Midge Maisel is coming back for one last walk around the Upper West Side block on April 14. That’s when we get our very last season of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.”
So many American Jews fell in love with this show over its past four seasons; it has allowed us, through the eyes of intrepid, chutzpadik former housewife and aspiring comedian Miriam “Midge” Maisel, to experience the nostalgia of 1950s and 1960s Jewish New York (and Florida! And the Catskills!).
Amazon Prime just released the first trailer for the fifth and final season of the show about the prodigiously funny lady — and it looks familiar and wonderful.
The trailer opens up with where we left Midge last, admiring a poster for the late night Gordon Ford show on a snowy evening after refusing an offer to be the opening act for Tony Bennett (we all gasped a little). In the voiceover for the trailer, Midge gets asked what drives her and answers, “I want a big life. I want to break every single rule there is.”
The trailer is set to Judy Garland’s “Lucky Day,” which she performed at Carnegie Hall — the actress and singer had her premiere at the celebrated New York City venue at age 38 in 1961. It’s the same place Lenny and Midge had that moving final scene in the season four finale, a stage that, along with a late night debut, fills her dreams.
Despite giving up the lucrative offer and Midge dealing with a lot of frustration (“it’s two steps forwad, three steps back,” she laments to Susie), Midge’s career in the trailer seems to be trucking along. Her name is on the marquee of the 45th Street Imperial Theater, and we see her performing to laughing crowds. Outside, a female fan tells her, “Mrs. Maisel, you say everything I think,” to which she responds, “A terrifying connection.”
We get to see what’s up with the other familiar faces on the show, too: Shirley and Moishe, Midge’s former in-laws, are laughing at a TV show together. Abe and Shirley, Midge’s parents, seem to be hitting a rough patch. In the trailer, we see what appears to be their apartment on fire. In the trailer, Abe laments that “not one person who has ever accomplished anything of worth in life has ever been happy.” Is it a message for his daughter, or for himself?
Abe and Rose aren’t the only one having a hard time — we see Joel, Midge’s ex-husband, also having a sad moment by a New York City apartment door (though there’s no Mei in sight).
As for Midge’s adoring rep Susie Myerson (Alex Borstein)? Her agent business is “booming,” she tells us in the trailer. We even see her getting fitted for a brand new suit. We also get to see lovely Gideon Glick as magician Alfie with an alpaca… or is it a llama?
Yet the most important question centers, of course, on Midge: Will she get her moment at the top? In the trailer, Susie preps Midge for an unnamed opportunity, telling her that “this is it, this is the break, they’ll see you for what you are, a goddamn star.” We don’t really know what she’s alluding to, but we do see a television show being filmed — and we do know that Scott Reid is back as a series regular this season, playing Gordon Ford. Just saying.
New York City is also the star of this show, and of this trailer. We see Midge at Rockefeller Center, some prime city ice skating, Grand Central Station, Joel and the kids at Madison Square Garden — even Midge performing on a yacht off the shore of the city with the Statue of Liberty in the background.We also see her, or maybe Rose, heading into an airport; later, we see Abe and Rose inside the terminal. Are they on the way to Israel, perhaps?
Wherever this fifth and last season is going, we’re all ready to have Amy Sherman-Palladino and the rest of the team take us there. We only wish we could stock up on some comfort Mrs. Maisel macaroons to help us say goodbye.
