The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 5 episode 7 recap & review: A House Full of Extremely Lame Horses

Open Go TV / May 13, 2023 / Reviews

[ad_1]

In episode 7 of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Midge gets some promising leads for her career, and Abe worries about his grandson’s future prospects. The episode is streaming on Prime Video.

Recap

Rose is checking out Moise and Shirley’s place to potentially host an event for her matchmaking business while they watch the comedian Dan Stevens on television. Midge says he’s going to be on The Gordon Ford Show the next day and she can get them tickets.

In a flash-forward, Rose is shooting a commercial for her business but struggles to get through the take until Midge gives her a pep talk.

The house is falling apart without Zelda and she keeps coming back to assist them, much to Janusz’s annoyance. Zelda even made a manual but no one seems to notice it.

Midge asks Abe to go to Ethan’s school for some kind of tour because she’s late for work. Soon after she arrives, Mike has his first meeting with the office as producer of the show with Gordon pulling his leg a little.

Abe goes on the tour of Ethan’s school and learns that his grandson is part of the “happy” group in school who don’t have an aptitude for much else. He insists that Ethan be tested again because he’s a Weismann so he cannot be just “happy”.

Midge walks into the writer’s room to find Danny Stevens chatting with the others. He asks all of them for some good jokes after reading them the filth that his own writers prepared for him.

Midge suggests using his own life as inspiration to promote the book that he wrote. Ethan takes the test and does even worse than he did the first time.

Danny comes on the show and kills it with jokes about his parents and their journey and later on at Toots’, he invites Midge to thank her for her suggestion. He offers her a job as a scriptwriter for a future project but Gordon gets possessive and starts a fight with Danny.

Before Joel’s marriage to Midge, Abe invited him for a drink and let him know that his first-born son would be a genius and to ensure that happens, Joel mustn’t talk to him for the first five years of the boy’s life.

Abe complains about Ethan’s lack of aptitude but Midge and Joel don’t think it’s a big deal. Zelda is getting more frustrated that the Weismanns cannot do anything without her.

Susie is playing poker with a bunch of talent bookers and agents when Mike Carr pulls her aside and says that he got Midge on a showcase for Jack Paar. Susie tells Midge that this is a great opportunity to rub it in Gordon’s face because she’s not allowed to perform on his show.

Midge walks into work and sees Mike first as he asks her why she’s getting a raise. Midge is hearing it for the first time as well and goes to see Gordon. He tells her that Danny was trying to poach her so he had to offer her something better, hence the raise.

She tells him about the showcase and but he still doesn’t budge on his rule that she cannot perform on his show. He shows his displeasure by throwing something as soon as she leaves.

Midge wipes the floor with all the other comics but she doesn’t get selected because they’re not sure about what they’re selling with her. The booker asks Susie if he can book James Howard instead and Midge tells Susie that it’s a good idea.

Susie tells James about getting booked on Jack Paar but asks him to turn it down because “it’s not his turn yet”. James says that’s not a good reason and tells Susie that he’s going to the show no matter what.

In the flash-forward, Midge’s accountant tells her that Rose’s business is costing them money and it doesn’t make sense to indulge it any longer. Susie backs this up but Midge insists that she’s going to keep her mother’s dreams afloat because Rose has nothing else to fall back on.

Cutting back to the present, Midge walks into the house and heads straight to the toilet as Rose complains that she’s going to have to rent a space and no one takes her business seriously.

Midge breaks something and begins crying in the toilet waking up Abe and Esther. Abe checks in on Midge and suddenly hears someone playing the piano. He goes and sees Esther playing the composition effortlessly and a look of happiness washes across his face.

Review

This is easily one of the best episodes of the season because of so many little things that were covered. The contrast between how Midge supports her mother in the future immediately followed by Rose complaining because Midge was focusing on herself at that moment is brilliant.
Then there is the sarcastic comment about closing the gender pay gap that is delivered so perfectly by Midge in an exchange that is one of many great ones in the episode.
The first flash-forward pre-determined that Esther would be the one who became a genius but to watch Abe claim that anyone who excels isn’t happy is hilarious but also a frustratingly real opinion that people have.
It’s not often that a show could play an entire clip of a fictional show within it that is equally impressive. The decision to have the Danny Stevens sitcom scene play out through the credits was a really good one and Hank Azaria is a magnificent screen presence.