(Also not to shabby for something I just scrambled down in a semi-script-looking font, printed out, stuck to my wall, took a photo of and posted here.)
((Also note the first L in Lenny that I had to fill in with pen because my printer was running out of ink lol))
its four am and i still can't get over midgelenny like that is seriously one of the most emotional and moving dynamics i can think of in recent media by a long shot and still they were like never mind
It feels like every other week, someone makes a post, lamenting that the fic writers for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel missed the point of the show and we focus too much on the Midge x Lenny romance and not enough on Susie/Midge or Midge's success without a man.
And I feel like I need those people to understand that if we've missed those big points (we haven't. It's just that Midge x Lenny are fun and real life is hard and this is a hobby), then they have maybe missed the other big points of the last season:
1. Midge failed in every aspect of her life but comedy. Sophie was a cautionary tale she did not heed. "All Alone" was a cautionary tale turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy. She drove her children away, which means it is unlikely she has a close relationship with her grandchildren. Her best friend is 3000 miles away. She has a string of failed marriages. She has celebrity "friends" who likely don't know her as a real person.
Midge has comedy and a half-hour phone call with Susie every day. That's not a happy ending. For a woman that so valued connection and family for the whole series, that's fucking sad. If she had ever expressed a desire to be alone, it wouldn't be. We know it's not what she wanted. It's sad.
2. The season 5 flashforwards are, largely, about unexplored, unacknowledged grief, and the narrative tries to make it seem like no big deals. Lenny dies in '66. Rose dies in 'in the mid-70's. She loses Abe, and likely Noah. Moishe and Shirley. Joel dies in '04. Again, she drove her kids away, whom she did love and tried hard for even if she wasn't mother of the year. We dont get to explore her falling out with Susie in any real way and the grief in that. The grief of so much failed love. We never get to explore any of those things with Midge. The narrative intoduces these ideas and then moves on, asking us to shrug those things off, but how do we do that? Surely Midge wouldn't, and didn't, but we're asked to just keep it moving, as if these things don't deserve more time.
Instead, we get to see a whole season of boring late night drivel along with these underdeveloped snippets of future we're asked to shrug off because "Midge did it!! She doesn't need a man!!!!!!"
And in the meantime, she ends the series with...nobody. nothing but Susie's disembodied voice over the phone.
And if the entire point of the show was for Midge to end it lonely in her fame, what the hell was all of it for?
So on point! I've been thinking about the ending of the marvelous mrs maisel for a few days myself, and every time I'm just left feeling confused. Because what was the point of the show? What was I as a viewer meant to take from this?
That women can't have it all? That I, as a woman, have to choose between a successful career and love? That I shouldn't go into comedy/show biz because I'll just end up alone? That love/friendship doesn't matter as long as I have a successful career?
In hindsight I think the Midge x Lenny romance was the only good thing that came out of the marvelous mrs maisel.
Also, don't come for the fic writers, they are literally saving lives over here. I read everything Midge x Lenny related and they always make my day a little bit better to the point where I kinda forget what's canon and what's fiction anymore lol.
NAH I AM getting teary eyed over Midge and LENNY COME ON
it's that damn song it set me off and other things but I JUST WANTED MIDGE AND LENNY TO BE HAPPY
WHY WERE THEY SO BEAUTIFUL and CUTE only for it to end as sad as it did (AND I KNOW WHY, "he's BASED ON REAL LIFE of Lenny and Lenny's ending is sad etc etc." I HAVE HEARD IT ALL FOLKS SO DON'T BOTHER)
But if they didn't want to make him in any shape form romantic TOWARDS MIDGE
WHY GIVE US THIS
and this
and this
and thisssssssssssss
BUT ALSO YOU KNOW THE BONUS INTIMACY that was not necessary if Lenny was just a guiding light and a tragic tale of stardom..
BTW extremely happy with the story of Susie and Midge that ending was beautiful and them. But just hearing that song...all the feels that I suppressed came back and I don't understand why Midge could not have it all. But I forgot once again women can't ok cool
but in fiction let me dream a little please sigh
It seems I am hurting way too much to even entertain the morning show season 3 :L :
I'd rather have a thousand "OHMIGOD WE WERE RIGHT!!!" theory confirmed moments where due to good storytelling and foreshadowing the audience was able to figure out parts of the future plot than just one more stupid twist that makes no narrative sense to avoid being "predictable".
If people knowing anything about your plot spoils the show entirely maybe it's just no good lmao.
It's not worth ruining your narrative themes and character integrity just so everyone is shocked. Sometimes twists that have been guessed .... Are better.
This is why not all stories are good stories. They're only as good as the writer.
As a writer, you want to leave just enough clues without spoiling anything so that the reader/viewer can pick up on it and try and solve it for themselves.
G.R.R. Martin is an expert at this. He said something like:
"If you have planned in your book that the butler did it and then change it midstream that it was the maid who did it, then you screw up the whole book. Because then you have all these clues that you've planted that are now dead ends and it's a mess."
This obviously apply to stories told in all formats, not just books.
Can people stop hating on why we love fictional Lenny so much for two seconds? I'm sorry, but how does my character preferences affect you in any way?
"Susie is Midge's soulmate, they made it obvious in the finale."
First of all: You can have more than one soulmate. There is something called a "soul tribe" that are the souls that you where ment to find in your lifetime(s) on earth. Some might be romantic but others are just going to be platonic. That doesn't mean that you will love them any less.
Second: That's not the point. No one here is upset about how tmmm ended because Midge and Susie "ended up together". I applaud that ending. It's exactly how I want me and my bestie to be when we grow old.
We're mad because they didn't give Midge and Lenny's story the proper send off that it deserved. Just like Midge and Susie, Midge and Lenny were friends. Just like Susie, Lenny understood Midge on a deeper level. Just like Susie, Lenny unapologetically believed in Midge from the start. And they literally just wrote him off to write him off. They slept together, he yelled at her on stage, and then for some reason it was good bye forever. It was poorly done and wasn't satisfying in the least. And we're allowed to be mad about it. Especially if you consider that Lenny Bruce was a real person who's legacy deserve to be treated with more respect. That scene in the beginning of the finale episode was completely unnecessary and made me so sad and angry.
"But the marvelous mrs maisel isn't about romance."
Then why did we even get to follow Midge and Lenny's slow burn romantic journey in the first place? Why did we get to see her with benjamin? And her on and off relationship with Joel? To fill out some episodes? To make Midge realize that she's fine on her own and doesn't need a man in her life?
Girl's been married three times after that, so no. We didn't get any of that. So I will say that yes, up until the final season, it was very much about romance.
"But Lenny was a real person so he and Midge can never be together."
It's. Fucking. Fiction. Mate.
They can be anything anyone can imagine. Yes, Lenny was a real person but I think we've established by now that Lenny in the show is a fictionallized/romanticized version of the real Lenny Bruce. Guess what? Midge isn't real. Suave, romantic, heartthrob Lenny isn't real. The marvelous mrs maisel isn't a bio pic. It's a tv show. They VERY MUCH could've ended up together. It would've made sense for the story and the characters. This show was Midge's rose coloured world, her perfume scented universe. Anything IS actually possible in fiction.
Because the Midge x Lenny shippers, largely, are writing fix it fic and analyzing what didn’t seem to work about the final season and the fact that one of our faves was treated poorly, and...keeping to ourselves, really.
Finished season five of The Marvelous Mrs. Meisel last night and I'm still mad about it. It was so so bad. What a disgrace of a season to finish an amazing, incredible show with.
I was watching the season 5 finale with my mum a few days past and my mum, who usually doesn't pick up in these things because she's usually just happy to be along for the ride, said efter the final episode had finished: "That was an odd way to wrap things up. They should make another season because that didn't feel finished at all."
I was like "YES, THANK YOU!" When even my dense mum picks up how terrible a season is written, you know it's BAD.
Haha, I love it when non-fandom obsessed people pick up on something like that, you feel so validated lol.
But it’s a weird one: In one way, the whole of s5 felt like one long final episode, but at the same time, it didn’t feel properly wrapped up at all? idk, maybe it’s my Lenny loving heart that feels cheated for getting so little of him. 😩
Definetly the Lenny-thing, lol! But season 5 to me just felt like filler. Like ASP had alot of ideas that she wanted to do and decided to make season 5 all of that without regard for the story that had been told so far or the characters development. To me, season 5 felt like a continuation of where season 2 left of, but since season 3 and 4 already happened, where the characters matured a bit (and Midge got romantically involved with Lenny, and Joel with Mei), it felt like backtracking and made no sense whatsoever for the story or the characters at that point.
I mean, the main plot this season was: Ep 1: Midge gets a job at the Gordon Ford show. Ep 9. Midge hijacks the mic at the Gordon Ford show.
That was it. It took her an entire season to just do what she has been doing this entire show - which is tracking down a mic and talk into it in front of people.
Great storytelling, ASP. Kisses, kisses. Applauds, applauds.
You’re so right. The Gordon Ford performance was very anti-climacteric to me. I would have much preferred to see Midge go, “Fuck Gordon Ford, I don’t need him” before going on to kill it on another chat show; that, to me, would be much more in the spirit of the person she had become.
It definitely felt like ASP backtracked on the emotional maturity the characters had gained: Don’t even get me started on the redemption of Joel and the fact Midge is suddenly hung up on him again after moving on and away from his toxic behaviour pre-s5. 😒
Agree 100%! That sleesy ass Gordon character didn't deserve to be the one to break her at all.
Joel was definitely my least favourite character this whole show. Mei was the only thing that in my oppinion made him interesting because she helped with his character development. And by this, he became somewhat decent and likeable.
So yes, they definitely ruined his charater as well. And the whole Midge/Joel thing never made sense to me. He asked if he could come back, she said no because he left, but then they still boned a couple of times, got divorced, got married again, got divorced again (??) and all of a sudden, in the finale episode, he was the "one that got away"? Like excuse me, Midge ma'm, you didn't want him back, remember? And if they still had feelings for each other then why did Midge get married to three other random men?? MAKE IT MAKE SENSE.
Also, Joel taking a bullet for Midge wasn't in my opinion even a redemption arc. We had already established that Midge wants someone who listens to her, but when she told Joel to stay out of the gangster-business, he completely ignored her and went on to do it anyway. HOW was that meant to redeem him? How about him showing Midge that he actually respects her by listening to her wishes for once? This is why Midge and Lenny makes more sense to me. Because Lenny respects Midge and treats her like an actual person.
Also in the "big fight scene" (That was just ridiculous) between Midge and Susie (in '85 I believe?) Midge says something about Susie getting her alot of gigs in casinos that was allegedly owned by the mafia, so Joel giving himself up to the gangsters didn't even change anything in the end?
Can people stop hating on why we love fictional Lenny so much for two seconds? I'm sorry, but how does my character preferences affect you in any way?
"Susie is Midge's soulmate, they made it obvious in the finale."
First of all: You can have more than one soulmate. There is something called a "soul tribe" that are the souls that you where ment to find in your lifetime(s) on earth. Some might be romantic but others are just going to be platonic. That doesn't mean that you will love them any less.
Second: That's not the point. No one here is upset about how tmmm ended because Midge and Susie "ended up together". I applaud that ending. It's exactly how I want me and my bestie to be when we grow old.
We're mad because they didn't give Midge and Lenny's story the proper send off that it deserved. Just like Midge and Susie, Midge and Lenny were friends. Just like Susie, Lenny understood Midge on a deeper level. Just like Susie, Lenny unapologetically believed in Midge from the start. And they literally just wrote him off to write him off. They slept together, he yelled at her on stage, and then for some reason it was good bye forever. It was poorly done and wasn't satisfying in the least. And we're allowed to be mad about it. Especially if you consider that Lenny Bruce was a real person who's legacy deserve to be treated with more respect. That scene in the beginning of the finale episode was completely unnecessary and made me so sad and angry.
"But the marvelous mrs maisel isn't about romance."
Then why did we even get to follow Midge and Lenny's slow burn romantic journey in the first place? Why did we get to see her with benjamin? And her on and off relationship with Joel? To fill out some episodes? To make Midge realize that she's fine on her own and doesn't need a man in her life?
Girl's been married three times after that, so no. We didn't get any of that. So I will say that yes, up until the final season, it was very much about romance.
"But Lenny was a real person so he and Midge can never be together."
It's. Fucking. Fiction. Mate.
They can be anything anyone can imagine. Yes, Lenny was a real person but I think we've established by now that Lenny in the show is a fictionallized/romanticized version of the real Lenny Bruce. Guess what? Midge isn't real. Suave, romantic, heartthrob Lenny isn't real. The marvelous mrs maisel isn't a bio pic. It's a tv show. They VERY MUCH could've ended up together. It would've made sense for the story and the characters. This show was Midge's rose coloured world, her perfume scented universe. Anything IS actually possible in fiction.
jbbartram-illu
izzy806
pixelskylines
discoholicmusic
tangentwithtanner
prguitarman
