‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ Screwed Up the One Goodbye People Actually Cared About
There’s a scene in season 3 of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel that, in my opinion, will go down as one of the great romantic scenes in TV history. Midge is on tour with Shy Baldwin in Miami, when she runs into fellow comedian and friend Lenny Bruce. The characters—one fictional and one a fictionalized version of a real person—had spent the prior seasons coming in and out of each other’s lives, having incredible chemistry, staring into each other’s eyes with pride and love, etc., all leading to this moment. They slow dance together in a dark club, and for once, the two comedians are unable to make jokes—they just enjoy the moment. It’s an intoxicating, hold-your-breath-while-watching kind of scene because it’s the first time they both realize just how strong their feelings are for each other. And it’s a shame that as the show wrapped its final season, one of the most watchable duos within it didn’t get the farewell they deserved.
It’s clear throughout the entire show that above anything else, Midge and Lenny respect each other. As Midge moves through her life and struggles with the highs and lows of her career, Lenny is always there, showing up in her times of need like a fairy godmother, ready to set her back on track. Unlike anyone else in her life, he has always seen (to paraphrase Lenny’s own words) her “wit, intellect, smile, and great expressive eyes.” He was there to keep her on a path to success, and his role in the show and in Midge’s life was crucial to getting her to her full potential. There wouldn’t be a Marvelous Mrs. Maisel without him, and until the end, his encouragement and words of wisdom were essentially a guiding force for Midge.
In real life, Lenny Bruce struggled with drug use, leading to his untimely death in 1966. In the show, it isn’t until the season 4 finale that this issue is ever addressed. After sleeping together, a brief foray into the fantasy of Midge and Lenny’s potential relationship (fans literally temporarily rejoiced), Midge is snapped back to reality by finding his stash of drugs. It’s a tough moment to watch, as both a fan of their romantic chemistry and as someone aware of Lenny’s fate in real life. To acknowledge Lenny’s drug use is to condemn the fictional version to the fate of the real version, something that until then seemed avoidable. Where the problem begins with Lenny’s storyline and development is when the show reduces his role and ignores the plot it set up for him. Why bring in reality, why show his drug use if it ultimately is for nothing? Lenny’s pivot from guiding light to tragic figure is abrupt, and it feels especially pointless when the show doesn’t then take the time in its final season to explore the fallout of his and Midge’s relationship.
There simply isn’t enough Lenny in season 5 to do that. There is, of course, the understanding that the show couldn’t give Lenny and Midge any sort of endgame or happy long term relationship without rewriting history, but they deserved some sort of closure—no matter how bittersweet it might have been.
In the series finale, we see Lenny at rock bottom in 1965, a year before his real-life passing. Midge’s manager, Suzie, offers him an out which he declines but counters with asking if Midge is there. He knows the direction his life is going and knows that he probably can’t save himself, but maybe Midge can. She refuses to see him and refuses to help what feels like a hopeless situation. I know it’s not Midge’s responsibility to save him from his addiction in this fictional world, but going from Midge and Lenny acting on their feelings and sleeping together to Midge not trying to intervene or even see Lenny is a massive jump, one that leaves the audience confused on what the point of their relationship was. The idea that Midge would know that Lenny is at his lowest and still abandon him is strange, a writing choice that feels completely at odds with their relationship up until that point.
And the worst part is that he’s never acknowledged again. When the season flashes forward to the ’80s, ’90s, and 2000s, Lenny is never mentioned. Neither is his death, a fact that becomes confusing if you have knowledge of the real-life comedian’s untimely fate. Without knowledge of Lenny’s death, the 1965 scene is a strange addition, one that has no payoff or conclusion. The idea that Midge went through her career never thinking of or having to deal with the effect of Lenny’s death is just flat-out ridiculous, especially when the show offered multiple potential moments to recognize this loss in Midge’s life. We see her do interviews discussing her famous friends and lovers, her career, and when it comes to her mother, we see her thinking about mortality. If Lenny really is as important to Midge as the show spent four seasons saying he is, why didn’t we get a moment where she acknowledged his passing and the affect he had on her life? It would have been extremely easy to bring him up in one of these interview or “future” scenes and would have made his absence in the season a lot more understandable.
It’s a massive bummer that after spending five seasons following their relationship and seeing Midge care for Lenny and vice versa and getting some of the best onscreen chemistry, like, ever, the ending we got was as noncommittal as possible. The show was never going to rewrite history. But there is a way to say goodbye to Lenny without ignoring the development of the fictional person and the legacy of the real one. These two characters always treated each other with respect. Why couldn’t the show do the same?
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