(Reviewed after Season 4). It's 1958 and Miriam "Midge" Maisel and her husband Joel seem to have everything they ever wanted. Then Joel leaves Midge for his secretary and her world falls apart. In a drunken rage she lets out all of her anger and frustration in a passionate rant...and discovers she has a talent for comedy. Could this be her calling? I was hooked on this show almost from the first minute and in Season 1 it just seemed to get better and better. Very funny with a decent plot and some good dramatic moments. Rachel Brosnahan is wonderful, and gorgeous, as Midge, giving her character a great sense of fun, gaiety and quick-wittedness and making for a great amount of character engagement. Equally impressive is Alex Borstein (of Family Guy fame) as Susie Myerson, Midge's agent. The banter between her and Midge is off-the-charts great, especially in the first two seasons or so. Completing a trio of great performances and characters is Luke Kirby as the great Lenny Bruce. Weaving in an historic comedian, and one of the magnitude and influence of Lenny Bruce, adds a great sense of realism to proceedings. Throw in a solid performance by Michael Zegen as Joel and some great supporting characters - Imogene (played by Bailey De Young), Zelda the maid (Matilda Szydagis), the hysterical fortune teller (who really should get much more screentime she's that funny) - and you have a warm, funny, engaging show. Not all the characters are great though and this is where the negatives start. All four parents of Midge and Joel are incredibly irritating - individually obsessive-compulsive, prissy, overbearing, rude and intrusive. Their traits are initially quirky and funny but the writers keep using these over and over again as punchlines. It becomes very repetitive and annoying, very quickly. Worse still, these four characters get more and more screentime as the series goes on. Initially I thought they were just there as background characters, to show Midge and Joel's life and the effect of them splitting up, and that they would just fade from the scene as Midge's career takes off. Unfortunately, the opposite occurs. They become major characters, with their own sub-plots, independent of Midge's life. This makes for an uneven viewing experience from Season 2 onwards. On the one hand we have the engaging, funny scenes involving Midge and Susie (and Lenny Bruce or Imogene on occasion) and on the other the irritating scenes involving the parents. Season 3 took another step backwards when some of the Midge-Susie sub-plots and developments became quite silly. There's still the occasional zinger but the writing lacks the freshness of Season 1, relying largely on quickfire banter that by now is repetitive and annoying. Season 4 is more of the same, complete with plot development that doesn't make much sense. Every time Midge catches a break she deliberately messes it up or turns it down, seemingly based on the flimsiest of principles. The engagement factor wanes when the hero keeps making stupid, self-destructive decisions. It's as if the producers and writers are deliberately avoiding progressing the plot, likely to draw out the number of seasons and thus maximise revenue. Minimise the screentime of the parents, focus entirely on Midge, have a plot that moves forward rather than goes around in circles and this would make a brilliant mini-series. But where's the money in only making 10 or so episodes...? If there is a Season 5 (and it looks like there will be), I won't be watching it. Season ratings: S1 9/10, S2 8/10, S3 6/10, S4 5/10.

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