"Amazing Mrs. Meisel." Why do not miss the series about a girl who decided to become a stand-uper in New York of the 1950s

The Amazing Mrs. Meisel is the most optimistic and easy series of 2017 and one of the brightest Amazon projects. The show tells about the housewife Miriam Midge Meisel, who is waiting for success at the stand-up scene. The film critic Egor Moskvitin advises to see the "amazing Mrs. Meisel" to everyone who has not yet done this.

"Amazing Mrs. Meisel" - what is it about?

New York, indecently expensive apartments in the upper East Side, a man and a woman, two children. The man is provided with a family for life and therefore absorbed in his hobby - stand -up. A woman jokes better than he, but is content with the role of muses and housewives. Half Series passes and it turns out that the hero steals the scenes of real comedians and sleeps with the secretary. The heroine, not really realizing that she was disappointed more - mediocrity or infidelity, drinks too much alcohol and goes in search of an open microphone.

An important nuance: in the yard of 1958, the heroes are the offspring of two very correct and respected Jewish families, women on a comedic stage are not yet happy, and the police still do not really understand why these stand -ups are needed.

This story is contrary to the trend

Almost all the noticeable series of the outgoing year, built around female characters, are one way or another the harsh dramas in which the heroines resisted the cruel world. The exceptions were on Netflix-a dashing entrepreneurial comedy “GirlBoss” and an amazing “shine” (Glow) dedicated to the female res of the 1980s. But the pretty “boss” did not save from closing even the producing patronage of Charlize Theron, and the “shine”, apparently, was extended for the second season after quite long thoughts. The usual requirement for series with decisive heroines - they must suffer, not laugh; So it was in the “big little lies”, and in “good struggle”, and in the “gypsy”, and at once in two adaptations of Margaret Etwood - “The story of the maid” and “She is also Grace”.

The "amazing Mrs. Meisel" is striking primarily with its ease. The heroine in the first performance opens up a talent for stand -up and succeeds - while comedians from the series “I die with laughter” are continuously tormented by doubts. The husband, who leaves Mrs. Meisel, is not particularly needed (such a consensus of spectators)-this girl certainly will not disappear. And the ease with which she combines the upbringing of two children and shoots from the police station, and completely deprives the series of the slightest acuteness. This is a fairy tale that everything will be fine - exactly what the audience expects at the end of the year.

And this is the triumph of Rachel Brosnahn

All of the above does not mean that the leading actress does not require serious dramatic talent. Despite its comforting intonation, the series once or two per episode makes the viewer very painfully. Usually this happens during stand -ups that begin with jokes, and end with frank conversations that happiness is a chimera. Actress Rachel Brosnahn, who is known mainly by the role of a dedicated prostitute from the “Card House”, quickly turns from a comic hero into a tragic one. In one scene, she radiates optimism and will to life - and already in the next looks like the hero of the Fibi Bufo song from “Friends”.

In general, Brosnaeen manages to be the prima of the musical in the series, in which there are no musical numbers. This is an inconspicuous acting at first glance, requiring special motor skills. In the “Amazing Mrs. Misele” there are scenes of passages in the areas of New York, shot in the style of “Wesets History”: the heroine is coming, and the gray streets around her seem to be painted in bright colors. Maesel spent half a life in captivity of glossy dreams: she lived in the upper East Side, studied Russian literature, decorated the apartment and changed outfits. Her clashes with the real world in another series could turn into a set of tedious sketches, but here this experience from a reason for jokes is transformed into a certain life strategy: decorate and reign.

Everyone likes the series

On the Rotten Tomatoes website, the show retains the rating of 95% of critics and 97% of the audience - this is even more than “Very strange things”. And the pilot of the series on the Internet service Amazon scored 4.9 out of 5 points from users-and the channel for the first time in history signed a contract with the showranins for two seasons at once.

In the theater and cinema, such projects are called the term “Crowd -ple -ple”-they usually call films and performances that everyone resolutely likes (La La Lada ”or the coming“ greatest showman ”with Hugh Jackman). With the “amazing Mrs. Misele” the same story: she cannot but fall in love with the viewer. The inspiring plot, thin humor, knocking down dramatic inserts, the brightest star, a coordinated acting ensemble and decorations, as if borrowed from the films of Wes Anderson. And showranners who know how to dispose of such wealth.

Showranners should be said in more detail

The tragicomedy about how the general passion for creativity could not save marriage was invented by real husband and wife. Showranner Amy Sherman-Palladino and her husband Daniel Palladino are known primarily by the series “Gilmore Girls”-perhaps the best game of the game in the mother-mother on television. Amy's horse is witty dialogs in which one hero is responsible for the drama, and the other for a comedy. In the “Amazing Mrs. Meisel” there are at least five characters who are ready to joke tirelessly while the central heroes pour out their souls: these are their parents and a habalka from the bar, trying to become an agent of artists. The playing it Alex Borshtein is the same find as the Ferrell Contain, depicting a grumbling housekeeper in “two and a half men”.

The talent of Daniel, the producer of the animated series "Gryffins", is, apparently, that the playwright of the show remains stable and uniform. In the first season, “Amazing Mrs. Meisel” there are no passing episodes - this is a very even narrative, which, incidentally, only for predictability and scold - there are no other shortcomings in it.

What else needs to be known?

It seems that nothing: the “amazing Mrs. Meisel” is good precisely by its frivolity, and all attempts to find a hidden meaning in it is akin to the desire to give the weight of something airy and easy so that it does not disappear. This is not a turning point in the fate of Amazon, not a serious costume drama (even if the heroes had prototypes in real life), not the comedy of the year (this title is “enmity”) and not the most likely contender for the next “Emmy” - although it is worth holding the fists for Brosnand. Not another great series, but just a pleasant intrigue. But after her everyone will remember.

Egor Moskvitin