Alex Borstein Begins Where ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ Ends (2024)
This season, viewers meet another of Susie’s walking wounds: a character named Hedy (Nina Arianda), who shattered Susie’s heart back in college. Years later, she reemerges as the wife of the late-night host Midge is working for.“What promises can we make at 22?” Hedy says when confronted by Susie about leaving her in the lurch decades earlier. Much has been made about Susie’s sexuality not being addressed sooner in the series, but “I think a lot of people got it wrong,” Borstein says. “Susie would not—even if she was a good old-fashioned vanilla heterosexual woman, so to speak, she wouldn’t have shared that [side of her] either.”
Susie’s detachment from her emotions is the biggest difference between her and the woman who plays her. Borstein explains, “Susie says it in the pilot episode that she doesn’t mind being alone, but she just can’t accept being insignificant. Ialso don’t want to be insignificant, but Ialso can’t be alone. We’re different creatures that way,” she says, adding, “but absolutely, knowing what it feels like to have thought you had a future with someone and for that to be pulled out from underneath you—of course I knew what that felt like.”
When Borstein—alongside Barcelona musiciansEric Mills andSalva Rey—began work on her first comedy special, she knew there was one pesky life event that couldn’t be avoided. “I’ve never really even talked about being divorced. There are a lot of people that had no idea I was divorced. It just kind of very quietly happened. So that was a little nerve-racking, even just acknowledging that in a public forum,” she says of her 2014 split fromGilmore Girls actorJackson Douglas, which was finalized in 2017. “But what I want to share is not really about the divorce but about the rebirth: having a mulligan, having a do-over in life. It’s rare.”
The result isCorsets & Clown Suits, Borstein’s “deeply personal and wildly fictitious” special released last month on Prime Video. Borstein savored the synergy betweenMaisel and the special, which she filmed on one of the series’ sets. “It’s kind of like having people who believe in past lives or future lives,” she says, trailing off. “It maybe was ripe and perfect becauseMaisel was coming to that close, and this could use up the nutrients and open up.”
Borstein is bitingly candid in the special about the aftermath of her and Douglas’s breakup, including alimony checks (“He divorcedme, and nowI have to payhim”) and continuing to wear her engagement ring (“First of all, I paid for it”). She sails from the overturning of Roe v. Wade (“I came out of a 20-year marriage with fewer rights than I went in”) to her disastrous first post-divorce hookup with a magician. At one point, a phallic neon green sticker adorns her cheek (I won’t spoil why). Borstein then turns to her father in the audience: “Are you proud there’s a co*ck on your daughter’s face?”
In a recentinterview withMarc Maron, Borstein argued that “comedy is persuasion.” When I ask who she was trying to influence with the special, she says: “Well, first of all, I think I was persuading myself. The special is about a woman struggling to figure out how she wants to be perceived. And really, the act of doing the special did away with all that. I didn’t care how I was perceived.” But if there’s another young person who can learn from her life, so be it. “It’s not like I wanted to make a public service announcement. But there are moments in the show where I share sh*t that took me 40 years to learn. Why not give someone a shortcut?”
Reclaiming that fear of perception includes finally watchingThe Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which Borstein has avoided doing thus far. “After the last episode drops, my plan is to sit with my 10-year-old daughter and watch it from beginning to end,” she says. “That’s when it’ll probably really sink in—like, Wow, we made this? How the hell did this even happen?” It also means appreciating the way her heartbreak made her performance richer. “You’ve got a bag of tricks and emotions and past experiences, and all you can do is reach into your own bag,” Borstein says when asked about playing Susie’s scenes with Hedy. “So that’s what’s in my bag—my divorce, finding a person and then losing a person, having children.”
Watching the special, one can’t help but feel that the possibilities are infinite for Borstein—she could write a musical, host a late-night show. Does she feel that creative freedom? “Prime Video did something funky on the homepage [for the special]. It says ‘episode one’ for some reason. I think it’s just a glitch,” Borstein explains. “So a lot of people are like, ‘I can’t wait for the second episode.’ I’m like, ‘Oh, no. Wait, there’s just this one.’” And yet, “It does lead me to think about, Do I have another story to tell?” Borstein says. “And I think I do.”
Gordon is genuine with his praises, saying it's her "first, but definitely won't be her last" appearance on his show, followed by a whispered, "You're fired."
Maisel ends with Midge and Susie because, in reality, that is also where the show began. Although Midge is spurred into comedy by Joel's betrayal, she never would have made it without Susie. In this way, the show emphasizes how significant Midge and Susie's friendship is to the show.
Borstein says that Midge was "the greatest love" of Susie's life because she "didn't allow it to turn into anything romantic" and therefore, a lifelong friendship was born.
In the series finale, we see Lenny at rock bottom in 1965, a year before his real-life passing. Midge's manager, Suzie, offers him an out which he declines but counters with asking if Midge is there. He knows the direction his life is going and knows that he probably can't save himself, but maybe Midge can.
Meanwhile, Midge isn't interested in being in a relationship because she wants to wholeheartedly pursue her comedy career and she believes she's destined to be alone because of it. Ironically, Shy Baldwin knows Midge remarried Joel because she told him when they were sailing a boat together in Miami.
In an interview on WTF with Marc Maron on Thursday (May 25), the show's creator-writer-producer-director shared her thoughts on why Maisel had to end, blaming the financial priorities of the streaming platform. “It wasn't me. But things come to an end,” said Sherman-Palladino.
Because Midge and Joel never got back together on-screen, it would make sense that he wouldn't live with her and so wouldn't appear in those final scenes. Additionally, Midge's picture may just be a nod to how much they still care about each other, even decades later.
Midge feels betrayed by her manager, who lied to her about being square with the mob, and the two argue about everything from Susie booking Midge at casinos to pay off her own gambling debts to how they were never really friends.
Midge Maisel and Joel Maisel have a relationship in Amazon Prime's The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. The two were married four years before the main chronology of The Marvelous Mrs.Maisel, although they are currently, as of Season 4, twice divorced but have reminded friendly.
Susie wears one piece of jewelry, a key, around her neck, which Zakowska says was Borstein's idea and is meant to be the key to the Gaslight. Zakowska explains that her designs for Susie stemmed from a desire to create strong contrast and tension between her and Midge.
What was most remarkable about that episode was how expertly they danced around Susie explicitly acknowledging her queerness when simply doing the gay dance would've been so much easier, and made so much more sense. Still, for many, that episode was the confirmation they needed that Susie is a hom*osexual.
However, when Shy Baldwin rings Midge and asks her to be his opening act on tour, she abruptly ends her engagement to Benjamin with a letter. The rising comedian leaves for a six-month tour, carelessly breaking Benjamin's heart.
Maisel" — marvelous doesn't seem strong enough — was inspired by the life and career of the equally formidable Joan Rivers. The show also features sometimes-oblique references to a variety of real-world figures, from Lenny Bruce to Moms Mabley to Harry Belafonte.
A notable mutual friend Joan Rivers and Midge would have had in common was legendary Jewish comedian Lenny Bruce. Unlike on the show, Bruce and Rivers were not intimately involved, but the “godfather of standup” was a huge inspiration for her.
Also, I was re-watching the finale and I noticed that the view from Midge's office window (when discussing her schedule and that 'free Tuesday' with Delia) suggests that her apartment is on the site of the Plaza (or is in the Plaza building) as you can clearly see The Pierre and the Sherry Netherland buildings behind ...
Maisel is his death. The series concludes in the year 2005, which would put Midge and Joel in their 70s. In this way, it's very possible that Joel passed away of natural causes relating to his age in the final scenes of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 5.
TVLINE | All of the show's series regulars were present for the big, climactic Gordon Ford Show sequence with the exception of Kevin Pollak. It was explained that Moishe was still recovering from the mishap in the bathroom, but his absence still felt somewhat conspicuous.
It's hard to name a single influence for Shy Baldwin (Leroy McClain). Co-writer Daniel Sherman said (via Parade) “We were inspired by a lot of African American crooners at the time, like Johnny Mathis.” However, Harry Bellafonte is another real person with whom Shy shares similarities.
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