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CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
83
Mixed:
19
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews
TV Guide MagazineDec 6, 2018
Season 2 Review:
Perfectly delightful second season. [10 - 23 Dec 2018, p.8]
Uncle BarkyDec 4, 2018
Season 2 Review:
You might as well pencil in stars Rachel Brosnahan and Alex Borstein for return visits to the Emmy podium next year. They’re still that good in a comedy/drama series that remains peppy, snappy, musically magnificent and bursting with living colors. ... Mrs. Maisel remains loaded with special moments and deft asides.
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Dec 4, 2018
Season 2 Review:
Things go round and round a tad too often in the first five episodes, and a viewer may occasionally sense that Sherman-Palladino is favoring freneticism over story structure. It’s such fun to watch, however, that one may not even notice instances of disorganization.
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ColliderDec 4, 2018
Season 2 Review:
It is a truly delightful, exceptionally spirited romp that explores Midge’s world of appearing classically conventional but actually being extraordinary--often by sheer force of will. She’s not for everyone, but to like Midge is to love her. The same is true of the show.
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RogerEbert.comDec 4, 2018
Season 2 Review:
All the wonders of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’s first season remain intact: the dazzling production and costume design, art direction, and music supervision; the dialogue that fizzes like Prosecco and performances that linger in the air like cigarette smoke in a windowless club. And the jokes, my god, the jokes. ... The jokes all come from somewhere, and that’s what makes it sing.
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Nov 27, 2017
Season 1 Review:
The performances are vivid and engaging, beginning with Rachel Brosnahan as Midge. ... The writers take their time getting Midge out of the house and onto the comedy stage, but that enables them to develop the character naturalistically. ... Bit by bit, she’s finding her “c” (as in “comedy”) legs, though, and we can happily wait for the punch line.
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Dec 4, 2018
Season 2 Review:
Midge’s journey is so lovely to witness, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel doesn’t have to offer us any more depth than a Doris Day/Rock Hudson comedy (which it often resembles). But offer it does: Midge’s most effective standup involves her making fun of her upbringing, her family, her marriage (signaling an apparent end to her and Joel), but most importantly, her pain.
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Nov 27, 2018
Season 2 Review:
One benefit of this season’s leisurely pace is it allows us more time with the stellar ensemble. ... The look of Maisel is just so very that the beauty almost obscures the story; it was only after watching the episodes a second time that I was able to feel the characters’ emotions seeping through the visuals.
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IndieWireNov 27, 2018
Season 2 Review:
Each episode evokes that rare, warm glow brought about by entertainment that’s as finely tuned as it is thematically empowering. Sherman-Palladino didn’t just solve the Season 2 slump; she reversed it. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is even better than it was, even when you stop to consider its flaws.
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Nov 20, 2017
Season 1 Review:
Brosnahan’s casting is impeccable. She’s so charismatic that things can dull a bit when she’s off-screen, if only because her deftness with Sherman-Palladino’s script is so captivating. ... The series belongs to Midge, and you live for the final moments each episode when she pours her inner thoughts and keen observations out onstage.
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Nov 20, 2017
Season 1 Review:
Bursting with old-fashioned charm, Maisel is shot in the style of Woody Allen’s nostalgic comedies, with a jazzy soundtrack of old standards and an eye for the beautiful chaos that is life in the Big Apple. There’s sly, quotable humor throughout, of course, but also a strong feminist streak.
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Apr 14, 2023
Season 5 Review:
It’s a glorious final season that leaps from the 1960s, when comic Midge (Rachel Brosnahan) and her manager Susie (Alex Borstein) get their big break, into the next century when their sisterhood rightly anchors a classic series that is powerfully funny, touching and vital.
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Apr 13, 2023
Season 5 Review:
The last season is stuffed – and remarkably so. It gives newcomers like Reid Scott and Jason Ralph a good foothold in the series and suggests there’s much more that could be mined. ... Season Five wasn’t just business as usual. “Marvelous” is only one word to describe it.
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Dec 6, 2019
Season 3 Review:
In the third season, she [creator Amy Sherman-Palladino] dreams even bigger and gives us a USO tour, Las Vegas and Miami Beach. ... Swirl it all together with some of the best production design found in a sitcom and this season of “Mrs. Maisel” is pretty, well, marvelous. ... Brosnahan and company continue to impress and Zegen, the beleaguered man in the back, finally gets the attention he deserves.
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The Daily BeastNov 26, 2018
Season 2 Review:
There’s such a strong rhythm to the comedy it’s impossible not to fall in step, even in less successful story arcs. The scenes in Paris and, later, the Catskills, carefully tread a line between dazzling and swooning, and twee and overly cutesy. Your mood will likely determine which direction it wobbles. But when it executes, it’s phenomenal.
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Nov 29, 2017
Season 1 Review:
It’s obvious from the four episodes I’ve watched that Brosnahan is giving a superb performance and that Amy Sherman-Palladino knows exactly where she’s going with the stories she and Dan want to tell. ... Gilmore Girls can wait--wait for Mrs. Maisel to burrow its own distinctive blend of comedy, drama, and romance into your heart and mind.
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Nov 27, 2017
Season 1 Review:
Jauntily paced and cleverly written, the wonderfully engaging Mrs. Maisel is packed with winning regulars (none more so than Brosnahan's Midge), witty banter (a Sherman-Palladino specialty), sensational supporting players (including Kevin Pollak and David Paymer) and an exuberant sense of optimism (despite the obvious and incredibly daunting obstacles a female comedian faced in the late '50s).
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Dec 4, 2019
Season 3 Review:
[Midge] needs to grow, or at least her stand-up routine does beyond the tame gags about her ex-husband or Jewsih guilt. Those remain the weakest part of "Maisel." ... These early episodes do certainly play to "Maisel's" considerable and well-established strengths. They're a romp through the English language, abetted by actors who remain effortlessly up to the challenge. As always, the writing and those performances are still what resonate, and they're just about flawless
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Dec 4, 2018
Season 2 Review:
What Maisel repeats best is its sense of joy and optimism. Its candy-colored version of 1959 may be incredibly myopic, but it celebrates the good in people, the good in comedy and show business and the good in family and marriage over wallowing in the bad. Even when it makes you cringe, you know it soon will make you smile.
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ColliderApr 14, 2023
Season 5 Review:
As much as the flashforwards hinder some of the momentum of the season, they do at least guarantee one thing: We’ll get closure for Midge’s story and, in the process, get a glimpse into the future of the characters that have captured the hearts of the audience for six years.
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Apr 12, 2023
IndieWireNov 20, 2017
Season 1 Review:
While her routines aren’t that funny, they also aren’t boring. Through four episodes, neither is the series. With a much-needed message for our times, a talented ensemble cast, and the period appeal of a “Mad Men”-with-a-feminine-flair production design, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is well on its way to becoming the next obsession for “Gilmore Girls” devotees.
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TV Guide MagazineApr 21, 2023
Season 5 Review:
Mostly delightful and at times unabashedly poignant fifth and final season. [24 Apr - 7 May 2023, p.6]
RogerEbert.comApr 12, 2023
Season 5 Review:
The will-they-won’t-they of this season is not if Midge will make it or what man she picks next. It’s whether she’ll find a way back to Susie. And that has been the greatest strength of "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel"—under its protagonist's impeccable hats and charmed life, it's the story of workplace relationships, ambition, and female friendship.
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Dec 12, 2019
Season 3 Review:
Ostensibly, the long arc here is your basic, mid-century feminist reckoning — a Bryn Mawr girl who followed the rules, got married, popped out two kids and then realized she’s too funny and too bright to not give herself a shot at becoming a star. We’ve followed her on that course, where the fun outweighs the frustration every time. This season, the show tried to capitulate with a negligible dose of stronger medicine.
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Dec 9, 2019
Season 3 Review:
“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” is one beautiful cosmetic makeover of a life and ignores a whole lot of other unpleasant realities associated with that time period. In the third season, depending on who you are, that can be difficult to do. ... It’s about song and dance and lightness and fashion, presented through the limited view of one delightfully funny woman.
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The Daily BeastDec 6, 2019
Season 3 Review:
Brosnahan is in fine, breathless form. ... The problem is, however, that not much happens. Or maybe too much happens. More than ever before, the show seems scattered. ... Of course, lavishing in the show’s crack dialogue, ace performances, and sumptuous cinematography is hardly time wasted, and sometimes even a justifiable enough distraction from the fact that the narrative seems a bit lost. The girl is so danged irresistible.
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Dec 4, 2018
Nov 30, 2018
Season 2 Review:
As was the case in season one, the biggest assets in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel arsenal are Mrs. Maisel herself and Susie. Every time the show pivots away from them to focus on Abe and Rose or Joel, who’s now living with his overbearing parents, it loses some of its fizz. Fortunately, those detours never last for too long.
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Nov 28, 2018
Nov 30, 2017
Season 1 Review:
On its face, this show is a solid new entry in the Sherman-Palladino pantheon of wisecracking heroines and the assorted people who love them. But The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is also a stellar showcase for a woman unleashing her full fury and potential in a way no one--least of all herself--saw coming, or will soon forget.
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Nov 29, 2017
Season 1 Review:
It helps that the tone stays snappy through it all, but it also becomes grating. Even so, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel pulls off an enviable feat in making us fall in love with a story about ambition and dreams while flirting with ideas about a woman’s role in the spotlight, on stages and in history. And it does this without taking itself too seriously.
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Nov 29, 2017
Season 1 Review:
Mrs. Maisel plays like one of those delightful and sunshiny movies that take place in the past, such as “My Favorite Year” or “A Christmas Story” or “That Thing You Do!” All of those committed the misdemeanor of being too on-the-nose, but made up for it with a genuine instinct for warmth. That’s how “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” succeeds, too.
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TV Guide MagazineNov 27, 2017
Season 1 Review:
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel lives up to its billing with a wonderfully fresh attitude, lovingly capturing a conformist period vibe. [27 Nov - 10 Dec 2017, p.8]
Nov 22, 2017
Season 1 Review:
It’s not surprising that Sherman-Palladino’s dialogue sparkles, but she also effectively captures the time period, injecting just the right amount of quirkiness into the historical context. The set design, costumes and visually inventive direction (often from the creator herself) lavish as much attention on Midge’s home life as her professional aspirations, filling both with rich, rewarding detail. Marvelous is an understatement.
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Feb 18, 2022
Season 4 Review:
It dawdles getting started, but the next-to-last season of this groundbreaking comedy series about a female comic breaking the testosterone ceiling of standup in 1960 returns to peak form as an on-fire Rachel Brosnahan catches Mrs. Maisel in the exhilarating act of inventing herself.
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Nov 28, 2017
Season 1 Review:
Mrs. Maisel stays grounded in Midge's specific (if incredibly privileged) experience. Like its protagonist's comedy, the series thrives on the personal, turning one woman's journey into a story that feels particularly apt as women in entertainment today are speaking up about sexual harassment and abuse.
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Feb 16, 2022
Season 4 Review:
Without the strong foundational forces of previous seasons (the divorce, the Catskills, Shy Baldwin), the show’s shallow construction becomes uncomfortably visible. Season 4, so far, is a sandbox of great actors and great hats, but there has to be substance to match the style.
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Apr 12, 2023
Season 5 Review:
Midge has always been front and center, but a massive part of the show’s enduring popularity has always been the strength of the ensemble cast across the board, and that remains true in the fifth and final season despite the need to bring everything to a close by the time the credits roll on the finale.
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Dec 11, 2019
Season 3 Review:
The moments when Maisel works — Midge on stage, Susie learning how to speak up for herself, the two of them trading insults as they scramble from job to job — are delightful enough to overwhelm the series’ many tics and useless subplots. It’s getting harder, though, not to think of how much better the show would be if it tossed aside a large chunk of the supporting cast.
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TV Guide MagazineDec 9, 2019
Season 3 Review:
[Midge's family's] misery does not make for good company, or comedy. ... Thankfully, Midge never disappoints. [9-22 Dec 2019, p.12]
Dec 4, 2019
Season 3 Review:
The result is both charming and frustrating, entertaining but a tad underbaked. ... Carping aside, Season 3 has its pleasures, which include, as always, Midge’s color-coordinated, accessories-to-die-for ensembles (there’s an apt joke about her ridiculously huge wardrobe); the totally capable cast; awareness of the casual sexism that was an accepted part of life in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s; some snappy writing (“By the way, irregardless is not a word”); vivid production design, from a Vegas casino to Miami; and Luke Kirby’s lively performance as Lenny Bruce.
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Dec 5, 2018
Season 2 Review:
Whenever Midge gets up on the standup comedy stage, her scenes are electrifying. ... It’s also a show that can never quite see past its own blinders on anything that doesn’t relate to a 1950s battle of the sexes. It knows issues around race and class exist. It even knows that issues around religion exist. But it never knows what to do with them, because it needs them to remain off camera, so that it might construct a more perfect, candy-coated world.
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Dec 4, 2018
Season 2 Review:
There’s still a bounce to the scenes set outside comedy world, particularly in the visual flourishes deployed by both Palladinos when they direct. ... But just as Midge Maisel isn’t being her best self when she’s away from the stage, so is the show that’s named after her. She needs to get back behind the mic more regularly, and soon.
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Dec 3, 2018
Season 2 Review:
Scene by scene, the new season is a stunner. If you can enjoy it in the moment--and roll with the occasional linguistic anachronism--this season is a welcome mid-Hanukkah present. But Midge’s larger arc often seems stalled. The season repeats many of the conflicts of the first. ... There is a lot of movement here, but not necessarily a lot of progress.
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Nov 29, 2017IndieWireDec 6, 2019
Season 3 Review:
“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” seems content, too content, to coast on its good looks and rat-a-tat dialogue. ... Season 3 could rebound in its back half. The focus could shift, real problems could arise, and Brown could get that juicy arc he deserves. Even without all that, the first five episodes are sure to please die-hard fans. The rhythms are still the same, the visuals are still excellent, and all your favorite faces are still chatting away.
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Apr 12, 2023
Dec 6, 2019
Season 3 Review:
Season 3 has 10 episodes, which means that there's still room for the series to delve into those [racial] issues, but if Maisel continues to skirt over the most serious issue of the time that it's set in, its claim of authenticity will deservedly be questioned. The spectacle doesn't hold up in the long term without substance and good writing becomes less relevant if you aren't talking about what matters.
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The Daily BeastFeb 21, 2022
Season 4 Review:
After setting the show and the character forth on a pretty thrilling trajectory for the first three seasons, this new one is a complete reset. As in, Midge Maisel is in exactly the same situation she was when we first met her: single, desperate, and obstinately pursuing a career in comedy even though she can’t land a gig or respect.
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Feb 16, 2022Feb 16, 2022
Season 4 Review:
The main character is coasting on her greatest hits, the show is coasting on its greatest hits and so my review is mostly that the things I like about the show remain, the things I don’t like about the show remain and there isn’t enough that’s different to shake it out of a rut.
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Dec 6, 2019
Season 3 Review:
"Maisel" has always trafficked in nostalgia, but Season 3 worships the past to a fault, spending far more time than necessary with the late 50s and early 60s ephemera. The show is stuck: Midge is becoming too boring, and everyone else is too ridiculous. The writers force the characters through change in an attempt to freshen the series and create more dramatic and surprising developments, but they have been pushed past believability.
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Dec 4, 2019
Season 3 Review:
Nostalgic wish fulfillment carries the show further than it has any right to—but it’s not enough to make eight episodes cohere into a season, or for three seasons to cohere into a story. ... Maisel’s greatest character is none of the series regulars. It’s Luke Kirby’s take on real-life comedy great Lenny Bruce.
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