THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILER ALERTS FOR SEASON 4, LAST TWO EPISODES
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel wrapped Season 4 in a blinding snowstorm and with plenty of loose ends to tie up in the Emmy-winning Prime Video series’ fifth and final season currently in production.
Badly burned at the end of Season 3 and plenty mad, Rachel Brosnahan’s Midge Maisel, a female comic and Upper West Side mom in 1960s New York City, has turned down or blown gigs just about every episode in exchange for total creative freedom — which she’s found an illegal strip club. Her alter ego friend, mentor and more, Lenny Bruce, played by Luke Kirby, sets her straight about work in the season finale after his triumphant set at Carnegie Hall and it appears she’ll be moving her career along at a brisker pace next season.
The real life Bruce in fact played a groundbreaking performance on the Carnegie Hall in1961.
Midge is always the show’s center of gravity, but as her career falters the management business of Alex Borstein’s Susie Myerson takes some strides with new digs, a secretary and a few more clients, but no second telephone line and some other complications that need to to be ironed out.
Family matters were prominent — including Midge’s ex-husband Joel, his new girlfriend and his parents, as well as a sudden threat to the growing matchmaking business of her mother Esther (Marion Hinkle).
Miriam remains unattached but does have a moment with This Is Us star Milo Ventimiglia.
Season Four debuted Feb, 18 with two episodes dropping each subsequent Friday for four weeks through today.
Based at Steiner Studios at the Brooklyn Navy Year, the latest season was shot during Covid with travel restrictions limiting how far afield it could roam. It stuck to the five boroughs (mainly three, Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens) versus a Season 3 that hit Paris and Miami. Creator, writer and co-EP Amy Sherman-Palladino has cited Covid restrictions as a big reason why family themes dominated.
She and her co-EP and husband Daniel Palladino continue to center the story around strong women, with Midge joined by Susie, Marion and now Mai, to navigate careers in a slowly changing society.
Prime Video renewed the show for one more season last month with Amazon Studios chief Jennifer Salke saying it had “blazed an unparalleled path, elevating the stories we tell about women, challenging the norms in our industry, and forever altering the entertainment landscape with … one-of-a-kind storytelling.”