After a five season, 43 episode run, spanning six years, Amazon’s Emmy-winning hit The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel dropped the curtain one last time with its finale that aired on May 26, 2023. What started out as a show about Midge Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan) who started stand-up as an outlet to vent about her cheating husband, became a show that was about family, religion, careers, and most importantly friendship. Though this last season was the most interesting its setup, as it often revealed the future of Mrs. Maisel herself and the vast array of characters in opening scenes before each episode, we still got a nice bow that wrapped the show up in a simple, yet satisfying manner at the end.

Final Episode Wrap-Up

(Spoilers to follow)

At the penultimate episode’s conclusion, we were left with Abe reflecting on the achievements of Midge, considering how incredible she is despite him, and realizing she achieved so much without his support. We also see Susie, after being pressed by Midge, ask her old romantic partner, and Midge’s late night TV show host and boss Gordon Ford’s wife Hedy, to ask Gordon to break his rule about letting writers on the show. This sets up what the audience than hopes is Midge’s big break, alluded to in opening sequences, with a starring role on his show.

At the start of the episode, we are taken first to Lenny Bruce, who’s shown to be a struggling comic, who as we might know from Bruce’s real life is unlikely to live much longer. This is a nice inclusion, albeit sad, as it shows Midge’s love and support for Bruce still, and it also perhaps sets up Midge, who we already see in the future will have raging success as well as troubles, may learn some lessons from her friend’s fall.

Shortly thereafter, after Midge and Susie come together, and Susie reveals why asking Hedy was so hard for her, and her love for Hedy, clearly paralleling an unsaid love for Midge herself, Midge is given the go ahead by a very angry Ford that thanks to the pressure applied on him she’ll be on the show.

What starts as a moment of triumph however, with some wonderful moments of celebration by Susie, Joel, Moishe and Shirley Maisel, Zelda, her father Abe, and ultimately her mother Rose, who at first appears jilted only to realize her daughter’s love demonstrated in a hilarious sequence of calls, then seems to end with Ford diminishes the segment as “an interview with a writer” and attempts to cut Midge’s moment.

Midge realizes then after a brief break, where a furious producer Mike chides Gordon for leaving 4 minutes of potentially dead air, that she has to seize the moment. After consulting with Suzie, in an important moment of friendship and trust as she consults her beforehand, Suzie reminds her that seizing the mic when she wasn’t supposed to was how she started her career and tells her to go for it.

Midge then takes over the mic, steals the spotlight, and steals the show, as she delivers one of her best routines yet, and even leaves Gordon laughing. Though she’s ultimately fired at the end by Gordon, that’s after he says no doubt she will return many times to the couch as a guest.

After this moment of triumph we are left with a wonderfully poignant and small scene of Midge and Susie, now in their elder years, on the phone together in their own decadent houses. This is the first clear sign we’ve had, since seeing earlier they had many years of broken trust and friendship prior, that indeed they were able to rekindle their friendship after Susie’s roast where Midge sent in a video tribute and thanks to her dear friend. The show then closes with the two watching Jeopardy together, and talking like the old days, as the lights go dark.

Reflections on the Full Run of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Season Five in many ways was the first time I was unclear about the direction of the series, as Midge’s life in the future seemed rather empty, full of showbiz success, but without the love and family she had in her early years. However that moment in Susie’s roast, where Midge over video shares her thanks and love for Susie, and provides an in-show reflection on the good times that we watched these many years, did it at last click.

Perhaps this is truly what life is like, especially when famous, where fame and fortune is found, but with great sacrifices to personal life and happiness. Yes Midge seems to have dated and married many undoubtedly incredible celebrities, and she’s graced every major stage it seems, but we see her primarily alone and apart from her children who know carry the weight of her life much as she did her own mother and father’s. So we are reminded that the love of her family, Joel’s love even after his initial betrayal, and Susies might be the peak of her personal life, and thankfully with the final episode we at least get a glimpse that she’s found some of that again in her own way.

What’s certainly incredible is even with Season 5’s bolder choices, the characters, and most especially the cast, stayed strong and perhaps even became more incredible over the show’s run. Of the newer cast members Reid Scott did a particularly excellent job playing Gordon Ford, who only ten years ago would’ve helmed a Mad Men-esque version of this show with him at the center (no offense Scott, I’m thankful that wasn’t this show.) Likewise Jason Ralph, who played Mike the producer on the Gordon Ford show, and is Rachel Brosnahan’s real life husband, was incredible in this role as the always flustered producer.

Of course the main cast as always was top notch, and though Brosnahan was impeccable as always, I think this was Alex Borstein (Susie Myerson) and Marin Hinkle (Rose Weismann)’s time to shine in particular. They truly rose above and beyond with many incredibly, powerful scenes, and I hope they receive Emmy recognition for this year in particular.

Tony Shalhoub’s not always had the most interesting side-stories as Abe Weismann; however, his moment in the restaurant was so powerful and so needed, as he was able to at last recognize his daughter Midge’s accomplishments. Likewise Michael Zegen (Joel Maisel) really brought out the love his character has for Midge, and played him tenderly as an older Joel, and as perfectly as always as the Joel we know and love.

One of my favorite pairs, and they’ve always been wonderful but really stole much of the show this season, was Moishe and Shirley Maisel as played by Kevin Pollak and Caroline Aaron. These two actors really exemplified the complexities of love in a long-term marriage, and humanized even their zaniest moments.

Farewell to Mrs. Maisel

This is looking to be an especially difficult year of farewells for television, and saying goodbye to this show in particular will be hard. The Marvelous Miss Maisel provides so many lessons on life, family, determining your own career moves, and importantly messing up on your own terms. While we may not always have the chances of a Midge, or the affluence for sure, may we at least have her spirit and good humor, as we tread on with our own lives.