The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel creators Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino discuss the inspiration for Abe and Rose’s story arcs in the fourth season. The husband and wife writing team have written and directed nearly every episode of the acclaimed Amazon series, and are already shooting The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 5, which will be it’s last. The two are previously known for their work on Gilmore Girls where they also wrote and directed a bulk of the episodes.
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel follows the titular Midge Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan) who discovers a knack for standup comedy after leaving her husband in 1950s New York City. Her decision goes on to affect everyone around her including her uptight parents Abe and Rose (Tony Shalhoub and Marin Hinkle) who are set off on their own journeys as the series progresses. The creators have been open to continuing The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel in some form after the fifth season finale.
In an interview with THR, the two creators talk about what inspired the storylines of Midge’s parents, with Abe working as a theater critic and Rose as a matchmaker. Palladino explains how everything is drawn back to Midge’s initial decision to leave her husband, and how the shockwaves of that choice are what motivates the narrative. He also elaborates on how the audience sees two older people that are starting over and what that might look like that for them beyond what they do for a living. Read Palladino’s quote below:
Well, you know, we always go back to the big bang when Joel dumped Midge in the pilot, and she ends up onstage. It was like the big bang that threw all the characters off their normal orbits. So, everyone now — including Abe and Rose, especially — are doing things they would not have done if things had not changed drastically. Rose would be a stifled woman of the house. Abe would still be a not-happy professor with unhappy students. So, we’re trying to show that her explosion in that pilot sort of sent everybody in their own direction. We’re just showing Abe and Rose, who are two people of a certain age, starting anew, starting over, trying to figure out their loves, their hobbies, their work and also trying to entertain.
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 4 received some criticism for a lack of dramatic stakes that defined the early seasons of the show. Abe’s storyline saw him finding success fairly easily in his new job, repeating the show’s bad habit of handing easy victories to its characters. Rose’s turn as a matchmaker did add some wrinkles when she came into conflict with the established matchmakers of the city, as well as her butting heads with Midge about her work at a gentleman’s club.
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 4 didn’t alleviate the show’s biggest problem of comedic style over any dramatic substance, despite the characters going in new directions. Though they have new jobs and have grown a bit as people, Abe and Rose’s personalities don’t reflect that, with Abe being as snobby and possessive and Rose being as judgemental and passive-aggressive as they were at the beginning of the series. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel‘s final episodes might give some dramatic heft to the characters, and hopefully, it won’t leave the series like the fourth season did, with very little aftertaste.
