Nobody puts Midge in a corner when The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel goes to the Catskills
The opening of “We’re Going To The Catskills” is so delightfully twee and symmetrical that I wondered if I accidentally stumbled upon a scene from a Wes Anderson film. We open on Ethan playing with his grandfather’s tiny models of the family luggage and U-Haul, all of which Abe uses to aid in planning their annual trip to the the Catskill Mountains. In the next room, we see Midge and Rose eagerly selecting the outfits they will be wearing throughout the summer, as they sift through what looks like a department store’s worth of brightly colored dresses.
Midge’s decision to ship off to the Catskills with her parents for two-months, rather than devote her summer to cracking the comedy scene is a bit puzzling and seems to speak to Midge’s insecurity about being the kind of woman who needs to learn to plunge her own toilet. Fortunately, Susie is a resourceful manager who will literally carry a plunger through the Catskills, pretending to be hired help at local resorts, just so that she can ensure that Midge actually gets some work.
Of course, one of the reasons that Midge chooses to spend two months getting dolled up to go to picnics instead of working the New York comedy scene is because she simply doesn’t recognize it as a choice. She’s always gone to the Catskills with her parents, and the trip itself is such a dreamy and romantic affair, with racks of beautiful dresses, and the promise for Midge to (yet again) being crowned winner of a beauty contest. Midge may be whip smart but so much of her identity still comes from taking pride in her appearance, which Rose happily approves of. In fact, the two of them have never gotten along more swimmingly than in planning for their Catskills adventure.
Part of the joy of being transported to this new location is the opportunity to see Midge engage in a new world that she still feels very much at home in. And yet, while the colorful cottages, constant supply of tomato juice, plentiful summer camp sing-along songs, and delightful dance-offs, may seem quaint, the resort’s rules for propriety are about as rigid as the ones in Manhattan. Almost as soon as she arrives, Midge is booted out of the beauty contest that she has won eight years in a row because there are concerns that her separated status will undermine the title. Instead, Midge is offered the slightly humiliating downgrade to the position of sash girl.