"The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel: Season 1" - Fabulous US TV Show - A Review by Mark Barry...

"...Schlemiels!"

Best US TV Show You've Never Heard Of 

And Unfortunately as of December 2018 - either Season 1 or 2 Is

Still Not On DVD or BLU RAY Anywhere...

If you want laughs with brains and the best form of sexiness (breaking free from social and moral chains) - check out the stunning Season 1 of "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" on Amazon (first aired Christmas 2017 with Season 2 airing now Christmas 2018).

A young Jewish mum living in New York in 1958 (a break out role for a luminous Rachel Brosnahan) discovers that she's a lot funnier than her cheating husband at the all-male world of stand-up comedy. She even gets arrested on her first drunken night behind the mike for lewd behaviour and is bailed out of jail the next morning by a broody ciggy-smoking, trench-coat wearing, upper-coming streetwise comedian who also doesn't give a monkeys if he offends the authorities - Lenny Bruce.

Although a character invention by the team who broiught you "Gilmore Girls", you can't help but feel that the very hip and modern Miriam 'Midge' Maisel is taken from real life experiences – a woman who wears face packs in bed at night and then washes them off in the morning and does her make-up and then re-enters the bed so her husband Joel (Michael Zegen) will think she is permanently a domestic goddess (which she is). Midge checks her long elegant 16" leg and even tinier waist measurement with a tape measure in front of equally concerned Jewish girlfriends and then logs the result diligently in a notebook so that her hubby is kept interested and stimulated should the procreating need arise. Both her parents (college professor Abe and mother/socialite Rosa Weissmann) and Joel's parents (canny but brutal businessman Moishe and his hysterical gotta-know-all-the-gossip wife Shirley Maisel) are equally pernickety and engage in motor-mouth dialogue that will have you gasping and chuckling every time they appear.

This is a very funny show - fantastically good stuff with the whole cast superb, the great writing regularly tapping into those Jewish quirks, witticisms and punchlines without ever being derivative or stereotypical (like Woody Allen firing on all sixes). And it's wonderfully politically incorrect too - unlike the strangulated "McMafia" program on the BBC that seemed dogged in every clichéd sentence by political correctness and poorly drawn out characters. Amazon's show "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" and its you-can't-help-rooting-for-her lead actress Rachel Brosnahan on the other hand was nominated for the 2018 USA Golden Globe Award for Best TV Series (Musical or Comedy) - and won for 'both' Best Series and Lead Actress...

After watching so many TV shows that only partially hit the mark, this will come as a blessed relief. My only gripe is that you can't get either a DVD or BLU RAY of "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 1 or 2" on any region format anywhere (only promo DVD sets exist for Season 1 that are being auctioned on certain sites for lots of wonga).

A joy. And please, please, please ye digital dodgy types of entertainment - release this peach of a TV program on BLU RAY in 4K - you schmucks and schlemiels...