If the first season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel was all about the personal and professional journies undertaken by Miriam “Midge” Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan), then Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 2, which is now streaming on Amazon Prime, is all about how her actions affect everyone around her. Or, as actor Tony Shalhoub put it in a previous Metro interview, it’s all about the “ripple effects.” The creative team behind the series, Amy Sherman-Palladino and Dan Palladino, couldn’t agree more.
“There’s going to be many worlds and voices out there. It’s not just a one-woman show,” says Sherman-Palladino, who also created the hit series Gilmore Girls.
“It’s a wonderful thing to be able to say that we have a buddy comedy relationship in this show. We have a broken romance, a mother-daughter thing and father-son issues. It allows us to deal with so much more story, if everybody is developed and given a road to go on. It’s also a way to make sure that the show stays fresh and interesting, and it allows us to visually go to so many different places. That way, it’s not just the same thing over and over again.”
Amy Sherman-Palladino and Dan Palladino talk Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 2
“We didn’t want people to go into this thinking, ‘I am following Midge and everyone else is just a satellite that’s surrounding her, so I don’t care as much,’” adds Palladino. “We really wanted everybody to care about them as much as they care about her, so we set up scenes highlighting Alex Borstein and Tony Shalhoub and Marin Hinkle and Michael Zegen. Scenes away from Rachel Brosnahan, because we wanted to tell the audience there were going to be other stories here besides Midge’s trying to become a stand-up comic.”
All of this should be a given, of course, as no matter how spectacular a show’s titular character is, it cannot survive without the character and stories that make up the rest of its episode count. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is no different. Yes, Midge’s efforts to try and balance her new life as a single mother and potential divorcé with her comedic aspirations makes for compelling television. (After all, the show won numerous awards for its first season.) But what about the struggles encountered (and created) by her estranged husband, Joel? Her mother Rose’s unhappiness with the state of her marriage? And her father, Abe’s sudden realization that his life isn’t pristine?
All of this makes for excellent comedic and dramatic television, given the right combination of producers, writers and performers, and the husband-and-wife team behind The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel has managed to pull it off without a hitch.
“We have really been careful to explore separate stories for everyone, while always making sure to wrap them around Midge, or be caused by Midge, in some way,” Palladino concludes. “They’re all such great actors in their own right. I think we have several people who could lead their own shows, really.”
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 2 is now streaming on Amazon Prime.
