THE EXTRA MILE (THE MARVELOUS MRS MAISEL)

© Amazon Prime

After giving us four sprightly seasons of 'The Marvelous Maisel,' this is it for one of Amazon Prime's most treasured shows.

A Golden Globe and Primetime Emmy winner for Best Comedy, its stars Rachel Brosnahan, Alex Borstein, Tony Shalhoub and Luke Kirby have during its run picked up either or both awards for their performances on the show.

And if that wasn't enough, it also landed Emmys for its creator, Amy Sherman-Palladino for directing and writing.

In spite of all this, Sherman-Palladino has decided to call time on the comedy drama and you can kind of understand why.

© Amazon Prime

After four mostly upbeat seasons, it feels like the right time to say goodbye.

Season Four showed signs that the story of Midge Maisel and her tough talking manager Susie Myerson was running out of road.

After all, how long can you get away with a show charting the ups and downs of a gifted comedian before it eventually becomes one note? 

With nine more episodes, all Sherman-Palladino has to do is deliver a fitting and satisfactory last hurrah.

The last season begins not as you might expect.

© Amazon Prime

You may be prepping for Brosnahan's Midge Maisel in JFK's America, working her way through the standup comedy circuit.

Instead you're taken to 1981 with Midge's 23 year old daughter and MIT PhD student, Alexandra Socha's Esther ranting to her therapist about her mother.

This penchant for time travelling becomes a bit of a habit throughout the last season, as Sherman-Palladino ping between the 1960s and glimpses of Midge's future.

Audiences are taken in another flash forward in episode two to an interview with Mike Wallace '60 Minutes' which reveals how big a star she has become but also that she has had a bitter falling out with Alex Borstein's Susie who is no longer her manager.

In another flash forward later in the season we found out why.

© Amazon Prime

There's also a trip in the prologue to the third episode to a kibbutz in 1984 where Midge's 29 year old son, Ben Rosenfield's Ethan is studying to be a rabbi and is engaged to a hardass ex Israeli soldier who disapproves of his mother's showbiz lifestyle.

Episode Five shows Midge visiting her husband Joel in prison in 1989, armed with a stack of signed photographs.

All of these flashforwards show a real narrative ambition from Sherman-Palladino and her fellow screenwriters, her husband Daniel Palladino and Isaac Oliver, as they frantically try to complete the portrait of Midge's life.

But while playing with the narrative structure is commendable, the gamble doesn't always pay off.

It can sometimes be jarring, disrupting the flow of a show which has always prided itself in its smooth storytelling and screwball comedy patter.

© Amazon Prime

Focusing on the 1960s plot, the fifth season begins with Midge recovering from hypothermia after walking home in a snowstorm and almost losing a toe.

Realising she cannot continue refusing to be an opener for other showbiz acts if she wants to progress her career, she continues to crack jokes in between striptease routines at the Wolford Burlesque Club.

Opportunity knocks when the renowned talk show host, Reid Scott's Gordon Ford and his showbiz booker, Jason Ralph's Mike Carr drop into the club.

This enables Susie to aggressively lobby them to get a female writer on the show and hire Midge which Ford duly does.

However the writers room is packed full of disillusioned male comics and she initially struggles to get even one gag on air.

© Amazon Prime

In typical Midge fashion, she eventually wins her fellow writers over but soon faces another obstacle in the development of her career, realising that Ford has another self imposed rule that forbids any of the writers from appearing on the show.

Meanwhile Michael Zengen's Joel is devastated when his pregnant Chinese girlfriend, Stephanie Hsu's Mei Linn leaves him to pursue a medical career in Chicago.

Not only that but his parents, Caroline Aaron's Shirley Maisel and Kevin Pollak's Moishe have decided to split up.

Moishe and Shirley subsequently embarrass him by separately turning up at his supper club and loudly complaining to guests about each others' foibles.

Joel also continues to take an interest in Midge's career and becomes concerned about some of the company Susie keeps and how it may be impacting his ex-wife's career.

© Amazon Prime

Meanwhile Midge's mum, Marin Hinkle's Rose Weissman is still battling rival matchmakers in New York from various ethnic groups and suspects they are sabotaging her - even burning down her beloved tea house.

Her husband, Tony Shalhoub's Abe is continuing to write theatre reviews for The Village Voice but is rattled when Rose demonstrates how he has spectacularly misjudged a play about a boy and his dog in Dublin.

He becomes particularly fixated on his grandchildren, trying to figure out why Midge's son Ethan is not being singled out for his ability in school and becomes increasingly mesmerised by Esther.

Susie's showbiz agency is thriving and she continues to go the extra mile for Midge and her other clients.

However a past romance is revealed which almost impairs her ability to fully bat for Midge.

© Amazon Prime

At the heart of 'The Marvelous Mrs Maisel' has always been a feminist tale about women who are really good at what they do but have to fight hard in a male dominated world to get recognition for it.

Both Susie but particularly Midge are rebuffed at times, patronised, pigeonholed and ultimately have to take risks and break the rules to propel their careers.

There's a pivotal, well written face off in Manhattan's Grand Central Station in the penultimate episode that really gets to the heart of this theme.

However those nuggets are all too brief in an uneven run of episodes.

But just when you fear that Sherman-Palladino, her writers and fellow directors - Daniel Palladino, Daisy von Scherler Mayer and Scott Ellis - may have bitten off more than they can chew, the show somehow recovers its mojo in a glorious final episode.

© Amazon Prime

As we hurtle in the ninth episode towards a breakthrough moment that will turbo-charge Midge's comedy career, Brosnahan's sparkle suddenly returns and the script rediscovers what made the show fizz in the previous seasons.

Throughout Season Five, Borstein, Zengen and Shalhoub remain strong cards for the show.

Hinkle, Pollak and Aaron, however, falter thanks to mostly flat scripts.

There are all too fleeting cameos too for Jane Lynch and David Paymer's characters, Midge's comedy nemesis Sophie Lennon and Susie's eventual showbiz agent mentor Harry Drake.

After building up her relationship with Joel for two seasons, Stephanie Hsu's Mei Linn is also disappointingly discarded after episode one which seems a bit of a waste.

© Amazon Prime

Luke Kirby's Lenny Bruce, who has always been a standup comedy Yoda to Midge's Skywalker, again flits in and out of the narrative and eventually gets a chance to dazzle at the end as his character's fortune slide.

Justine Lupe continues to amuse as Astrid, Midge's sister in law who has converted to Judaism, while Matilda Szydagis raises the odd smile as the Weissmans' maid, Zelda finds love.

Erik Palladino and John Scurti continue to bring an amusing Scorsese Wiseguy vibe to the show as the low level hoods, Frank and Nick.

As for the characters given more prominent roles, Scott is excellent as the arrogant, occasionally charming and, at times, petty chat show host Gordon Ford - giving him a smooth George Clooney quality.

Ralph is wonderfully prickly as his show's ambitious showbiz booker, while Peter Friedman joins Lupe from the set of 'Succession' to play a pompous producer of the show, George Toledano. 

© Amazon Prime

Emily Bergl makes an amusing return as Susie's sister in another flash forward, while Nina Arianda is handed a peach of a role.

As final seasons go, the fifth season of 'The Marvelous Mrs Maisel' feels a little but like the last season of 'The Wire' - not quite up to the high standard of the previous ones.

Guest stars like Milo Ventimiglia and Hank Azaria come and go but some narrative opportunities feel like they have been missed.

A scene where Princess Margaret pretends to do a weather reporter on 'The Gordon Ford Show' while engaging in banter with the host just doesn't convince.

© Amazon Prime

As a show, it will be remembered as an entertaining watch and a welcome respite from the diet of hard hitting, dramas about people treating other people horribly.

After a final season where you fear it might have lost its way, at least Sherman-Palladino somehow manages to gets back on track by delivering a satisfying, amusing finale.

It ends with a hearty cackle and who would begrudge that?

(Season Five of 'The Marvelous Mrs Maisel' was made available for streaming on Amazon Prime between April 14-May 26, 2023)