The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (TV Series) The Princess and the Plea (2023) User Reviews

Taking Midge Seriously

[ossie85 · 9/10 · 20 May 2023]

As a penultimate episode, this sets the stage for a fulfilling season finale, while also wrestling with larger themes of legacy and nostalgia.

The episode is full of nods to the past, as Midge visits her old school and wondering about the word "Don't" she wrote without context. Many scenes capture the essence of family and intergenerational relationships, as well as showcasing the cast's terrific talent.

But the real standout moment of the episode comes at the end, with a stunning scene featuring Tony Shaloub's Abe. The actor delivers a powerhouse performance, conveying a complex blend of emotion in just a few short minutes. His monologue about finally realising who his daughter was was poignant.

Look forward to finale.

Legendary!

[gonzacoen-512-970912 · 9/10 · 20 May 2023]

Perhaps the best episode since the late pilot in the first season. Seeing a discussion between sixty-year-olds, around the dinner table washed down with wine, is a unique gem, such is the richness and sincerity of the dialogues. They are concerns, doubts, fears, insecurities around the moment lived and the future (remembering that we are in the 60s and about to witness the madness of May 68).

One of the best series of recent years. Not only for bringing up the rise of a housewife in the mid-1950s, but also for touching on female empowerment. Sad Abe who, at the same dinner table, assumes he has not paid due attention to Midge and who belatedly recognizes the willpower, capacity and talent of his youngest daughter.

In tears

[moonygardens · 10/10 · 20 May 2023]

This episode was really moving. I was really in awe over the dinner table scene, Abe frustrated over the decline of his generation, the changes in the world around him, pivoted with the humbling acknowledgement that he has never really seen Midge. The way the other men simply move on from there "we should order" had me gutted. Too many shows today preach, it can be exhausting. But to see this growth within Abe at the dinner table, coupled with our Midge's story, then finishing with Hedy's character taking the reigns in the last few minutes; this show for me just pioneers a delightful critique of history and tradition that is funny and unique. Very excited to see the ending, surely it won't disappoint.

Excellent episode of self-reflection...

[shawnw007 · 10/10 · 20 May 2023]

This season has carried viewers on an interesting carousel of back and forths, and for a second, I debated whether the constant retrospect/flashforwards were starting to give me a bit of whiplash. But this episode seemed to really work. In Midge's case, we have followed her loyally through 5 seasons, watching her burgeoning career careen through a wave of peaks and valleys. But, like Midge, we as viewers are also anxious to finally see this girl get her big break. I don't know about you, but by now, I'm spewing "C'mon, already!" I was so glad when our heroine finally stomped her foot and shouted to the mountaintops: "GET ME ON THAT SHOW!" to a very surprised Susie.

But the real prize here was Abe. Don't get me wrong...Abe encapsulates every frustrated, overbearing, opinionated, self-righteous and partially chauvinistic father that every ONE of us can probably reference. And we love him for it. He personally cracks me up, because the key is basically not to take him or Rose too seriously. But watching Abe's personal evolution throughout the series has been magical. Although I never bought the notion of him abandoning a successful career as a tenured professor for a mere writing job, I enjoyed where the writers took Abe in this episode. His bewilderment last week from discovering his gifted granddaughter has started a new transition of belief: perhaps there is more to the women in his life...and it has subsequently led to a beautifully-played meta-cognitive review of Abe's own chauvinism regarding Midge. For once in his life, Abe realizes that he is not always right. The real superstar in the family is (and has always been) Midge, and Abe's humility in acknowledging his daughter's sole perseverance in a male-dominated career without the real support of her parents was wonderfully endearing. Especially as he admitted this to a table full of men.

Following the ubiquitous theme of regret, we find other characters also recognizing their own past mistakes. It was nice to see Joel venture a bit through memory lane as he quietly embraced his own conflict for leaving Midge. This was a good woman, a good mother...and losing her over a silly fling with a dimwitted secretary tarnished Joel's character from the start. I never understood why the writers kept him on (Shirley and Moishe are much more valuable as comic reliefs). But at least Joel's sincerity and love for Midge has persisted. The affirmation in this episode that Joel truly misses her and regrets his behavior shows us that Joel isn't all too bad.

Bravo for such a wonderfully introspective episode. Can't wait to see what next week brings!

Abe steals the show!

[nagreganesh · 10/10 · 19 May 2023]

I am in extreme melancholy that this series is ending and the last few episode before the finale have been quite emotional for me.

This episode was not a perfect one but my god, the monologue by Abe at the dinner was something that made me tear up of how finally he got to recognize that his daughter was, in his words, "a remarkable person" and how she built herself up after the divorce. I loved how proud he was and how he accepts that he was ignorant and kinda been sexist for just focusing on his son and not his daughter!

Oh and how marvelous was Mrs Maisel herself! She looked gorgeous in the flashbacks in blonde hair and the get together with her friends!

I love this show despite its flaws and some drags here and there.

FINALLY back to what I love about this show!

[KanakaAu · 10/10 · 19 May 2023]

This episode takes me back to what I loved about this show. Ok, I'll admit, I haven't been loving the flash forward glimpses of how things turn out for Midge and Susie because it's just a reminder that this wonderful show is coming to a close. Also, the jumping all over the place from future and past, future and past has been a bit much. However, this episode gave me exactly what I've been wanting... to continue telling Midge's story where it left off last season. I mean, I know it's already been revealed that she becomes a huge success, and I wish the previous episodes didn't already reveal that, but I still want to see her journey, and how things played out for her. I am going to miss this show so much, and I'll probably rewatch every season over and over as I already have, but I will miss looking forward to the next season. It has been such a joy to watch this story in all its craziness and all its absurdity and all its beauty. I just really want to see more... more of Abe's story, more of Rose's story, more of Susie's story... just more of everyone. I will miss you, Mrs. Maisel, you truly are marvelous!

Stunning episode (Princess...irony)

[peterdowning17 · 10/10 · 25 May 2023]

You guys have outdone yourselves. This season has been one knockout after the next. "The Testirostial", with Borstein just crushing as an aging, bitter Suzy who's completed destroyed by show biz in an old school way was one thing but this one...oh my god. I mean they are all feminist, but this one could be titled, "This One's for the Girls". Bringing a vacuum to alumni weekend! Tearing Suzy a new one at the train station for not jumping over more dicks for her than her male counterpart. Ms. Ford telling Midge to "take the credit, that's what the boys do!" and then later as she demands that Gordon do her bidding she punctuates it while putting on lipstick! I. frickin'. Love. Me. Some Nina Arianda. She's a straight up assassin! The message in a bottle..."Don't"...exactly. Don't do anything you were planning to do as a 20 year old. You don't know your ass from a hole in the wall. Especially if you've been indoctrinated at an all girls school in the 60's. The "Knights of the Round Table" - icing on the cake. Beautiful lamentation from the elder statesman about piles of stuff rather than the woman who made him whole. Last but not least the one and only Shalhoub (I'd say he's a National treasure but he's clearly not even from this planet) his acknowledgement that he'd backed the wrong horse is the whole series in a nutshell. Well in Palladinos, well in.

Terrific

[Hitchcoc · 10/10 · 30 May 2023]

This was such a poignant episode. We continue to see the tension building when it comes to Susie and Midge's relationship. She continues to write for the Ford show. She actually does a whole bit for an appearance by Princess Margaret who has shown up in New York. The bit is absolutely hilarious. But Midge gets no credit for it because of Ford's incredible ego. He wants her as a writer, but is afraid of her potential as a performer (he has seen her). We have a couple of really intense moments. One is the reappearance of Lenny Bruce who has fallen to the pits and will never recover. Then, we finally have Abe and his peers, meeting for drinks, and realizing they have not moved forward. Ford's wife is the one who gets Princess Margaret on the show. We are made privy to some relationship between her and Susie that will play out later. I notice that someone gave this show a single star. This is one of the most creative shows ever on TV. Get a life.

just a lot of conversations

[cherold · 6/10 · 5 August 2023]

The final season of Maisel had a lot of experiments, as it zipped through time to ingeniously tie everything together. Overall it was successful, but for me, this episode was just ... not that great.

This is basically a bunch of conversations. 2 or more people get together and they talk for like 10 minutes, and then 2 or more different people get together and they talk for 10 minutes, and on it goes. There's no story, there's not much in the way of theme. It's like they just took all the leftover conversations they'd meant to write and blasted them all out at once.

Even though some of it's entertaining, most of it isn't. And while Abe's soliloquy, which my girlfriend really liked, is an interesting one for the character, it's still just a long speech.

I see a lot of people absolutely loved this episode, but for me it's the weakest of the series by far.

And more crap Dialogs

[saull28 · 1/10 · 20 May 2023]

From Midge Father to his friends and their superfluous nonsense, out of nowhere for really no purpose, the show makes no sense, a lot of fodder scenes and useless minutes, just to pass time and fill up the running time, or what ever they call it; this last season doesn't stop being a drag of nonsense and time wasting for no content on the storyline; nothing of substance, the useful parts can be summed up in like 5 mins total, no need for 1 hr run time... do you feel that I'm tiresome and redundant? Well, welcome to my feelings watching this season; wow, what an unbelievable waste of talent and story telling this Episode was, like pretty much every other since season 4.