this wonderful series and soundtrack.

Weird about such Bunheads love. It was fine but always seemed like it was only starting to get settled by the end. Although I super did appreciate the "never get too friendly with elderly neighbors" recognition in the Sasha lives on her own episodes.

Blossom Dearie is way better than this show, thats for sure

A while ago I looked up all those Catskills resorts and they're all still around, if a little old fashioned and dowdy looking, but I'd love to stay in one!

same!

not true - Kutsher's is gone, it's being turned into a yoga resort

Sorry yeah I dont know why I said all, I maybe just meant the main one featured in the show.

i mean jeez trayce keep up

lol

god forbid a generalization have any kind of shelf life on ilx