When we return to the “present,” we glimpse Midge at least trying to help her 6-year-old son out of his bed-hopping habit. This whole sequence is just another sad reminder of the consequences of fame. We also meet Ethan’s tough-as-nails fiancée, Chava, who immediately sees through Midge’s superficial nature: “I don’t like her,” she says bluntly. I don’t blame him, considering his mother only showed up to guilt her son into showing his face at a UJA Federation ceremony where she’s being honored that night in Tel Aviv.

He never went to college, he’s allegedly been in rabbinical school for years, and he’s not too thrilled when Midge obnoxiously lands her helicopter in the middle of the kibbutz’s lettuce farm.

In 1984, Ethan Maisel is a 29-year-old yarmulke-wearing resident of an Israeli kibbutz (an agrarian commune). Plus a lonely Ethan has started sleeping in her bed.Ĭut to another flash-forward, where we learn that Midge isn’t estranged only from Esther. We will get to 1961, I promise.Īnyway, Midge has hit another rough patch both personally and professionally: She’s yet to get one joke into Gordon’s monologue, and she’s reminded of that failure every day (there’s a writers’-room chalkboard where everyone tallies their jokes). Mentions of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and JFK being elected but not yet inaugurated set the first couple of Maisel episodes in late 1960, not 1961. Quick timeline side note: I know the series has been setting the main storyline in a generic 1961 from the start of the season, but I’m disregarding that decision. Midge has been on staff at The Gordon Ford Show for a month now, putting us somewhere in either late December 1960 or early January 1961. “Typos and Torsos” is the weakest installment of the new season’s three-episode debut because it’s caught in that unavoidable transition phase where it’s trying to do too much: Wrap up old storylines (Rose’s matchmaking war), pursue new ones (Midge fighting for respect at The Gordon Ford Show Ethan’s childhood neglect affecting him in adulthood), and cram in annoying subplots (anything Moishe and Shirley). Maisel’s final season to be a Succession-like game changer, I’ve got some bad news for you. If you were expecting the third episode of The Marvelous Mrs. Photo: Philippe Antonello/Prime Video/Philippe Antonello/Prime Video

George barris photography