59‘I DON’T THINK THEY WERE TERRORISTS—THE WORDTERRORISM HADN’T BEEN COINED AT THAT POINT.’—PAGE 63TELEVISIONA retro
heroine
for modern
times
By Eliana DocktermanRachel Brosnahan plays a 1950s housewife with a knack for stand-up inThe Marvelous Mrs. MaiselTHE WRITERS BEHIND AMAZON’S
new seriesThe Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,
which is now streaming, set high
expectations for their protagonist when
they chose their title. Fortunately,
the woman at the center of the show,
a 1950s housewife turned stand-up
comic in the vein of Joan Rivers named
Midge Maisel, is indeed marvelous. In
her first comedy routine, she jokes that
she’s become a cliché—her husband
has left her for his secretary—and
ends the night flashing the crowd and
being dragged off by the police. Every
jab at an audience member or police
officer is pulled off with irresistible
self-assuredness and charm—qualities
you might expect to see in Sam Malone
or Jerry Seinfeld, but rarely find in a
female lead.
The creator ofMrs. Maisel, AmySherman-Palladino, has a strong track
record when it comes to bringing
assertive women to the screen. For
years, on her beloved prime-time hit
Gilmore Girls, the mother-daughter
duo of Lorelai and Rory chattered away
with each other as they fearlessly took
on the world: Rory went from bookish
high schooler to journalist, Lorelai
from young single mom to small-
business owner. Sherman-Palladino,
along with her husband andGilmore
Girls collaborator Dan Palladino, have
endowedMrs. Maisel’s Midge with the
same stubbornness and volubility that
made Lorelai a fan favorite.
Sherman-Palladino shares these
traits with her leading women. A
decade afterGilmore Girls’ finale, she
still maintains that she has not watched
the episodes ofGilmore Girls that sheNICOLE RIVELLI—AMAZON STUDIOS