REVIEW: ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,’ Season 4 Episodes 1-2 Promises More of the Same, But That’s Not a Bad Thing

After its two year hiatus, the show that holds no comedic punches is back up on stage and ready for revenge. Ladies and gentlemen, boys, and girls The Marvelous Mrs Maisel Season 4 premiere has dropped on Prime Video. When last we saw Miriam ‘Midge’ Maisel in the Season 3 finale she was just about ready to set off on her European tour as the opening act for swooner, Shy Baldwin. Only to be tragically left on the tarmac of the airport runway after being fired for almost outing Shy in front of the Apollo. In a moment of crushing realization, as Midge watches the plane take off, her hopes of stardom may have also gone with it.

That final moment was packed with such an emphatic blow as the entire Season had seen Midge climb up the ladder of success looking like nothing could stop her. For the season to end there with your heart in your mouth back in December of 2019, and us as fans no idea what was waiting for us around the corner, ooh cruel fates. How do you follow on from that?

A quick recap, or if you’re not familiar with the show, a Jewish housewife whose husband had just left her has an existential crisis and decides to takes on stand up comedy as a profession in the golden age of the 1950s and she’s damn good at it too, But it’s the 1950s and it’s a man’s world.

Well let’s jump into the Amy Sherman-Palladino creation, as Miriam (Rachel Brosnahan), and Susie (Alex Borstein) pick up the shattered pieces of what promised to be the start of an exciting career littered with success. The Marvelous Mrs Maisel premiere deals with Miriam sorting through the mess of having to explain what happened and why she’s back on US soil to her family, while also realizing she’s got no money or work. Plus, Midge had taken out a loan from her father-in-law to buy back her old apartment. Pretty dire straights overall.

Entering into the show’s fourth season, there’s obviously a feeling of familiarity about the structure of the series, and the content to come from it. For some fans, this will likely be perceived as repetitive and more of the same. I.e. Miriam finds a bit of success but when an obstacle is presented to her, Mrs. Maisel is brutally honest, offending everyone around her and sets herself back two spaces. Yet, she ultimately finds her own way in the end. While it’s hard to deny that, you can’t overlook the large thread of the storyline that Miriam has yet to fully own her true identity and what she wants her act to be.

It’s arguable that the most character growth we’ve seen from this leading lady came in the past season and we’re only just now seeing the real woman in the driving seat. Had the show let her story develop and let her take that trip to Europe she would have likely performed extremely well and become a great opening act for big name performers. That’s the kicker though, and Midge calls it out, she doesn’t just want to be an opening act, she wants to headline. She wants to perform for the fans who want to come see her act. Her act.

It also can’t be overlooked that the show noticeably focuses that this season has left the 1950s behind, as it enters the era of the swinging 60s. This hopefully will give her the opportunity to become a much more powerful presence in the city of New York during an era of real change. A period when people were breaking free from the molds that were set down upon them by prior generations.

The Marvelous Mrs Maisel might appear on the surface to feel like a repeat of what’s come before it, but I challenge you to dig a little deeper. Look at the groundwork that the past three seasons have laid down to get us to this point. Season 4 has the potential to see a version of Mrs. Maisel evolve into something bigger, something better, something unstoppable. Ultimately, it’s a fantastically funny show, with brilliant performers, that make us laugh for an hour at a time. Bring on the rest of Season 4.

The Marvelous Mrs Maisel Season 4 premiere is available now exclusively on Amazon Prime, with two more episodes coming next week.