The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel: Season 5 Timeline & Time Jumps Explained
The unorthodox technique used in Season 5 requires some explanation.
Amazon Prime's comedy series about New York housewife Midge's rise through the ranks of stand-up comedy is definitely one of the biggest shows in the streaming service's catalog, and the currently airing Season 5 cements the series' enormous popularity.
However, many people feel a bit overwhelmed with a new narrative technique introduced in the fifth season — time jumps, which were never used in previous seasons. Here's everything you need to know about the unusual technique and how's used in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
Spoiler alert!
From the first episode of Season 5, fans were surprised to see some of the scenes taking place nearly 20 years after the main storyline. Although the creators' decision was first met with some skepticism from the fandom, great writing and heartfelt performances quickly proved that the time jumps were a worthwhile idea.
So, while Midge's ongoing story continues in 1961 in New York, some other storylines take place quite a while later.
For example, viewers get to see Midge's daughter Esther in therapy in 1981, complaining about her mother. At the same time, Midge herself appears visiting Israel in 1984 and meeting her son Ethan, who works on a lettuce farm and is studying to become a rabbi. Thanks to these glimpses into the future, fans can be sure that Midge does become a successful stand-up comedian and a true superstar.
In addition, Episode 2 began with a '60 Minutes' segment honoring Midge's long and distinguished career, and although the specific year of this scene is not revealed, fans deduced that it must have been filmed somewhere in the 1980s.
In that segment, Midge's infamous 1971 Carnegie Hall show is mentioned, suggesting the possibility of another time jump — and people would definitely love to see that performance featured in a later episode!
It looks like the creators of Mrs. Maisel will be serving up a lot of new and exciting time jumps throughout Season 5, making the idea of watching the final season so much more exciting for many viewers. Indeed, using time jumps to fit more details about the beloved character proved to be a wonderful, unique idea, and now it's interesting to see how all these storylines will get tied up together eventually.