Fun ending to this episode. Did she decline the sleepover because the room looked dirty? (Per earlier hotel room convo with the wise Carole) Or was Midge dissatisfied with Lenny’s critique of her act, knowing that there were flaws and disappointed at his silver tongue?
I case no one noticed, this whole episode was loosely based on the true story of The Hart Family Massacre .
Well the game just got 64% less interesting without Cam in the house.
Most of the episode was good story with exceptional acting, but the ending makes no sense, unless you are a TV show writer that needs June to be in constant danger next season too.
Fuck this episode for making me rewind to check her hand and then not showing both her hands.
Man fuck Tony's mom. The worst human being in a show where gangsters, corrupted cops and rats reign supreme.
Overall a great episode of looming tensions and ambiguity of the unknown.
That invisible car payoff was so good.
That footage of the very good dog riding down the escalator is a special gift that the extra 30 minutes gives us viewers.
We are moving on from Succession into this?
I don't know what this show wants to be, satire or erotic thriller? It was so all over the place that made me confused about what I was watching. This show is like Sam Levinson hitting back at his critics (mocking the intimacy coordinator, portrayal of sex, drugs, etc.) for negative reviews for content he created in the past. Levinson is one of those directors who fancy themselves as provocative when in truth they have nothing original to say and use graphic content to distract viewers from that fact.
The show is just dull and boring. I feel like it thinks it’s more edgy than it is. Is anyone really shocked my nudity anymore?
The acting is so wooden and everyone just seems a bit surface level. The Weeknd has no charisma. You can’t see why Jocelyn is so attracted to him and let’s him do what he wants. And why did they give him the worst hairstyle imaginable? I’m surprised some people liked Lily’s acting. She is not that terrible but she’s just trying too hard with her expressions.Jocelyn and Tedros have all the chemistry of oil and water, and their relationship was given not even 60 seconds to develop. Jocelyn's song was painfully bad, it sounds like they came up with the melody first and then had an AI write the lyrics.
The dialogues are just edgy and trying to go for shock value every second. You can tell this show is written by a male that watches way too much porn.
Chet Hanks haha, makes sense
This episode destroyed me. After Nacho's death and Kim behavior turning more and more like Saul's behavior, the last important character with uncertain future was Howard and I really had hoped that he could escape of all the caos the Wexler-McGill couple generates. But no. No one is safe in this show, no one saves :(
Poor Howard, I said that a lot of times in the last seasons. He deserved better. The bad things he did were only the ones he said to the main characters in their house: not letting Jimmy work at HHM (which wasn't his choice) and sending Kim to the mail room. Then, like since season 3 or mid 2, I don't remember any error from him but he kept receiving shit and mistreating from them.
PD: Hate the way Jimmy and Kim lie when everyone know the truth, same level hypocrisy Walter White had.
This show is so weird. It seems nothing has anything to do with anything. Maybe I've forgotten things from the previous season but why are they where they are this season. Head scratcher.
So June really raped Luke huh....
Gotta comment after seeing so many haters complain about episodes diverting from the main arc. That’s what so amazing about a Star Wars SHOW. We get to have a little fun outside the bigger picture.
To me, these aren’t filler. These sporadic adventures-of-the-week episodes give us some breathing room to understand our characters a bit more and play around in such an epic sandbox on the small screen. The big story will continue — and we’ll appreciate it even more.
We’re oh-so-lucky to have this echelon of television in our lives. Absolutely stellar.
Interesting that the episode has an average 8/10 rating but most of the comments come from people rating this less than that. It's almost as if the 'hate' Star Wars is getting these days is from a vocal minority and not the view of the fanbase as a whole.
Sure Burg was an all-brawn-and-no-brain cliché, but still had personality. Anyone saying the production quality was bad clearly doesn't have eyes and anyone who doesn't understand why he didn't kill clearly doesn't have ears, because Mando's code in that regard is very clear.
Cathartic as hell. Bravo. There's an underlying jubilee in the filmmaking on display in this episode that really allows the audience to fly off the rails with glee. And that's truly accomplished stuff.
But I do have a minor gripe with one piece of the writing here. I am more and more uneasy with the show's characters' unwillingness to acknowledge Darlene as a power player in the game of chess that's been going on since episode one. When in reality she's been in on the ground more than Elliot himself. She's gotten her hands dirty and suffered the consequences. I can reason around the characters' ignorance. Perhaps Price and Whiterose just don't really grasp how much f_society is Darlene's as much as Elliot's, but it seems like at some point the show could have a little more reliance in that fact as well. I don't necessarily think it's overwhelming to the point where I am pulled out of the experience. Overall, this is Elliot's story. Darlene is a supporting character, even when they've been pushing more weight onto her as the show goes on, so I don't necessarily think it's the wrong idea to suggest there's stuff going on with her without delving into it as deeply as we do for Elliot. Hell, I've even been critical of the execution of her b-plot this season not being quite as engaging as I would have hoped anyways. But I do think it is the duty of viewers to call out writing short-changing female characters, even if it feels somewhat calculated within the confines of the show.
Regardless, I am enthralled by this two episode streak of Mr. Robot. There was a minor mid-season slump in the writing that was made up for in the craft on display, but this episode shows an incredibly solid cohesion here. In particular, this episode's oner where the Deus Group's gathering is stunning (particularly love that not-so-subtle side-eye thrown to Trump). This series has always shown a very strong grasp on how oners should operate and I place many of them within the upper echelons of one-shots that cinema has to offer. I just love how damn cheeky this one is, though. Conceptually it operates as a troll to the audience. Esmail is so heavily in control of the heist genre he's able to wag his finger at the tropes.
“Holy shit Bruckheimer! When you get an abortion you’re supposed to leave the mangled fetus at the clinic, not staple it to the skeleton of a gay condor and run it for president.”
“Just give it to one of those gay-converting Baptist colleges to fund a statue of a gold-plated Jesus fucking a triceratops.”
“-I have your estrogen patch, if you’d like.
-You wear it. Maybe you’ll grow some hair on your vagina!”
“-What do you think it says?
-I don’t read mandarin, ma’am.
-When do the new Kents come out?”
God, i will miss this show so much!! :(
ROM POM POM POM MAN DOWN
Please don't let this season be consumed with her crazy. It will be great if she ends this having conquered her demons?
I got goosebumps when they started talking about the music video. This is so f:asterisk_symbol::asterisk_symbol::asterisk_symbol: up. What the hell. I never had a big opinion about him other than he is a talented artist and a very smart person, but this is insane. He needs help, but these girls need it more. And he’s just one of many. This is so sickening. I’m impressed beyond words how these women managed to stand up in the end and come forward.
What a way to not stick the landing in the absolute slightest...
Xavier really likes to say if I’m being honest
I've got to be honest, Abe's instant praise of Miriam's achievement (once he understood) got me bawling.
I find it difficult to see awards going anywhere but to the cast and crew of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel this year (or next year, I guess, for most of them). Tony Shalhoub's performance last week and Alex Borstein's in this, with that incredible monologue, are certs.
But everyone's top notch. There's been a lot of discussion over the years about who Miriam would end up with. This finale answers that in the best way possible. They were already with them. Sometimes a fulfilling life doesn't necessarily rely on romantic love.
Kaleb’s gamble on Emily in episode 2 paying DIVIDENDS!!!
Props to the man randomly spinning on the street. Now that's a unique bit of local flavor for the episode!
I really can not stand Hisam.
[9.5/10] Is Susie Myerson a friend to the people in her life, or just a mercenary business woman? In the far off, distant year of 1990, combined roast/testimonial by the famed Friar’s Club suggests it’s the latter. The jokes are about her being tough as nails. The stories are about her being a Machiavellian (and persistent) bullshitter and ballbreaker. She’s being championed for these things, even as she’s being softly slated for them, and hearing her whole life’s professional accomplishments laid out in lionizing yet debasing detail seems to lead to nothing but disinterest from the now veteran entertainment legend.
The roast is a fun device. Not only does it allow the producers to bring back Gilmore Girls vets like Sean Gunn and Danny Strong, but it provides the show an excuse to jump around the timeline, giving us glimpses of Susie’s life, and by extension, those in her orbit, long past the main story’s late 1950s/early 1960s timeframe.
Many of those stories are fun, but paint Susie in the light of a manager who took a no-nonsense, “by any means necessary” approach to her job. During the famous triple crown, she pays off caddies, harangues execs, and invents sitcoms on the fly to make three major deals in one day.
When an entitled young hack of an actor demands the world from her, she reads him the riot act and tells him to fuck off. Rumors even fly that she bilked Harry Drake out of his clients when he wasn’t all there. The fellow showbiz muckety-mucks busting her chops seem to admire all of this, but the version of Susie they’re celebrating is slimy, abrasive, and something of a con artist.
And yet, for once, the truth is softer. She did inherit all of Harry Drake's big clients. But not because she got him to sign them over while he was delirious or paid off his daughter. Instead, Harry wanted her to have them because she was the one person he could trust. He saw the way she went the extra mile for Midge, kept her on the right path, and wanted the same for the stars who stayed loyal to him.
Before then, she thanks him for recognizing something in her and helping her get on her feet. Afterwards, she’s the only one who stays by his bedside while he’s dying. And if that weren’t enough, she pretends to be his daughter, not out of some selfish plot to take his business, but to grant him one last measure of kindness and peace in his final moments. The Susy Myerson people don’t know, the part of her life that doesn’t make headlines, are moments like that where she shows appreciation and care for the people who’ve helped make her a success.
Thankfully, that incudes Dinah! One of the small but joyous happy endings The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel offers in its final season is for her, who ends up not only becoming a manager with Susie’s mentorship, but running her whole east coast operation. On a personal level though, she also goes above and beyond a business relationship, to recognize when Dinah is being physically abused and send her goons after the culprit, while also giving Dinah the day off and the time and money to be able to rest and recover. People joke about her mob connections, but she does these things out of kindness. Whatever her faults, she goes out of her way for people, and isn’t just using them to further herself, even the underlings and also-rans with whom she could get away with it.
That same attitude, of course, extends to Midge. In a 1973 Hawiian wedding that Midge wants to break off, Susie tries to draw lines. She’s having a beautiful time and loves the peace and quiet of it all. Professional problems? You got it, Midge. But this is personal. It has to stop somewhere.
Except it doesn’t. It’s Susie who has to explain to the latest celebrity beau why he’s being left at the altar. It’s Susie who has to tell Grand Funk Railroad that their name is confusing and they won’t be playing tonight. It’s Susie who has to endure a comical scene where Abe and Rose go on about how expensive the cake they bought their daughter was. This goes beyond being a manager. This goes beyond business. This is the act of someone who cares.
And I guess, I have to begrudgingly admit, that also includes Joel. He is one of Susie’s greatest challengers here. After noting that she’s in with the mafia, and being wise enough from his dad’s operations to know there’s a second set of books, he’ll do anything to stop the mob from “owning” Midge. So what does he do? He offers himself instead, letting them get their hooks in his nightclub business by way of “financing” in exchange for leaving Midge alone.
Now let’s be real here. This is a stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid plan. It works (more or less) because this is, despite some raunchiness, a generally bright and warmhearted show. But god help me, the answer to someone you love being in the mob is not to get your family in deeper with the mob. We like Frank and Nicky, so we’re apt to buy that they’re men of their word. But in reality, even the gilded reality of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, making deals with the mafia only ends badly for everyone. It’s a dumb solution to a problem that ought to, by all accounts, only make things worse.
And yet, taken in the aspirational tone of the show, this is Joel’s greatest redemption. I still don’t love the guy. I still find him kind of grating and entitled in his own way most of the time. But for someone who didn’t appreciate what he had with Midge, and who didn’t seem to respect her or the life they’d built or her talents as a stand-up, this is an act of him throwing himself in front of this bullet train so that he can protect her, and ensure that she can pursue her career free and clear of the mob’s influence, and not for nothing, the noblest thing he’s ever done.
Maybe that’s the answer for Susie and an improved, if not exactly enlightened Joel. He’s an obnoxious jerk much of the time, but when it counts most, when he has a chance to show he cares about Midge in a way he didn’t when they broke up, he not only seizes it but stays quiet about it for decades so as not to burden her.
With that, Joel is what breaks up Susie and Midge. The prison sentence we learned about a couple episodes back turns out to be the product of an FBI sting for his mob ties. Many of these flash forwards have prompted the audience to ask what could possibly break up Midge and Susie after all they’ve been through. The answer is satisfying. Whatever their issues, Midge cares about Joel. Her seeing him go to jail for her, to help cover for a problem Susie got into, would be a final straw, something big enough and harsh enough that it would change how Midge saw her manager.
It made Susie look more like George from The Gordon Ford Show. Most of this episode is about the future, but the one detail that advances the story in the present is Susie helping stage a coup to get George ousted (and with him, the rule against employees appearing on the show) and get Mike installed as the new producer. The smoking gun is George sitting on Gordon’s network contract so that he can feather his own nest. For all his gladhanding, for all he plucked Gordon from obscurity, he was just using the guy to further himself, putting his needs before his clients.
That's what Midge effectively accuses Susie of. And Susie has things to answer for. I like that several things that have been floating around in the background of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel come to the forefront here. I wondered all through last season how getting in with the mob would come back to bite Susie. Well, now it gets the partner of her number one client sent to jail. It sees Susie kicking thirty percent of Midge’s earnings to the mafia rather than to her. Even Susie’s seemingly pointless gambling problem comes back! With the suggestion that she’s forcing Midge to take tough casino gigs to settle her debts and square up with the wiseguys who own them.
Midge throws it all out there, accusing Susie of doing something worse than lying to her -- using her. When Susie tries to say they’re friends, Midge kicks it back in her face, chalking up the first time Susie ever used that phrase with her as a dodge, a sop, another con from a master of manipulation. In a fiery back-and-forth worthy of being compared to the Gilmore Girls’ “Friday Night's Alright for Fighting” family blow-up, the worst view of Susie comes from the person who arguably knows her best, which makes it sting all the more.
And still, when we return to the Testi-Rostial, something changes. Midge offers a video greeting. And in it, with the time to reflect and reminisce, she realizes that whatever their problems, Susie was always there for her. She was the person who went above and beyond to look after Midge not just as a business associate, but as someone who cared. She saw something in Midge, like Harry saw in her, and helped that fire burn hotter and brighter until the world could ignore it no longer. She fixed wedding disasters and staged talk show coups to clear the way, and rescued Midge’s third favorite hat. These are not the acts of a user; they’re the act of a friend.
But there’s something more too. Susie has seemed ambivalent to so much celebration, barely tolerating this dog and pony show. Only, Midge’s video has power. It is part apology, part expression of gratitude, but also part a recognition of something there that neither of them necessarily realized. When Midge couldn't go through with the wedding, she said that her beaus couldn't make her laugh. She’s cycled through boyfriends and husbands like chewing gum, looking for genuine love. And yet, years later, when she’s celebrating her manager, she talks about how Susie always did make her laugh, how Susie, in deeds not in words, showed her so much of that love. It’s a quiet sign of a quiet truth.
Susie isn’t a craven showbiz snake who treats her clients like expendable meal tickets and her supporters like stepping stones. She’s always been the one who recognizes the human beings beyond the business. And for Midge especially, she’s been more than a friend. She’s been a partner.
I was bracing myself when I realized most of this week's episode is going to be a big flashforward, as I feel my favorite parts of this season so far have been about Midge's new writing job. But it turned out to be the show's best episode in years (personally -- maybe ever?), as the structure is cleverly used to weave our characters' future and conflicts among the fast-paced remembrance and humor. Then it ended on such an unexpectedly moving note; I teared up literally at the same time Susie did (Borstein is great throughout the ep). “Tits up, old friend"