In the fifth and final season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which will release its first three episodes on Prime Video on April 14, our main character Midge Maisel, a former housewife-turned-comedienne, expresses frustration at the cyclical nature of her career. She takes two steps forward and three steps back, and it's wearing on her. Over the course of five seasons, she has experienced numerous setbacks that have prevented her from achieving stardom.
However, her grievances are not entirely justified, as her own self-sabotaging tendencies have played a significant role in her career's ups and downs. Despite a reset in the fourth season, with our protagonist back at square one professionally, season five presents an opportunity for her to learn from her past mistakes and reach new heights.
I had hoped to see Midge build her way back up through the clubs and go out on a high, which makes it even more aggravating to witness not only Midge but the show itself falling back into their old ways. Midge starts a new job at The Gordon Ford Show, a show reminiscent of The Tonight Show, where the set designers and costume department have the chance to showcase beautiful, historically accurate details. Reid Scott of Veep joins the cast as the show's titular host. He initially likes Miriam but eventually becomes frustrated with her stubbornness and this plotline goes nowhere.
In the season's final act, when viewers are eager to see the long-awaited fulfillment of their dreams, the show's trademark extravagances, such as the subway chase between Brosnahan and Ventimiglia, a family sitcom within the show starring Bunheads' Sutton Foster and Hank Azaria, or an inexplicably lengthy musical segment centered on trash, are no longer charming but instead tiring. This style-over-substance creative choice takes away from more meaningful plotlines, wasting valuable screen time. Fans of Lenny Bruce will likely be disappointed by this season's focus, as they're left with cameos from five more Gilmore Girls alumni and Glee's Darren Criss, for no apparent reason.
Midge's world expands exponentially this season, taking us to new continents and showcasing even more extravagant costumes like feather-trimmed caftans and groovy pantsuits. The line between fiction and reality blurs even further, as the show incorporates real-life figures and entangles Midge with everyone from rock stars to royals.
Despite Midge's final self-destructive act, her recklessness ultimately pays off miraculously. However, the problem is that the audience is mostly kept at a distance from the payoff, with the world tours and famous lovers happening offscreen and only mentioned in passing. Instead, the show fills the void with distracting plotlines like Rose Weissman's matchmaking mafia scheme. For a show that's so visually stunning, season five relies too heavily on telling rather than showing important plot points.
The Palladino duo had no set plan for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel's five seasons when the show began, leading to a lack of direction that weighed down the past two seasons. Season five alters its storytelling structure significantly, which would have been beneficial had it been implemented earlier, to remind us - no, to reassure us - that Midge's setbacks and misadventures had a purpose.
As entertaining as Midge's antics have been along the way, this final season feels all over the place. With barely any screentime for Midge and Lenny, not getting to see Midge's big payoff and instead being shown Midge looking back on her career in later years, it sadly fell short of my expectations.
