On Mrs. Maisel and Lenny Bruce: Shipping Inevitable Doom
If you are anything like me, you’ve already devoured The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 3.
The third season of this award-winning Amy Sherman-Palladino masterpiece saw our heroine, Midge (Rachel Brosnahan), on tour with Shy Baldwin dealing with jealousy of having to share her manager, Susie, with Sophie Lennon, and struggling to define her relational boundaries with her current-ex-current-ex husband, Joel.
I’m not here to talk about any of that. For a deeper dive into the full season, see Ashley Bissette Sumerel’s reviews here and here.
I’m here to talk about the storyline that’s captivated my attention since the first season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel: the sexy, somewhat innocent, and intriguing relationship between Midge and infamous comedian, Lenny Bruce (Emmy Award winner, Luke Kirby).
Warning: spoilers ahead for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
Midge met Lenny back on the first episode of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and instantly we knew their chemistry was electric. After performing her first impromptu set, which led to her arrest, she bonded with Bruce in prison over the struggles of life as a comic.
Once she was bailed out of prison, she, in turn, bailed Lenny out of his own cell. She asked him one question that would define the next steps of her journey.
“Do you love it?”
Lenny’s response?
Since then, we’ve watched these two characters connect in ways that go above and beyond the ways that Midge’s connections with other characters do.
Midge’s relationship with Susie is obviously a central focus of the series, but somehow her conversations with Lenny are more raw, honest, and insightful. Her marriages and dalliances with Joel are just plain boring compared to the undeniable romantic (and sexual) tension between Midge and Lenny.
So what is that? Is it a romance destined in the stars? Has Amy Sherman-Palladino written her most connected and captivating romantic couple since Rory and Jess? (#TeamJess always and forever.)
Over the past three seasons, we’ve watched Lenny and Midge come to each other’s rescue multiple times; totally platonically, I will add.
He’s bailed her out of jail, helped get her on the map by being her opening act. She’s been there to remind him that he’s great when he feels like he’s fading. It’s a genuine and respectful friendship between equals, one with a star rising, while the other is beginning its descent.
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’s third season saw something shift in their sexually-charged-yet-still-platonic dynamic, however.
It started with Midge receiving thank-you flowers from Lenny, and her parents began questioning whether or not Lenny Bruce was the reason that their daughter ended her engagement to a doctor.
While she protested that it was not, it also gave her a chance to explain to her father, looking for answers in freedom of speech for himself, that Lenny Bruce is out in the world speaking his mind in a way that Abe would admire.
Midge’s father went out to see Lenny’s act, defended him, ended up arrested with him, and bonded with him — he even bailed him out of prison. Abe’s respect for Lenny Bruce is above and beyond any amount of respect we’ve seen him show to Midge’s exes.
Lenny was woven back into Midge’s storyline when he magically appeared in Florida to see her on tour with Shy, and he asked her to be his plus one for a “work thing.”
That “work thing” was a televised, live from Miami, late-night cocktail party that Lenny not only appeared on, but brought Midge onto as his date. Their banter was quick and flirtatious in front of the camera. The shared hilariously sweet glances at one another that are reminiscent of teenagers staring at each other from across the cafeteria.
Their night moved to a dance club, an aesthetic that Sherman-Palladino has now perfected, as seen also on Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life’s fourth installment, Fall.
They spent an evening staring at each other before heading to the dance floor, where we realize that this could be the night they finally succumb to their passion.
They even headed back to Lenny’s hotel room; Midge decided, upon looking in at his bed, that she should really take a cab back to her hotel, but told him that they should connect some other time.
“Maybe before I’m dead,” he replied as he faded away, the scene ended, and we let out a collective romantic sigh and decided to head for a nice cold shower.
Midge Maisel and Lenny Bruce are a powder keg of intense romantic desire that is clearly on the edge of sheer explosion. Their will-they-won’t-they dance has become one of the most fascinating and heartbreaking parts of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
Fascinating, because we can’t look away. We’re waiting with bated breath for them to reunite and smoosh their faces together triumphantly, and finally take it to that bedroom for what we can only imagine would be an intense and passionate moment.
But heartbreaking, all the same, because of that last thing Lenny says, “before I’m dead.”
A Midge and Lenny romance may feel written in the stars, but unfortunately, those stars will inevitably end in despair. They have to. Lenny Bruce died in 1966.
Lenny Bruce was a real, flawed and complicated man, not the fictional romanticized character that we’ve grown to see him as.
When Amy Sherman-Palladino introduced real-life comic legend Lenny Bruce into The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel universe, she hadn’t planned on him coming back for more than just the first episode.
In a recent interview with Vanity Fair Sherman-Palladino said of the character Lenny Bruce, “When we cast Luke, it was just for the pilot. We had absolutely no real intention of bringing him back and continuing him. But when we looked at Luke, in addition to doing the real essence of what Lenny is, he’s just a great actor and just a darling guy.”
“Every time you get them together, they just had a camaraderie and a chemistry—and it was the fact that he wasn’t looking at her like, ‘I just want to get in your pants.’ The fact that she was there for him last year when he was feeling low and in the season finale, and she shows up for him… I think that, that a lot of time it translates into, ‘Well, eventually they’re going to have sex.’ Right? But it’s not necessarily the way it’s going to go.”
The biggest issue in bringing Lenny Bruce into the fold of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is the real-life story of Lenny Bruce, who died of a drug overdose just about six years after the events of Season 3.
In fact, the show is slowly approaching the 1964 act that put Lenny in prison (and put him on trial) for the final time, when he was arrested for obscenity at the New York club, Cafe Au Go Go. After that, no club would book him for fear of having to pay the fine for those charges.
So the issue at hand for Midge and Lenny becomes this:
Do we really want to see Midge Maisel end up tragically with a man we know is careening toward a downward spiral leading to death?
While it’s romantic to think of the tropes associated with a relationship between Midge and Lenny (the classic “womanizer finally respecting a strong woman” comes to mind immediately), I just cannot decide if it’s romantic enough to be worth it.
At what point does the shipper brain stop shipping in favor of reality?
The question I’m forced to answer when I really think about the consequences of this relationship going further than longing glances and romantic dances is what I want for Mrs. Maisel.
Do I want to watch her explore her comedy, learn from her mistakes, and end the series triumphantly, possibly with a partner who is her equal in every way? (But if not, that’s fine too.)
Or do I want to watch a story similar to A Star is Born, where Midge and Lenny can maybe have it all, but eventually she’s left to clean up his messes, and mourn him when he inevitably gives in to his demons?
Moreso, the question becomes, is there a middle ground; somewhere between the two where I can happily enjoy them, maybe see them get a little sexy, and still watch Midge go on to succeed, and also mourn her friend when he passes? And can I truly be happy with that middle ground knowing its eventual outcome?
Those questions keep my shipper brain up at night.
The answers undoubtedly won’t come easily as Sherman-Palladino writes them. She’s brilliantly opened a box that she’ll need to find a way to close with satisfaction while remaining true to the characters.
Until then, I will live in this moment, pretending that I don’t know what actually happens next.
Where do you stand on Midge’s relationship with Lenny Bruce? Where are you hoping their story goes in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’s next season? Sound off in the comments below!
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is streaming now on Amazon.
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Christine Laskodi
Christine is guilty of watching Hart of Dixie more times than the average human will in their lifetime. She's the host of Long Live the Hart: A Hart of Dixie Podcast (available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify!) as well as co-host on The Shipping Room, a podcast devoted to television's greatest relationships. You can find some of her older television reviews at TV Fanatic and IGN. Christine eagerly anticipates every cheesy holiday movie that networks can throw at her, and current favorite shows include The Good Place, The Resident, Shark Tank, and All Rise.
9 comments
life is drama and comedy is the opposite of tragedy. Upon us all some rain will fall.
This show is anchored by authentic *caricatures* within an authentic period setting, but is not a “true story.” There are many characters in Mrs Maisel who closely resemble real-life figures, but creative license is employed in varying degrees, from delicate touches to broad strokes, so why shouldn’t this storyline enjoy the same liberation from history? Doesn’t global morale deserve a small boost that could be provided just by sparing this show’s version of Lenny Bruce from his tragic fate? “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” didn’t do too poorly with that strategy, as I recall, and that was before “pandemic” earned top billing in modern lexicon.
It’s JAIL, not PRISON for christ’s sake!
You can’t get bailed out of prison.
To actually answer your question, I just want them to boink! I’m sure it could be written in such a way that they don’t wind up a couple and then Midge has to clean up his messes. I think they can have a nice fling, realise it won’t really work, remain friends and then Midge will be devastated when he dies but also feel relieved as he could have dragged her down with him. But the guilt might torment her for a while. But this is a comedy, so I think that the timeline will just slow down and probably never get to 1966.
This is so difficult because I absolutely love them together. I love everything about their relationship and I think it’s perfect the way it is now, which is why a big part of me doesn’t want anything to change. However, that being said, I do love their dynamic and their interaction on screen is always so fun to watch, and yes their chemistry is just insane. I do have to admit that I have been shipping them since season one and always hopes something would happen between them, cause they seemed so right for each other. However, after watching episode 5 of season 3, I have to say I’m torn. I was absolutely losing my mind because I was finally seeing what I wanted to happen since the beginning and it was perfection, pure TV magic, just beautiful and devastating at the same time when you get to the end of the episode. His face after her rejection just breaks your heart and his final words, ugh, you know bad things are coming for him. Which is why, I believe they should stay friends. There is just too much at risk here. Like I mentioned before, their relationship is so beautiful and unique, I would hate to see it ruined. And as much as I love them together, I don’t think it would work. He’s not stable enough, sadly, and I don’t want her to clean up after him, she’s done enough of that with Joel. So, I would have to say that their friendship is too precious and valuable to jeopardize over a one-night hook up or fling. So I’ll have to sink my ship and give way to reality. Having said that, we’ll always have Miami, and that magical evening I will continue to obsess over till the end of time. Sorry, that was long. Thank you and good night, everyone. 🎙️
I feel like their characters have such undeniable chemistry that it will have to be explored more or pushed to the side as something that was always perfect balancing on that edge between friendship and love. I hate the idea of watching Lenny’s downfall; and while I can picture Midge heartbrokenly eulogizing him, I want to see the version of the story where something finally goes right for Lenny. The “what if”/ flip of the coin/ diversion from one part of his story. Maybe give Lenny the win he never got in life.
… And while I realize they will probably throw someone else in the mix and that delaying happiness is not a new thing (Lorelai and Luke anyone?), I do think there is magic in the chemistry between them that hits a level of perfection hard to beat. Now to watch **that** episode for the 600th time because, sigh…
Well, I trully believe they won’t get to 1966. By the time Lenny died he was dating a comedian too. So, maybe they’ll will leave us with the “feeling of his death” without having it at all. That’s what I think.
PLEASE, you killed me with Lennys real life story. I knew that Lenny Bruce was a real person and a real comidian but i didnt know that he “failed” at the end of his career and died for overdose. Literally, ruined the narrative.
Although i think that this tv show doesnt have that kind of drama. Its drama is related to the things that Midge says on the shows but its not as radical as a death for drugs. So my thoughts about this relationship -which i shipped since episode one when Midge was dragged into the car and he DRAMATICALLY watched over his shoulder to see her- is that they wont end as a dead couple. I mean i HOPE (seriously now) that Amy Sherman- Palladino doesnt give him his real future -i mean, what really happened to him-. Instead, she would give him a nice life -that he didnt have. I read a comment earlier about the ending of “Once upon a time in Hollywood” and the way thath Tarantino ended the idea od a tragic night and defeated what happened in reality by lefting HER alive. Im hoping that Sherman- Palladino would do that.
Anyways, i said that the show dont hace this type of stories. Its a comedy and i dont think that they would make a really nice and loving character (loving not only by the fans but also by the main characters) die.
I cant even say how much i enjoyed THAT episode. It crushed my soul his face at the end when shes leaving. But we are sure that *THAT* would happen sometime soon because of her answer -and, obviously, she really shows that she was interested because for her looks and the nerviosism and i think that she didnt do it because of that and because she was just with Joel the last chapter and she is trying to figure it out how to get over him finally and wants to be special the time with Lenny that absolutely is someone she looks up and cares about. SO, i think that lenny is not gonna die bc it would change the entire meaning of the show and i think they would make a really equal couple. They would be the one for each other: have the same humor, do the same things and they grow with the other. Midge would be the reason -maybe and hopefully- for Lenny to shine again. Peope here says that Lennys career is downfall well… i do not agree but maybe for the way we see him live, we can say that he is not having the best time. But i dont think that he is “over”. But they would really be a nice and equilibrated (dont know if this is a word haha) couple. Wish they end up together.
Know that they would have their time but i wish that its not jus a fling.
Ok too long but when i shipped a fictional couple im ALL IN.
This was Mrs Rocio from Argentina, thank u and goodnight everybody.
[” Doesn’t global morale deserve a small boost that could be provided just by sparing this show’s version of Lenny Bruce from his tragic fate?”]
The problem is that the series, by Season Four, did convey a hint of Lenny’s fate, yet it still featured a hook up between Midge and Lenny. If this goes on the final season, it will change the series’ tone drastically. Big mistake!
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