The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel 3: Op-ed, Closet, and Lenny

What better night to review the third season of Mrs. Maisel (on Amazon Prime Video) - the third night of Chanukah - and, at the same time, Christmas Eve!  I loved all three seasons, and it may be because my wife and I just finished watching this, but I loved this season the best.  The acting was brilliant, hilarious, and better than ever!

Just some story highlights, and some analyses and questions below -

• Mrs. Maisel and Lenny Bruce- why didn't she sleep with him?  It looked like he wanted to.  She's definitely attracted to him.  So ... she didn't want to do anything that might somehow throw her career off-course?   (I won't say of course, just off-course, because of course I'm not sure.) But it is ironic, given what happened at the end.
• Fact-checking and continuity:  Abe talks about an op-ed in The New York Times - but it's 1960 or 1961, and, hey, even if was 1965 that would be wrong.  The first New York Times op-ed didn't appear until 1970.  (Ok, I'm a Professor of Communication and Media Studies - at Fordham University - so I would know this.  But, memo to Mrs. Maisel production - get your details right.)
• I'm still trying to decide what ratio of Johnny Mathis and Jackie Wilson best describes Shy Baldwin?  I'm thinking maybe 80% Mathis?  Not 100%, because, on occasion, Shy has a nice burst of rock in his singing.
• Regarding Shy, my wife called it that Midge went over the top with her jokes which came too close to outing Shy.  I was thinking if you didn't already know it, you might just think she was riffing on his effeminate elan (didn't Saturday Night Live once have an hilarious skit on the effeminate heterosexual?).  In any case, what happened was Susie's fault for not being there to calm Midge down.  And once she's up on stage, a different part of her brain takes over - a part that bounces ideas around like basketballs, and makes her brilliant, but which doesn't think of consequences.
• Susie at least came through for Midge with Midge's money.  But now that Shy's contract is gone, what she will use as collateral?

All of this has the makings for a great fourth season, which I'll 100% be reviewing!  Happy Chanukah, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!   

See also The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Seasons 1 and 2: Triumph for Risks and Laughter

It all started in the hot summer of 1960, when Marilyn Monroe walked off the set of The Misfits and began to hear a haunting song in her head, "Goodbye Norma Jean" ...  Marilyn and Monet

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Seasons 1 and 2: Triumph for Risks and Laughter

I don't usually watch comedy on television or streaming, and review it even less.  But our daughter Molly raved about The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel after the first season, and given that she'd recommended such winners as Alias and Sons of Anarchy, her praising of Maisel certainly put it on the possible list.  Sisters-in-laws and in-laws urged us to watch it, too.  But what put me over the top was the lunch I had with Bob Mann, a professor with inimitable tastes  (I was a guest on his late, lamented Sirius XM Radio show "Let's the Consider the Source" at least 50 times.  It should be coming back as a podcast soon.)

Maisel was everything Mann and the family said it was.  Hilarious and profound, and one of the best portrayals of Jewish life in 1950s New York City on any screen.   Further, Mrs. Maisel, mother of a baby girl and a young son whose husband Joel leaves her at the beginning of the story, provides a memorable tableau of late 50s Village cafe culture and extended media, as she tries to break into the stand-up comedy circuit.

She's enormously talented, and her riffing routines in themselves provide one of the real joys of this series.  Other highlights include

• a 2+ episode spot-on depiction of the Catskills in the summer, at least as good, and in some ways better, than what we saw in Dirty Dancing
• a portrayal by Luke Kirby (Rectify) of Lenny Bruce - who recognizes Maisel's talent, and does what he can to support her - that I actually liked better than Dustin Hoffman's in the 1974 Lenny, which, I don't know, was powerful, but too much Dustin
• and speaking of acting, Rachel Brosnahan (House of Cards) as Mrs. Maisel, Tony Shalhoub (Monk) as her father Abe Weissman, a professor of mathematics at Columbia University (though it looked like some of the exterior scenes were shot at Fordham), and Alex Borstein (never heard of her before) as Maisel's manager are just off-the-chart in their unique and fabulous performances.

But not everything has been perfect in this delightful, insightful series.

• Some of the details were anachronistic, i.e., incorrect for the time portrayed.  The Defenders debuted in 1961, and couldn't have been known to Maisel characters in 1959.   Same for Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World," which was released in 1967.  Were the producers of Mrs. Maisel not allowed to look at IMDb and Wikipedia as part of their immersion in the time?
• The guy who played Steve Allen at the end of season 2 looked nothing like him.   Even Elvis Costello or someone I saw on Meet the Press would have been better.

But these are small quibbles for a series that has already taken its place along side of All in the Family and Curb Your Enthusiasm as laughing out loud, stoking your heart, and learning about life comedy.  And the second season was even better than the first - wilder and more clearly drawn story lines, always a good sign in a series.  Another triumph for risks and Amazon Prime Video.