Review: The marvel is wearing off in 'The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel' Season 3

Kelly Lawler | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption 'Step out of line, ladies': Alex Borstein's powerful Emmys speech "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" star Alex Borstein gave a powerful speech at the 2019 Emmys. She told women to "step out of line."

How long can Mrs. Maisel keep up her act?

That question might be in the back of your mind as the 1950s housewife-turned-comedian enters her third season in Amazon's "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel." Most of the Emmy-winning series remains the same this time around: The dialogue is still spoken faster than Usain Bolt runs, the costuming is still brightly colored and impeccably ironed, the guest stars (now including Sterling K. Brown and Cary Elwes) are still impressive and some of the jokes are still funny.

But there is a certain lived-in feeling, a been-there-done-that vibe about the new episodes (streaming Friday, ★★ out of four) that costume changes can't fix. As Midge (Rachel Brosnahan) and Susie (Alex Borstein) enter a new level of success in their respective careers, the series can no longer sustain itself only on the concept of a housewife who fell into a career as a comedian. The pink fantasy of Midge's inexplicably quick success, the cloying patter of her jokes, her increasingly faux-sounding feminism, is all starting to grate and frustrate rather than elicit escape. The "Mrs. Maisel" bit, as they say, is on the verge of getting old.

The plot of Season 3 that Amazon is allowing critics to reveal comes down to this: Midge takes off on her first international tour opening for singer Shy Baldwin (Leroy McClain) and has to learn about the world outside New York comedy. It's a rather flat, easy storyline, and it's not helped by the writers' struggle to find believable, relevant arcs for the supporting players.

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At least in the first five episodes made available for review, an escalating series of absurdities keeps them all – including Midge's ex-husband Joel (Michael Zegen); her parents, Abe (Tony Shalhoub) and Rose (Marin Hinkle); and her ex-in-laws, Moishe (Kevin Pollak) and Shirley (Caroline Aaron) – busy and on camera. Amazon would prefer I not reveal what they're doing, but they're all incredibly annoying and extraneous. It's a particular shame to see actors like Shalhoub and Hinkle wasted this way, as Rose and Abe make a series of bafflingly out of character decisions in the wake of his resignation from Columbia University in Season 2 (already a rather preposterous twist).

Susie, and Borstein's fiery performance, remains the show's biggest asset, yet once more I am forbidden from telling you what, exactly, she does this year. It's slightly more fun than what the other characters are up to, if just as ludicrous as every other development the writers have come up with since Season 2.

"Maisel" has always trafficked in nostalgia, but Season 3 worships the past to a fault, spending far more time than necessary with the late 50s and early 60s ephemera. Scenes at Baldwin's swinging shows stretch out interminably. The camera forces the viewer to spend nearly as much time leering at culturally appropriative dancers at a salsa club in Miami as Midge does. Midge and Joel spot Kim Novak at a casino. These choices give the impression that creator Amy Sherman-Palladino ("Gilmore Girls") is far more interested in recreating the culture of that era than making something new.

The show is stuck: Midge is becoming too boring, and everyone else is too ridiculous. The writers force the characters through change in an attempt to freshen the series and create more dramatic and surprising developments, but they have been pushed past believability.

It all adds up to a Mrs. Maisel who isn't particularly marvelous anymore, no matter how hard she tries.