The story
New York, 1958. Midge Maisel is a young, well-off housewife whose carefully arranged life falls apart when her husband walks out. A tipsy, unplanned turn on stage at the Gaslight Cafe reveals a natural gift for stand-up, and with the club's sharp-tongued manager Susie Myerson as her unlikely champion, Midge sets out to make her name in a comedy scene that has little room for women like her.
Why it matters
Maisel brought Prime Video a run of top awards: it won the Golden Globe for best comedy series and the 2018 Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series, with Amy Sherman-Palladino taking the directing and writing Emmys, and its cast collecting further acting wins – proof that a lavish period comedy could thrive on a streaming service.
Notable facts
- Its pilot premiered as part of Amazon's Spring 2017 pilot season before the rest of season one arrived on 29 November 2017. (source)
- The pilot was one of Amazon Video's most successful ever, with an average viewer rating of 4.9 out of 5. (source)
- From season four it switched from all-at-once releases to two episodes a week. (source)
- Amazon recreated a 1950s Carnegie Deli as a pop-up restaurant in Manhattan to promote season two. (source)