3x03 Panty Pose

[8.2/10] I said it in the episode where Midge bombed for the first time and started to get cold feet -- it’s nice to see her fail now and then. It brings her back down to earth, despite her being a natural at this job. Knowing that she can walk into a room and, even with her best materialism only get a smattering of laughs, helps make her relatable instead of a supernaturally talented comic who can generate laughter no matter the room or situation. The fact that it’s the first show of her big break no less, one where her hair isn't right and the mic isn’t right and people in the crowd are yelling for other diners makes it all the more meaningful. This is a big step for Midge, and it’s not going well.

Until it is! For all te trickiness of Susie’s situation here, I love that she doesn’t let Midge throw a pity party for herself, but instead puts her right back on the horse (despite Midge’s physical resistance to it) and makes her go do stand-up in the small room to get her sea legs back. (apologies for the mixed metaphor.) That’s good managing and good friendship. Without a crowd more interested in the Salisbury steak than the opening act, Midge kills as usual, with a reminder that she can do this. It’s enough to get Shy Baldwin and Reggie’s attention and to convince them to come up on stage and give her act another benediction with a tune of their own. It’s a really nice moment of Midge finding her groove.

What’s more, I give Dnaiel Palladino some crap in these reviews, so credit where it’s due. He does these travel/new environment episodes well. Despite the fact that he’s not in the director’s chair for this one, there’s a similar sort of frenetic energy, buzz of activity, in a strange and different place, just as there was with his catskills episode. The camera is always moving, the characters are always jumping from one thing to another. It captures the sense of whirring excitement to all of this.

Plus hey! Liza Weil! I didn’t recognize her at first in the 1950s attire, but the second she said “Somebody’s F was sharp” I gasped and said to my wife, “That’s Paris!” It’s a boon to have her back on a Sherman-Palladino show, and I like the prospect of Midge having another young, no-longer-wed mother on the road to commiserate with and get pointers from.

That said, it’s just a blast watching Midge and Susie travel together, as it was in their first (much less luxurious) tour. Susie freaking out on the plane is adorable. The sequence where the two of them run through every kind of gamblign table at the Casino is a hoot. Ther interactions with the head of Food and Beverages (who, unbeknownst to Midge despite some serious hints, is mobbed up) are tons of fun. The room full of teddy bears as Midge’s “weird ask” makes for a very amusing visual gag.

The best moment, though, comes when Midge sees her name on the marquee out the window, rouses Susie awake, and then the two race to be photographed together in front of it. It’s such a “We’ve made it” moment, and a really uplifting one with some of the other bumps in the road and moments of melancholy here.

Many of those are focused on the homestead. I wasn’t sure if the show was going to go through with it, but it looks like the Weissmans really are moving out of their apartment. There is, as per usual, some really funny intrafamily grousing and banter here. Abe and Rose debating over what apartment they can move into, Astrid worrying deeply about luck, and the elder Maaisels being their...unruffled selves, makes for a great cocktail of Jewish neuroses. It also sets a wild odd couple possibility with Abe and Rose maybe moving in with Moishe and Shirely. That’s a sitcom in and of itself.

But it also means saying goodbye to the place this family has lived for a long, long time. Midge takes her kids to say goodbye to the room she grew up in. In a wordless scene, Rose and Abe embrace one another and look out on their grouse view as the memories flood back and the departure sinks in. It’s just plaster and plywood, but your warm thoughts and nostalgia infuses the place that you inhabit for that long. The episode captures the difficulty of bidding it farewell.

We also get to see some of Susie’s tougher hurdles while trying to be a big time manager. Her meeting with Harry Drake in the cold open is a hoot and an indication that even if she can balance Midge and Sophie without issue, the extra B.S. she’ll have to deal with may be just as much of a headache. Sophie wants to do a dour play on Broadway, which may be a much bigger asks than Susie is capable of. And Midge is understandably upset that Reggie used the titular “panty pose” on the tour placard, since Susie didn’t have money to get Midge’s tour photos printed. It’s a lot, maybe even too much, which makes Susie’s victory in putting Midge back on stage so heartening at the end.

We also get further flirtation between Joel and May. It’s pretty paint-by-numbers, but May still has the same kind of sharp comebacks and smart remarks that Midge does, so the scenes work. We also get to see more of Reggie in action, whether he’s griping about dumb reporter questions or putting the screws to Susie.

I also like the compare and contrast of the bookends of this one. When we first see Midge in this episode, she’s trying and failing to make a roast at her childhood home and everything, from the packing to the people, is in disarray. At the end, she’s doing the same thing in a commercial kitchen, filled to the brim with people, who aren’t fighting and feel, in some ways more, like a functioning family. To put it in Grinchian terms, they’re actually singing. It suggests that even as Midge has lost one home, she’s found another, and I’m intrigued to see where that takes her.

On the whole, this is easily the best episode of the season, one with a strong emotional throughline, a lot of laughs to be had from the Vegas setup, and a compelling symbolic end to one chapter of Midge’s as another begins.