‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ Hits a New High By Yanking Midge From a Career Low

When you fall down, you have to pick yourself back up. Maybe you can dust yourself off and start again, but you have to know that the path will not look the same. For Miriam “Midge” Maisel, hitting rock bottom hurts even more since her rise in the comedy world was more meteoric than anyone thought possible. With the Amazon juggernaut returning for its fourth season, Amy Sherman-Palladino’s series hits new highs by allowing its star to get angry and and look back with new perspective. Oh, how I have missed you The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Welcome back, Midge and Susie!

Revenge is what Midge wants most in the first two episodes of the fourth season of Mrs. Maisel, and we can sense that change is afoot. It’s the summer of 1960. To Kill a Mockingbird will be published soon and John F. Kennedy will be elected as President of the United States later this very year. Midge’s craving for “Medea-level” vengeance comes from being kicked off Shy Baldwin’s whirlwind tour at the end of the last season, and it irks her even more that it was a problem that she couldn’t fix. Her brisket couldn’t fix it. Her snap and verve couldn’t fix it. Midge has to deal with the fallout of being fired with no safety net. Way back in the first season, Midge experienced bombing on stage at the Gaslight for the first time, and Susie said, “You took out Antwerp.” This is next level for Miriam Maisel.

Not only is she off the tour, but she has to figure out how she is going to pay back her former father-in-law, Moishe, for the apartment she bought in the season three finale. Susie has to find a way to avoid telling Midge that she gambled her earnings away. Things are looking up for Joel Maisel…until his bar is too successful, and it poses a problem for his flourishing relationship with Mei.

Sherman-Palladino and Dan Palladino have balls for taking Midge and Susie back to square one, but they do it with love and affection. While this remains one of the most beautiful shows on television, the fluffy fantasy that the show has created so far gains new gravitas in this direction. Midge has to learn that she won’t automatically become a star just because she is talented. The industry will screw you, and you can end up screwing yourself out of a job. Even if you kill it at the Apollo. Midge has to be more than good–she has to be as ballsy off stage as she is on stage.

Rachel Brosnahan brings an even fiercer determination to Midge this time out. It’s thrilling to see a character with that much talent and intelligence truly lose it and throw a tantrum, but what’s even better is seeing how this woman picks herself back up. This is not the same character we met the first time she stepped on stage. Brosnahan lets Midge wallow in her loneliness and her fear of what’s to come. In the first two episodes, Midge isn’t on stage much, but you thirst for her to get back in front of a microphone. You can tell she’s going to devour it later this season, and Brosnahan has never been better.

Now that both of her clients have blown huge chances, Susie has to build everything back up. She has a fantastic scene with Jane Lynch as Sophie to close their relationship, and I hope Lynch is on more of the season. On some level, Susie is afraid of her own success even though she has the same guts that Midge has. She’s just off stage. Susie has to balance the crazy from bookers and insurance agents and sisters this season, and Borstein is a fantastic ringleader. It’s clear now that Susie is learning from her experiences and becoming a better manager. Borstein brings new layers to her performance every season, and this year is no exception.

The Palladinos bring their usual panache and rhythm to this New York City story. A Coney Island trip is a highlight when everyone boards the Wonder Wheel, and it’s reminiscent of when the Weissmans arrived in the Catskills and the camera took in the chaos. Midge has always been vocal about how men and women are treated differently in the business, but it’s even more pronounced now that she feels that she has nothing to lose. Not only is the direction top-notch, but the music supervision needs its own applause again. When you hear Leslie Uggams singing at the end of episode one, you’ll thank them yet again for perfectly invoking the time period.

Abe told Midge at the end of season three that if she is going to have a voice that she needs to know what that voice is going to say. In season four, she responds to that question with another question: “What if they never let me be me?” By posing the notion that this all might be for nothing, it raises the stakes and gives Midge something to fight for. This career is something that she will build on her own terms, and she will be damned if any man stands in the way of her and her microphone. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is funnier and gutsier than ever before.

The fourth season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel will premiere its first two episodes on February 18 with two new episodes dropping every week.