Oh, I should note that while MMM is wholly fictional, the show I mentioned, "Crashing" is autobiographical of a real-life comic.Also set in current times.
On Thursday, March 7, 2019 at 11:48:10 PM UTC-6, Steve Timko wrote: > > “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” has cleaned up at awards shows the past couple > of years, winning several important Emmy and Golden Globe awards, but we > haven’t discussed it in this group. I finished the first season and it’s > worth watching. > Rachel Brosnahan plays the title character, a 1950s Upper West Side New > York City housewife who gets plunged into stand-up comedy as a form of > therapy. Miriam “Midge” Maisel is the perfect housewife and trained her > whole life, it seems, to do that, going to college just to find a husband. > In the arc of the first season, Miriam develops a feminist bent. Brosnahan > deserves the accolades she receives. > Alex Borstein, who I thought was good on “Mad TV” and as a voice actor, is > also exceptional as the manager who sees greatness in Miriam, even if she > doesn’t see it herself. > Tony Shaloub is fantastic in a relatively minor role as Miriam’s father. > Shaloub said on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast he has a bigger role in the second > season. He can steal the scene with just a few words. Kevin Pollak is > mostly good as Miriam’s father-in-law – he goes over the top a few times – > but it’s clear he can’t hold his own against Shaloub. Maybe it’s intended > that way. Shaloub has a few great scenes where he says almost nothing but > steals the movie. If you watch Matthew Wiener’s DVD commentary on the first > season of “Mad Men,” you could see how he broke down scenes and explained > how they worked. I would love some DVD commentary on Shaloub. Is the script > that good? Is it the directing? Is it Shaloub? Or is it all three? > The writing is often great but uneven. Like in the sixth episode, there’s > a celebratory dinner scene with an over-enthusiastic Jewish convert that is > so good and so funny it’s worth watching twice. A few minutes later, > there’s a screaming match between the characters of Brosnahan and Borstein > that seems like it’s right out of scriptwriting 101. Almost amateurish. > The show is beautifully photographed, especially the earlier episodes > where they glamorize Greenwich Village. Again, it would be great to have a > DVD commentary to say which are real shots and which are CGI. > One other gripe is how the character interacts with Lenny Bruce. I don’t > know much about Bruce but I don’t think he was a benevolent do-gooder. I > recall stories of him borrowing money from lots of people *before* he got > deeply involved in drugs and not paying it back. > Some have ranked it as one of the best series ever. I wouldn’t rank it up > there with “Breaking Bad” or “The Sopranos,” but it’s funny and smart and > worth your time. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
