The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel feels like it's walking in circles at the start of Season 4

Rolling Stone

"Late in the second episode of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel‘s new season, the show’s title character — Miriam 'Midge' Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan), a housewife-turned-comedian in the late Fifties and now early Sixties — gets kicked out of a nightclub for upstaging the male acts who got booked instead of her," says Alan Sepinwall. "Drunk and bitter on the sidewalk, she rants about trying to give people a good time, and approaches would-be patrons with the offer to perform for them for money. The cops misunderstand what she’s saying and arrest Midge for solicitation, while her aghast manager Susie (Alex Borstein) groans, 'F*cking here we go again!' Susie remembers very well that Midge’s very first public comedy performance ended in arrest — that time it was for drunkenly flashing the audience — so she can’t be blamed for rolling her eyes at her client/friend/royal-pain-in-the-keister getting into the same kind of trouble years after they started down this road together. Nor can Marvelous Mrs. Maisel fans be blamed for feeling just as exasperated by how much the start of this new season feels like the series wandering in circles."

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• Mrs. Maisel is more exhausting than ever: "Watching season four of Mrs. Maisel is like watching the series from the beginning again—a thrill to those who have adored the frantic, dazzling energy of the series, or the instigator of a full-blown allergy attack for those who found the show to be grating, cloying, and chaotic," says Kevin Fallon. "The main difference this time around is that there is So. Much. Plot. Beyond Midge’s career woes, there’s Susie’s implication in insurance fraud, her seedy financial arrangement with Joel, Joel’s efforts to open a nightclub in Chinatown with criminal landlords, his secret new relationship, Abe’s new job at the Village Voice, Susie’s lingering business with Sophie Lennon, and the insistence on somehow, for some reason, shoehorning Joel’s parents into all of this."
• Mrs. Maisel kicks off Season 4 feeling like it's in a time loop: "Maisel feels caught in a time loop, treading water while it waits to start its next phase in earnest," says Proma Khosla. "The two episodes now streaming tease meager hints of narrative direction, but they take their sweet time getting there." Khosla adds: "Instead of releasing all eps at once like the previous seasons' premieres, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 4 will debut new episodes weekly. So, critics were only sent two for review. Although not much happens in these, chances are that you don’t watch Maisel for its dense plot. You watch for the rhythm of Sherman-Palladino’s writing, for Brosnahan and Borstein’s rapport, for Midge’s dazzling outfits, and her mic-stand takedowns of anyone who steps in her way. On that front, Season 4 delivers all, the equivalent of a homemade brisket drawn out into weekly bites."
• Mrs. Maisel Season 4 reminds viewers that the chief pleasure of watching the series is that it is extraordinarily fun: "Each entry is not just a cornucopia of vintage visual delights, including fabulous clothes and vibrant scenery, but a near constant stream of witty banter, especially between Midge and Susie (Alex Borstein)," says Arielle Bernstein. "Each 53-minute episode seems to pass in the blink of an eye, even if we might want to linger on each gorgeous New York City landscape for just a moment longer. While the show’s attention to detail is breathtaking in its sheer beauty, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel also presents a romanticized vision of mid-20th-century Jewish identity that, at times, seems to be just as much of a costume as Midge’s vintage hair and makeup."
• Season 4 feels like a reset after a tumultuous end to Season 3: "It’s hard not to be a hair underwhelmed by how frequently these episodes elicit reactions not of pleasure or amusement but of 'Why are we back to this again?'" says Daniel Fienberg. "It’s only at the end of the second episode — two is the fewest sent to critics preseason since the show launched — that I got any sense of the show moving forward, rather than dancing in circles so dainty that Midge Maisel would absolutely find much to mock. Or maybe it just makes sense that when it comes to Midge’s season three actions, a reset would be a character-appropriate consequence? One step forward, two steps back, and whatnot?"
• Mrs. Maisel remains wildly watchable: "Rachel Brosnahan imbues Midge with as much blinding charisma as ever," says Jennifer Keishin Armstrong. "This is crucial, not only because she’s the lead, but because this series loves its lead even more than most series love their leads. So much of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel has literally been about how marvelous she is — she’s a comedic genius! And gorgeous! And dresses perfectly! And wins all the games at the Catskills resort! That’s why it’s so helpful to start this season at her first real low. The setup gives her someplace new to go this season: She has purchased her former apartment — the one she shared with ex-husband, Joel (Michael Zegen) — for herself and moved her parents in with her. Now she must rebuild her career with this added responsibility."
• Rachel Brosnahan hopes Season 4 captures the joy of the cast returning to work after a long hiatus: "I just hope that we are able to capture even a little bit of how it felt for us to come back after so long away," she says. "It was pure joy despite difficult circumstances and it felt like even just a small bit of normalcy infused back into our lives. So I hope that in addition to many laughs and beautiful clothes... that that's something that we can give back to the fans after so much time."
• Amy Sherman-Palladino on adding Gilmore Girls alums Milo Ventimiglia and Kelly Bishop to Season 4: "There is a Milo effect when you have Milo on the set," Sherman-Palladino told Variety on its Awards Circuit podcast. "Everything just seems a little more livelier and more colorful and everyone seems a little happier and birds will help you get dressed in the morning and he's just a lovely, darling guy, and we just enjoy having him around. And Kelly is my girl."
• Brosnahan says Season 4 is about Midge carving out her own space within an industry that there's not space being made for her in: "This is a season about her rebuilding and reclaiming the voice that she found in the first season," she says.
• How Amy Sherman-Palladino describes the theme of Season 4: "It’s revenge and anger, which I find is one of the best motivators in life," she says. "Rarely does puppies and kittens move you as much as pure blind rage."