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Creating the thread in advance of tomorrow’s premiere!
Trailer:
ReplySolidarity with the striking writers. Pay them the wages they are owed for bringing us the content we are all on here because of!
[SPOILER ALERT]
I recently saw a tweet from a critic who said that they didn’t like how they write off a character in the first episode. This whole time I was assuming that Lenny was gonna die somehow in the first episode. After watching it, it turns out that the tweet was about Academy Award nominee Stephanie Hsu. Kind of having a mixed feelings about this. It was just kind of abrupt, especially since Joel just announced the baby to the family. Good that she’s booked and busy, but I’m gonna miss her witty lines and her presence in the series. Also, who knows, maybe she’s gonna appear again in the rest of the season.
ReplyCopy URLEvery time a new season of this show airs and I enjoy the premiere I wonder if it’s just because I have such a close attachment to this show because it came to me at a pivotal moment in my life and it’s as a result my comfort show but it really is good! I didn’t dislike season 4 by any means (quite the opposite) but compared to the other premieres of this show I didn’t really feel the same way but this season premiere, it was like floating in the air and having a box of candy. Not only was it absolutely enjoyable to see this world again and absolutely fun seeing the ensemble together in the family scenes (one of the strengths of this show) but it really was so gripping and hilarious. There have been some very good comedies this season (Abbott Elementary is still great, Mo had an impressive and quite under-appreciated debut and I’ve enjoyed these latest seasons of Dead to Me and Reservation Dogs) but I’ve been missing the excitement factor in the comedies I’ve been watching this season compared to previous years, especially last year, until now. But with both Schmigadoon! and hopefully Maisel if the rest of the season ends up being anything like this premiere, I’m feeling the high! I think something I like about this show so much in particular that was really on display in the premiere is its sensitive eye and how it reacts to the situations its characters are in and adapts accordingly. Some may say a different type of energy being exhuberated when Midge is incapacitated and we’re just left with Abe, Rose and Susie in a skit trying to decide what to do is uneven writing and pacing but I think it’s a smart way to make your world feel more realistic to the viewer (something that a certain comedy series Emmy winning hour long comedy with another final season that shall remain unnamed has been failing to do thus far in the episodes of it that have aired).
Borstein was the clear MVP of the premiere (I couldn’t stop laughing at how she reacted to Midge’s toe being frozen) and it is always a treat to see Brosnahan, Hinkle, Shalhoub, Aaron (who was absolutely hilarious when Shirley and Moishe were fighting over Thanksgiving dinner), Lupe (how is the same person playing Willa on Succession?) and Hsu in these roles. And even though he was only in the episode for ten minutes it really is incredible how magnetic Kirby is as Lenny Bruce and his chemistry with Brosnahan. I’m so excited to get through this season and it saddens me that I have to ration these episodes out so I don’t end up missing a time without an episode for too long and go overboard and watch them when I need to be doing other things.
One final thing I wanted to add is that whilst Amy Sherman-Palladino isn’t a perfect writer I honestly love it when she makes meta references to the online stanning and trolling culture that has surrounded pop-culture in recent years. First with the Ventimiglia cameo last season and now with Esther’s rant about Midge in the cold open this season.
ReplyCopy URLSolidarity with the striking writers. Pay them the wages they are owed for bringing us the content we are all on here because of!
Fantastic Premiere
I thought Socha (good to see post Red Oaks) nailed the intro to set the tone (Instant reminder of my love for Palladino’s dialogue)
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Brosnahan/Borstein were great & boy have I missed Shalhoub’s disposition.
Thanksgiving was very funny especially the Aaron & Pollak dialogue.
I thought they handled the Hsu situation as well as they possibly could & it was a strong episode for Zegen.
Kirby & Brosnahan are magic together.The color palette in this scene…. Midge, bright and red walks into a room full of grey and lifeless suited men but the furniture matching her red hints that Midge has still has the potential find her place here…
Brosnahan’s physical comedy in these scenes was so good trying to find a chair, etc.
ReplyCopy URLI didn’t love the first two cold opens (the first one was too Gilmore Girls, the second too Forrest Gump) but the third one made me cry. It’s the most human and genuine Midge has ever been with one of her kids. The way those relationships have been handled on this show has always annoyed me but seeing it’s very real consequences was necessary. And the things that Rachel and the actor playing Ethan (I’m not sure of his name) bring to it with just a few looks at each other made me really emotional.
ReplyCopy URLAccording to Sherman-Palladino, the character of Mei was always intended to be a temporary presence in Joel’s life.
“[She] was brought in for a hot blast [to knock] Joel off of his axis [and] out of the Midge world,” the EP explains. “She also represent[ed] the next generation of women that would be coming up after Midge, who might be thinking a little ahead of the game, like, ‘Maybe before I get married and have kids, I’m gonna accomplish this.’ Midge was a little late for that. She fell into her ambition. Stephanie was playing those girls in the 60s who are, like, ‘I’ve seen my mom’s way, and maybe I’m going to do it a slightly different way.’”
Adds EP Daniel Palladino: “We wanted to show Joel with a woman who was even more independent than Midge was. Midge embraced the Betty Crocker myth; Mei did not. So [her] pregnancy [teed up] an inevitable conclusion [for the character].”
Sherman-Palladino notes that the decision to have Mei leave town at the start of Season 5 “was determined [long] in advance of [Stephanie] becoming the biggest, hugest star in the entire world,” adding, “You don’t ask Stephanie to show up and not give her anything to do. If she’s gonna show up, you gotta give her great stuff to do. She’s not going to sit there for two or three episodes and be window dressing just because we’re greedy and we love Stephanie.
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