Spoilers for Episodes 1-3 of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’s fifth and final season ahead, read with caution. If you are looking to tune into the comedy, you can stream it with an Amazon Prime subscription.
For the last four seasons of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, we’ve been following Midge Maisel on her quest for success as she pursues a career in standup comedy during the 1950s and ‘60s. Now, in the fifth and final season of one of Amazon Prime’s best shows, we’re getting a peak into our titular character’s future. So, as the audience gets to meet Mrs. Maisel in her later years, I decided to ask Rachel Brosnahan, the Emmy-winning actress behind the standup comedian, how she felt about Midge’s fate, and what surprised her the most about playing her character after she finds such great success.
Brosnahan has been very open about her feelings toward the final season of Mrs. Maisel. She penned a sweet message announcing Season 5, and she posted her reflective thoughts when the show wrapped. Now, she’s opening up about seeing Midge’s story go on past the beginning of her comedy career. At first, she was all jokes, very one brand for the actress behind Mrs. Maisel, and while talking about transforming into Midge she joked that what surprised her most was:
Confronting my own mortality. The prosthetics were horrifying. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. And also realizing that Midge has had some excellent work done and I probably won't look like that.
She makes a good point, Midge did get some excellent work done, and we all got a good laugh about the character’s fabulous looks in her future. However, I do think Brosnahan will look that good if not better in her older years.
For some context, Episode 2 of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’s fifth season opens with Midge on 60 Minutes as an older woman, reflecting on her “worldwide fame.” In the fictional broadcast segment, we see Brosnahan in prosthetics as the journalist explains her character's legendary career, including a USO tour with Bob Hope, many sold out US and World tours, and her “infamous” 1971 show at Carnegie Hall that was “the beginning of a brand new chapter.” The segment ends with the titular character saying she does everything for the children. Then the show smash cuts back to 1961 and Midge screaming: “Eat! Dammit! You little bastard!” at one of her children. We’re immediately thrown from the character’s exciting future back into her present where she’s still trying to make it.
Then in Episode 3, we see Midge visit her son Ethan in 1984 by flying into a cabbage farm in Israel on a helicopter, before going back to the '60s and her time on The Gordon Ford Show. I think it’s safe to say she made it.
However, what we don’t know is how she made it. That is revealed throughout Season 5, as Brosnahan plays Midge through the various decades of her career. While chatting with the actress she touched on just how surprising Midge’s future was, saying one of the “craziest” parts of this season for her was playing her character through the years:
It was wild. I think that was the craziest part of the whole thing. I've never thought that I'd be aging forward on this show. But everything about it was surprising. We learned a long time ago to stop predicting or having hopes and dreams about what these characters might be up to in the future because anything that Amy and Dan could come up with is going to be miles better than anything we could dream up, so I was surprised but we've been surprised for five seasons.
She’s right, as a viewer I know I’ve been surprised every single season, and it makes sense that the actors felt the same. As Brosnahan said, seeing Midge age forward was very surprising, however, she’s learned to expect that, and she loved playing the titular character in other parts of her life, not just while she was on the come up.
I’m positive there will be more surprising moments for Midge and co. before The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel officially says “Thank you, and good night,” to the 2023 TV schedule. To see what happens next in Midge’s wild life, be sure to tune into Amazon Prime every Friday for new episodes of the hit comedy starring Rachel Brosnahan.
