The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Review: How to Chew Quietly and Influence People / Maisel vs. Lennon: The Cut Contest (Season 4 Episodes 5 and 6)

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 4 Episode 5, “How to Chew Quietly and Influence People” and Season 4 Episode 6, “Maisel vs. Lennon: The Cut Contest,” take us back in time, but not in the way the period comedy intends.

Rather than to the burgeoning of the 1960s, the episodes take us back to conflicts Midge has had, almost identically, in past seasons of the show. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel treads over well-worn rugs of story, and Zelda can’t stand for that.

Luckily, the conflicts between Midge and Sophie Lennon, Midge and Shy, and Midge and Lenny are great fun to watch. The open mic quip battle between the leading ladies of laugh is certainly entertaining. The morning after/potty-training gags, which utilize a bit more physical humor than typical, are quite funny. 

Though they are redundant, the scenes still elicit a laugh and fondness. 

All moments between Lenny and Midge sizzle. They also leave us aching for more. What is cooking with all that sizzle, and when can we feast on it!? 

This inability of the show to make good on what it hints at offering is a core issue with the storytelling, repetitive and new, on Season 4. The resolution of Midge’s issues with Shy Baldwin on “How to Chew Quietly and Influence People” exemplifies the problem.

The relationship between the two performers is ripe for a conclusion that brings about character growth for Midge.

As the show has already explored and continues to explore in each episode, Miriam is trying to make a name for herself in a field dominated by people who can’t accept her talents as valid: straight white men. It is a tough battle, and she needs a thick skin. 

Where the comedian falls short is understanding that her thick skin is also covered by her economic and racial privilege.

Being Jewish in the years after WWII is certainly not the same kind of privilege as being non-Jewish white. However, her skin color is not a hindrance to her success. In the 1950s and 1960s New York, Miriam does not face racial discrimination like Shy does. 

“How to Chew Quietly and Influence People,” does put all the pieces of the puzzle out on the table for the characters to put a picture of Shy and Midge’s realities together.

We see that Shy has lost his band, his talented opening act, his manager, all so that he can keep his secret and continue to be a musician. If he wants an opportunity, he has to hide who he is. To hide who he is, he has to distance himself from every single person who truly knows him. All the people in charge of every aspect of his life are white men. 

Miriam, on the other hand, derives her success from being her most authentic self. The more real Midge is in her acts, the funnier and more successful they are.

She has the privilege of being able to surround herself exclusively with people who get her. If Midge were Black, she would not have that privilege. If Midge were from a poor background, she would not have that status. 

The long pause we see where Midge looks out at a lonely Shy, smoking a cigarette on a stoop, a nice reference to how they met, conveys that Mrs. Maisel feels bad for Shy. She aches for him and truly wants happiness for him. 

However, importantly, we never see her take the next step to consider how she benefits from the systems that are trapping and controlling her friend. Midge feels bad for Shy but she never stops feeling bad for herself too.

“Maisel vs. Lennon: The Cut Contest” confirms that Midge hasn’t been able to see beyond her own struggles when she repeatedly interrupts her parents to talk about how she’s been hurt by Lennon and how she is just as good as her. 

It’s always about Midge. Eventually, that pot roast humor of hers is going to run dry if it stays so self-centered. 

Midge’s failure is the show’s failure too. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel has yet to confront its straight white woman brand of feminism. I suppose it doesn’t need to. The show is still funny and fascinating. 

But, it doesn’t seem satisfied by that. It seems to want to go deeper.

There’s a reason the show decided to have Midge perform at a strip club. There is a reason Susie hires a Black secretary who brings kids to work. There’s a reason there is an episode centering on Shy in Season 4. These choices are purposeful and they force the show’s protagonist to encounter worlds that she doesn’t understand.

The failure of the show is that it puts Mrs. Maisel in these settings that give her the opportunity to see how she has power others can’t access, but she keeps looking in the mirror instead. 

Quite literally, in several of these scenes, there is a mirror in the room, such as her apology scene with Shy and the strip club argument scene regarding girly drinks. 

The way Susie is treated on the show doesn’t help. In an accurate rendering of Susie in this time period, her gender expression would not just be a silly quirk. Being mistaken as a man comes with a risk of violence, not only back then, but in our current times as well.

We never get a sense of that threat to Susie. We never get a sense that Susie’s identity makes her vulnerable. 

Susie’s gender expression is always a joke on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and it represents the missed opportunities to shift the butt of the joke to where it’s better suited: the suits.

There’s hope for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. If Midge can take her eyes off the mirror and expand her views, she could really take the man to task for how it treats the less powerful women and men who surround her. It would be hilarious. 

Other thoughts

• It is a veritable Gilmore Girls reunion on the episodes! How fun to see Kelly Bishop and Scott Cohen back in the capable hands of Sherman-Palladino dialogue
• Joel and Mei would make an adorable and badass parenting team. 
• Mei’s speech about saying to herself every day and every night “I am going to be a doctor,” is unexpectedly powerful. 
• Midge has a sling to match her outfit. Classic.
• Those strip routines are top-notch! I love the theatrical integrity. I mean, glass shattering soundtrack! Five stars. 
• Happiness being a perk, but not a requirement, of a marriage match, is such a telling predictor of the divorce rate that’s about to come about in the 1980s. Just saying.
• I love that comedy is bringing Rose and Abe closer together. Could TV dinners save their marriage?
• Lenny is reluctant to let anyone in. Midge is the perfect person to crack that nut. We love to see it. 

What did you think of these episodes of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel airs Fridays on Prime Video.

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