The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Season One)

If you watched last summer's Emmy Awards, you know that The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel absolutely cleaned up, winning the awards for Comedy Series, Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (Rachel Brosnahan), Supporting Actress (Alex Borstein), and Casting for a Comedy Series. It was straight up dominance, and after watching just a couple episodes of the excellent first season, it's not hard to see why everyone was so in love with the show.

Maisel is set in the late 1950s in New York City. Miriam "Midge" Maisel (Brosnahan) is a housewife to her husband Joel (Michael Zegen) and their two children. Both Midge and Joel come from Jewish families, and the show explores their often complicated relationships with their parents. It's established early on that Midge is essentially a flawless supporter of Joel, going over the top to make him happy and help him to be successful. In particular, Joel is an aspiring stand-up comic and though he's not funny at all, he achieves whatever modest success he has to Midge's assistance with preparing him and setting up his gigs.

Joel is unappreciative of what he has in Midge and winds up leaving her, which leads to Midge getting drunk and trying her own hand at stand-up comedy. She's wildly successful, which gets the attention of Susie Myerson (Borstein), who encourages Midge to pursue comedy and becomes her manager. That's essentially the set up for Season One.

Over the course of the season the show covers the fallout from Joel and Midge's separation, including the complicated effect it has on the parents of each. Midge's stand-up career has its ups and downs, and the difficulties of trying to make it in the comedy world -- even for someone as clearly talented as Midge -- are made clear. Maisel has rich, multi-dimensional characters; even Joel, whose behavior early on garners him no sympathy, experiences a great deal of growth to the point where he's not completely loathsome by the end of the season (which is really saying something).

One odd observation I had about the first season is how little Midge and Joel interact with their children. Midge ostensibly goes out all the time to practice comedy and enjoy parties. She seems to enjoy the relative freedom of a childless woman. It seems like she just dumps the kids on her parents all the time. I have two kids who are each about a year older than the two kids on the show, and as my wife and I are in a comparable stage of life, it just seems bizarre to me. 

Brosnahan is absolutely stellar in the lead role, and Borstein is hilarious as the sarcastic, quick-witted Susie. Tony Shalhoub was nominated for an Emmy for playing Midge's stern, math-professor father, and I thought that was a well-deserved honor. Maisel kept us laughing throughout while keeping us invested in the characters' storylines. Season Two is out now as well, and while we have some other TV to catch up on in the interim, continuing this show is pretty high on our priority list.

Season Grade: A-

The Good Place (Season Three)

Season Three of The Good Place picks up the reboot initiated at the end of Season Two, with the four humans back on earth and given a second chance to improve themselves enough to make it into The Good Place. The show has essentially (and necessarily) taken on a different premise for each season to keep the plot from getting stale and it has largely worked. It's a good, consistent comedy with sharp wit and superb writing.

In addition to laughs, The Good Place is a contemplative show that continuously considers the question of what it means to be a good person. There's things that are obviously bad, like the crimes that Jason's father Donkey Doug (plot twist!) and Pillboi commit, but the show digs even deeper this season into exploring the unintended consequences of ostensibly good actions. It points out that life on Earth has gotten so complicated that it's practically impossible to make decisions that have perfect levels of morality, and nearly all that we do has shortcomings. It's a bit of a grim message, and a rather overwhelming one. The Good Place effectively distracts from these big questions with well-timed laughs, but it presents them nonetheless.

The falling action of the season created some drama in Eleanor and Chidi's romantic relationship, and I suppose how well that hits home depends on how much one truly buys into the pair as a couple. I never really saw it, and it's probably because it felt like Eleanor forced it after finding out that they fell for each other during some of the simulations. Plus, it's hard to see the romantic side of either character given how their exaggerated flaws (Eleanor's selfishness, Chidi's indecisiveness) have tended to dominate their characters over the first few seasons.

The show set itself up for yet another reboot in Season Four, and it's clear from the outset that there's going to be some pretty high emotional stakes for its main characters. I look forward to seeing what Ken Tremendous & Co. have in store for us next.

Season Grade: B+