Last week, I completed my watch of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. I had gotten to the 7th and next to last episode of season 3 and I admit I was a bit reluctant to move on to the next episode.
I knew that when I took the next step to watch that next episode, that would be it for new episodes of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. And what with the pandemic lockdown still restricting most TV and movie productions, there is no telling when a season 4 will ever come 'round these parts.
Also, another reason was that despite my best efforts to avoid spoilers, certain details of the plot for the final episode of the 3rd season had become know to me and I knew things would not turn out well for Midge and her manager Susie. I was not ready to see our beloved female Jewish comedian and her irascible manager brought low.
But I get ahead of myself.
Most of the 3rd season followed Mrs. Maisel as the opening comedy act for singer Shy Baldwin. Midge is having the time of her life. Her name up in lights, adoring crowds uproarious with laughter, hopping around the United States, staying in nice hotels.
But not all is well with Shy Baldwin's tour. Shy's manager Reggie barely tolerates Midge on tour. It wasn't his idea to hire the whitest white woman ever to open up for Shy Baldwin on tour.
And all is not well with Shy Baldwin himself. As if being a black man in 1960 America isn't hard enough, Shy has another secret, one that claws at him with shame and guilt. Shy Baldwin is gay. And remember, this is when being gay was a crime and considered a mental aberration.
The pressure of the tour and of his secret life get to be too much for Shy and he takes a break. Susie has Midge earning some extra dough during the break doing radio spots.
Eventually Shy is ready to get back on stage. He will make a triumphant return to the Apollo theater and from there, kick off the European leg of his tour.
Midge is making plans. She's saved enough money to make a down payment on her old apartment and give her parents somewhere to live after they lost their home when Abe decided to walk away from Bell Labs and Columbia University and Rose rejects her trust fund after her family disrespects her. Abe and Rose have been forced to live with Moishe and Shirley Maisel and the best descriptor of that living situation is "hell on Earth". Between the money she has from the first half of the Shy Baldwin tour and the money she's going to get from the second half, Midge is in a place to get her and her kids and her parents in a nice place to live.
Midge doesn't know that she doesn't have the money she things she does. Susie has been using Midge's money to cover some bad bets. Seems Susie has a bit of a gambling problem.
And sadly, Midge will not have the money she things she's going to have.
It's showtime at the Apollo and Midge is nervous. She's just met Moms Mabley and her very angry manager who thinks Midge stole Moms' rightful spot on the tour. She's also just realized she's about to face the notoriously toughest audience in all of showbiz, the predominantly black audience of the Apollo theater.
Reggie advises Midge to find some common ground and have a little fun with something that both she and the audience knows about, Shy Baldwin.
After a tentative start, Mrs. Maisel is killing it on the stage of the Apollo theater, her audience convulsing with laughter over Maisel's insights about Shy Baldwin.
Including a reference to Shy wearing Judy Garland's shoes.
Mrs. Maisel exits the stage to enormous laughter and Shy Baldwin enters, back to his peak self as his warm, sensual voice fills the air.
Everything's all good.
Except...
When Midge and Susie get to the airport to board the plane for the European tour, Reggie is there to stop them. They will not be boarding the plane.
Mrs. Maisel has been fired from the Shy Baldwin tour.
The audience at the Apollo may not have understood everything Mrs. Maisel said on stage about Shy Baldwin but Shy Baldwin did.
"Wearing Judy Garland's shoes", indeed.
The episode and the season ends with Midge and Susie standing in the darkness, watching Shy Baldwin's plane take off, helpless watching the plane and their dreams disappear into the night sky.
Whoa.
There is some debate in the Maisel fandom if Reggie deliberately set Midge up to fail. Or even if Shy is really that mad at Midge since we do not hear Shy's objections to Mrs. Maisel's routine from the man himself; we only hear about it from Reggie who was never all that happy that Mrs. Maisel was on the bill in the first place.
One thing that needs to be addressed is Midge Maisel's naivete. Midge professes that she had no idea that her routine at the Apollo was outing Shy Baldwin. Reggie said the crowd there already knew about Shy. Is Midge in 1960 really so naive as to think that a black audience at the Apollo theater would be OK knowing that one of their own who has made it to the big time is gay?
This is not the first time Midge has crossed a line, sharing private info her comedy act that has come back to bite her.
In many ways, Midge Maisel hasn't grown up as much one might expect since the major shock of her husband leaving her in episode one of season one. In many ways, Midge still comports herself like the same upper class Jewish wife and mother we met at the start. Despite the change in her fortunes, Midge still thinks she can send her kids to the classy private school in Manhattan even though her parents, her ex-husband and his parents all live in Queens.
Midge Maisel still thinks she can solve any problem with a quick quip and a well made brisket.
The loss of the Shy Baldwin tour puts the biggest question mark on Midge Maisel, her fortunes and her career since the series began.
And wait until she finds out how Susie has fucked over her money.
Ooh boy.
How will all this be sorted out?
Or even when? Right now, COVID 19 is still dictating the calendar for when The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel might get back in production.
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Next week, the Tuesday TV Touchbase will pontificate on the fortunes and misfortunes of Fleabag as I wrap up season 2. And season 2 of The Boys begins.
Until next time, stay safe, remember to be good to one another and keep it down, would ya, I'm trying to watch some TV here.
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