A retro heroine for modern times
THE WRITERS BEHIND AMAZON’S new series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which is now streaming, set high expectations for their protagonist when they chose their title. Fortunately, the woman at the center of the show, a 1950s housewife turned stand-up comic in the vein of Joan Rivers named Midge Maisel, is indeed marvelous. In her first comedy routine, she jokes that she’s become a cliché—her husband has left her for his secretary—and ends the night flashing the crowd and being dragged off by the police. Every jab at an audience member or police officer is pulled off with irresistible self-assuredness
