Are you familiar with Amy Sherman-Palladino's body of work? That's her trademark style - quippy, smart, fast-talking, animated characters with copious pop culture references and observations. It's not about 'trying too hard', it's her stylistic vision.
I am not familiar with her previous work, nor based upon this show do I suspect I will be seeking it out. I think her “stylistic vision” sometimes comes off as uncomfortably “cutesy” one minute and pitifully obnoxious the next. The thing that keeps me watching this show is basically Brosnahan and the set design. The dialogue is often so over the top and the acting so uncomfortably forced. This show is frustrating because it could be great but just isn’t. Having decided to give a shot to episode 2 of season 2 tonight, the Paris stuff was kind of cool, but the show’s insistence on having a parallel story about Joel and his parents is pushing the edge of any reason I can fathom. The scene with Joel and his parents in the bank was positively cringeworthy. Episode 3 was a little better so I might watch another episode or two at some point next weekend. Oh, and the outro music is almost always poorly chosen. The Go Gos? You’ve got thousands of 50’s songs to choose from and yet this is how they close? That is not a criticism of the Go Gos and it is just one example, but either commit to the 50’s or don’t.
That's like saying: I've never heard of Quentin Tarantino or his prior works, but this Reservoir Dogs movie is full of over the top, senseless violence. It could have been so much better if the violence was massively toned down to be more 'realistic'. That's a fair enough view to have, but don't be surprised when you see another one of his movies and it has the same kinds of stylistic elements. In the same way, Amy Sherman-Palladino has her own trademark aesthetic, so I guess you should keep clear of all her productions, because she ain't changing that style.
I’m not quite getting where you are. I’m not asking her to change her style. Besides, clearly that style is very successful. This is a thread about the show and I’m simply talking about things I like and don’t like about it. If your argument is that a director’s style must be accepted in its entirety or there is no point in viewing it or commenting on it, then I would disagree with that notion.
Pretty sure that the first season takes place in 1958 or 1959, so the anachronism is only one year. There was another one that jumped out at me, I think a song that was played during an episode that I knew didn’t come out until 1963/64, and I’ve also heard a few modern idioms that no one probably used in 1960, but, come on, it’s a TV show, not a history textbook. The Newhart “error” is trivial and makes perfect sense in the context of the plot to establish that Joel is a hack wannabe comic and his wife is a real talent.
I love both seasons of this show. It is one of the best shows ever on television, in my opinion. I note two musical events in Season 2. In a New York club, between comedy sets, music can be heard in the background. It is Nina Simone, singing and playing "My Baby Just Cares for Me." That is actually what might have been going on in the adjacent room at that time. There was so much talent around then, playing in small clubs. When Midge performs at the arthritis telethon, the telethon begins with an energetic announcer talking over some theme music, which is Alexander "Sandy" Courage's theme from the film "Hot Rod Rumble." I discovered that song on the CD "Mondo Hollywood." A truly all star jazz band plays on that cut. The high trumpet parts are played by Maynard Ferguson. Alexander "Sandy" Courage composed the theme for Star Trek several years later.
Binged both seasons recently. Although season 2 was good, for me there's no question that season 1 was better!
Some good news. Amazon Studios just announced that it has made a deal with The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel creators Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino. "Amy and Dan have a remarkable partnership, grounded in their complete trust in each other and evidenced by the magic they create on-screen, especially with revolutionary roles for women and with their trademark brilliant dialogue," said Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke. "We celebrate the critical success of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and our extended overall deal with them, which will allow our Amazon Prime audience to continue to enjoy their groundbreaking show and future original series from this incredible duo". Amazon Studios Inks Overall Deal with Amy Sherman-Palladino, Daniel Palladino
I finished season two but I'm done. If I hear they've turned it around I might change my mind, but they've gone off a cliff at this point. Swearing is being so overused it has lost any meaning, and none of the characters have any depth besides the mom.
That does seem a little odd. I could see Susie swearing, but a girl from a "good family" wouldn't, as they say, "say the word s**t if she had a mouthful of it."
I don't think so. They couldn't have known how much of a hit it would turn out to be before they started doing S1 - it could have been a limited mini-series. But this deal is much wider ranging than just the renewal of the show as the Palladino's will be free to pursue other projects with preferred status at Amazon Studios.
I totally disageee with everything you have said. I think it is a brilliant series and that the characters have a lot of depth. I was too young to be there, but uncles who often visited comedy clubs in Vegas and New York in the early 1960s tell me that swearing was constant and the material was often more dirty than we might now imagine.
My uncles who went to Vegas and New York clubs often in the late 1950s and early 1960s told me that swearing was constant among both male and female comics.
If only the swearing was limited to comedy clubs. Instead, it is everywhere. F-bombs all over the place. When the two of them have lunch, talk on the phone, do ANYTHING... swear swear swear..... I have zero issue with swearing as such, but like someone said before (or maybe it was that review?), it feels like they are swearing because they can. It just doesn’t serve any purpose the way they are doing it. It packs no punch. The whole thing just doesn’t work for me very much but I did finish up season 2. I got a laugh out of Susie carrying the plunger around. That was funny. And that deserved to be bled a bit. But I really doubt I will start season 3. The show is okay, and at times good. It has never been within a universe of great, IMO.
My grandparents and aunts and uncles constantly spoke with f-bombs and the s word in nearly every sentence they said in the late 1950s and early 1960s. I distinctly remember it. They were tough entrepreneurs and that is the way they always talked. So the swearing in Maisel sounds very authentic to the time of the show to me. To each his or her own.
Well, think of it this way.... If someone says “you know” a lot, it gets a bit old. It’s not that you have an issue with starting or ending a sentence with that phrase, but if you hear someone interviewed who uses it in practically every sentence, it starts to sound ridiculous. Same thing here.
Ok, so you said it was in comedy clubs, but now it’s something you heard in every sentence? Really? So over dinner, your aunt my say... “ Hey.... Hot Ptah, how’s that frucking soup? Pretty frucking good, heh? Fair enough. I think they are way overdoing the swearing from Susie and Midge, but that isn’t to say there may not have been two women somewhere during the times who swore like that. It just doesn’t make good TV. But the swearing is one of so many problems. The over acting is rampant. The dialogue is often overdone, the storylines range from mildly interesting “first world” problems to downright annoying back and forths....
My grandparents were farm kids born around 1895 who never finished high school despite being at the top of their classes academically, because they had to go to work to help support their families. After serving in the Army during World War I and fighting in Europe against the Germans, my grandfathers both moved fo a small town, got married and owned small businessss. They both went out of business in the Great Depression, raising kids and barely keeping them out of starvation. They always owned small businesses all their lives, always struggling to stay afloat. So yes they would sit at the table and say “that supplier f****** me over and now! S*** I can’t pay my f****** taxes!” They were the most honest, decent people I have ever known. They went to church every Sunday. But they sprinkled their speech with cuss words constantly. It was not a genteel upper class life.
