Over the past decade, television has been more universally beloved and impactful in the entertainment industry than anyone has ever thought of before. A lot of the success for television has been given credit to its brilliant writing and memorable characters that resonate with audiences. One of the characters that I think has made the most impact for relatability is Midge Maisel from the hit Amazon Prime series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel tells the story of a former housewife turned up and coming female comedian, Midge Maisel, in the late 1950s, and her pursuit of finding herself in the world, while also dealing with other circumstances in her life such as status and respect of her family. As the story follows Midge Maisel, we see her in this perfect womanly role where she takes most things with ease, such as her physical figure and maintaining her home for her family, only to find that not everything she does is truly perfect when she starts trying to do something for herself with no assistance.
The show is brilliant in almost every conceivable way. From the writing, to the characters, humor and aesthetic, this show really can appeal to some pretty old-school demographics, but also speak to the new age of media consumption we live in now. The characters especially are what drive this show’s charisma and likability as they all seem exaggerated for their time periods, but the show itself is like a comedy routine of expectation and underlying the hilariousness of just how ridiculous everything can actually seem. And in the forefront of charisma and underlying perfection is our main star of the series, Midge Maisel.
Midge, to me, is one of the most relatable television characters within this golden age of television that we’re living in right now. Even as a character of wealth and privilege in a time that wasn’t exactly fair to much of the masses, she still has hardships that anyone today can relate to in terms of family dilemmas and finding what makes you want to get up in the morning. I feel that Midge, despite living in a “perfect” time period, is more reminiscent to the generation of youths today of wanting to find what gives them drive and shaking the status quo, while still learning how to be part of that status quo to begin with. In the show, Midge describes how, in college, she didn’t exactly have an idea of what she wanted to do with her life, besides getting married and having children, and so she majored in Russian Literature. Now, I don’t know about how other students go through school and their life plans, but for me as a senior and still not having a clue what I want to do with my life, Midge Maisel is a role model of finding something that makes you happy in this world.
Little do people in my own life know, I have a passion for film and television and portraying characters in different mediums that spark the imagination and relatability for different ages alike. But knowing that the dream of pursuing a career in entertainment isn’t exactly ideal or what can pay the bills, I stuck with next best thing of having a major in English with a minor in Creative Writing. I love my major and think I can be happy in the position that my major can offer, but holding onto the hope that one day, a break could come that gives me the same spark that Midge Maisel has for comedy, I can’t wait for that moment to come into my own life.
Midge Maisel and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel in general gives me so much happiness and relief that not everything is set in stone, even for a time period where everything was set in stone. Television today continues to spark the imagination and characters that have become so reminiscent to our lives that we sometimes believe those characters are real in the way we think of them. I truly think that Midge and her message of not conforming completely into society’s expectations should be celebrated more often than not.
Season 3 of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is set to debut on December 6th on Amazon Prime.