The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Review

Midge Maisel's husband walks out, she gets drunk, takes the stage at a Greenwich Village club and brings the house down, and Amy Sherman-Palladino's comedy runs on the fizz of that first night for five seasons. Rachel Brosnahan plays Midge as a force of breezy confidence, and the performance won her an Emmy and two Golden Globes. Alex Borstein's gruff manager Susie and Tony Shalhoub's put-upon father Abe are just as good, and both won Emmys too. The first season took the Emmy for outstanding comedy, the first streaming series to do so.

It is also one of the most lavish productions of its era. New York in the late fifties arrives in candy colours, full-skirted costumes and long, gliding shots through department stores, delis and nightclubs, and the design is praised as loudly as the cast.

The rapid patter that is Sherman-Palladino's signature is both its engine and its weakness. The jokes land, but conversations loop, and the plotting drifts: the third season goes on tour without much direction, and the fourth loses focus altogether. Critics also note that its view of the era rarely leaves a comfortable, wealthy bubble. The final season, with its leaps forward in time, recovers much of the spark and gives Midge an ending worthy of the opening.