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We Really Did Have it All, Didn’t We?
How Amy Sherman-Palladino Used The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’s Finale to Finally Give More to the Girls
When The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel premiered in 2017, I was grateful for something that felt simultaneously fresh and reflective — a look into the past with the gift of space and hindsight that effortlessly spoke to the uphill battles so many women still have to overcome when put in the position of “shrink or swim.” World-weary in my own journey thus far as a human woman, I was thrilled, when after five seasons of ups, downs, and jokes about Penny Pan (poor, dumb Penny), the hero’s journey of Midge Maisel from abandoned housewife and mother to late night legend and comic trailblazer ended with the laughter of two longtime friends rather than the applause of an audience. At the end of the day, this show wasn’t about Midge’s undeniable talent, or Susie’s unrelenting quest for significance and peace, or the men that came in and out of their lives like dry cleaning. It was about the refusal of these two women to live the small lives expected of them, and their journeys to proudly help each other become the big people they had always been — for as long as they both shall live.
This ending was not what I was expecting. In my experience with falling deeply in love with independent brunette TV heroines…
