Dear Valentina [The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel]

REVIEW OF SEASON FOUR.

REVIEW OF SEASON FOUR
OF THE MARVELOUS MRS MAISEL

So I have no idea if anyone is interested in my thoughts/opinions on season four, or if anyone is interested enough to read a whole ass page about it, but I need to write about it otherwise I might explode. Regardless of an abundance of interest or lack of interest in my opinions, I'm always willing to engage in (respectful) conversation or debate in the comments. One of my favorites parts of writing this story is how interactive you guys are.  

I should start off by saying I had low expectations for this season before I even began watching it. This isn't to say I didn't adore the first three seasons, because I absolutely did (with season 3 being my favorite), but my excitement and hope for the fourth season started to dwindle after the first teaser premiered, then even more when the official first trailer came out. I was hoping after season three demonstrated Midge's personality regression and how all her worst traits seemed to be getting even worse, and the big blowout in the finale with her getting fired off tour, that season four could act as a big reckoning. It would open Midge's eyes to how selfish she can be, how unaware she is of bigger problems going on in the world and how her privilege massively shields her from that, and how her upper-class background has innately gave her the expectation that things will go her way. She would realize the great danger she put Shy in due to her Apollo set and she would recognize how she was deservedly fired; slowly, she would evolve as a person and work herself back to being a respected comedian who was playing legit gigs again. That was my hope for season four, but when we got the teaser/trailers, my hope for the show began to fade.

Unfortunately, none of this happen and my fears based on the trailers came to fruition. To make matters even worse, the overall writing for multiple characters and storylines (in my opinion) also got worse. In my eyes, this was by far the worst season of the show and the least funniest. Now, unlike the majority of the TMMM fandom, I'm not familiar with Amy Sherman-Palladino's work. I've never watched Gilmore Girls (though I have watched video essays, because I was curious about the show, given how it's already achieved iconic status in teenage-centered television). While I have heard stellar things about Gilmore Girls, specifically the overall writing and dialogue, I also heard a massive amount of criticism, specifically geared towards the later seasons and the writing of the main character Rory Gilmore (who, to my understanding, shares a lot of similar characteristics to Midge). I can't comment on Gilmore Girls' run or if there's any merit to the long-hailed complaints, but it seems like I was forewarned a little that TMMM was following a very similar direction to Gilmore Girls.

I didn't realize how similar of a direction until season four arrived and the writing took a massive downturn. Truthfully, thanks to my unfamiliarity with Amy Sherman-Palladino's writing, I'm a little shocked by how bad the writing was this season (overall). Like I said, the first 3 seasons are fantastic and if you binged the show like I did, it almost seems like a completely different group of writers wrote season four.