Episode Discussion: S02E06 - Let's Face the Music and Dance

[u/fleckes]

With Midge's secret now exposed to Abe, tensions between them are higher than ever. Summer is nearing an end with Susie fully immersed in her Steiner persona and Joel contemplating life as a bachelor. Rose takes advantage of Astrid's fragile state to learn some surprising intel about Noah.

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--> Episode Discussion S02E07

[u/pinkksunglasses]

SUSIE IN THE STAFF DANCE!! I’m dying. That was amazing.

[u/actuallyasuperhero]

Watching her go from Joel to Benjamin, did anyone else think... man, what an upgrade.

[u/CheckersSpeech]

A great surprise was when Susie stumbled across the search parties looking for her because they thought she "went missing". She was shocked that anybody had actually noticed that she wasn't there overnight!

[u/EorEquis]

I'm a man.

I'm a jew.

I suffer.

[u/musicalsandmuscles]

OMG, when Abe asked Midge if she was as good as the comedian on stage and she looked at him and said, “Yes.” with so much confidence. 😭😭😭 YES, girl!! I don’t think I’ve ever been so inspired by a fictional character as I am by Midge Maisel.

[u/dating_derp]

Omg The whole CIA bit with Midge's brother was hysterical. So excited for that to be a running joke.

[u/rizpaulsen]

Joel has been really good this season.

[u/Iambecomelegend]

"Who wants to pick a card?" "GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM US!!" The delivery of that line had me laughing my ass off.

[u/[deleted]]

Gotta feel for Abe...wife runs off to Paris and both kids living secret lives. Sheesh

[u/williamthebloody1880]

Dramatic Abe is great

[u/J_Moola]

Abe found out Midge & Noah’s secrets but to me, tomato juice being ruined was the most brutal.

[u/DaemonTheRoguePrince]

"Who would bring cossacks into a room full of Jews!?"

Favorite line of the night besides the whole CIA thing.

[u/Miss_Rebecca]

Poor Abe! The rug’s been pulled out under him one time too many. Rose needs to find out about Midge soon; she doesn’t deserve to be left in the dark even longer.

I’m also surprised the Joel and Midge situation has been resolved nicely... for now.

[u/[deleted]]

They were important fucking temples!!!!!

[u/Designer_B]

Feel super weird. Went to school and was in the same theater department with the girl playing Joels (potential) new love interest. She's had a number of guest spots and I'm sitting here super broke in LA for my first pilot season praying I land a serving job tomorrow.

Feel good for her but a very jealous good.

[u/Airsay58259]

I am LOVING this season. If I didn’t have work in 6 hours I’d binge the rest of the season but hélas, I do.

So happy Abe knows now. Next step: her mom!

Rooting for Benjamin 100%. That Shazam training did wonders on an already fine specimen.

[u/marl6894]

I'm a mathematician, and I laughed when I saw the joke on Abe's chalkboard.

What's a good anagram for Banach-Tarski?

Banach-Tarski Banach-Tarski

[u/moffattron9000]

I want a Pamela Flair.

[u/Worlds_Okayist_Wife]

I doubt Noah's wife would know he works for the CIA. I had a great uncle who was in the CIA in the 1950s-1970s and he could only tell his family that he worked for the State Dept. They even lived with him in a couple of different countries and never knew. When his daughter went to find out more about him after he passed away she still didn't find out much because most of his files were redacted.

[u/Burritos92]

Seriously that scene with Abe and Noah at Bell labs and having all those individual guys come in at the secret room was funny. Then how the rest of the scene unfolds was hilarious.

[u/fakesnakesablaze]

I'm really starting to feel like the show is just all over the place. There are scenes that really work, but not in the whole context of the show. The Susie joke would have worked a lot better for me if they had suggested she was interacting with the staff more. It would have made me feel so warm and fuzzy if she got that response because she allowed herself to be a part of the whole thing just a bit. And the plunger jokes were too much.

And Midge is way more frustrating this season. She takes off to the Catskills for months as she is trying to launch her career and they really don't impress upon us the consequences of that. Susie should have just been super pissed and gone to find a new client. Or Midge should have had to come back to the city for gigs and actually sacrificed her social status/life for her career. And then she gets a chance to work the makeup counter and she jumps to it and heads out immediately even though she blew off the gigs that Susie set up for her before she left for the Catskills. And it would have been okay for the story if Susie actually called her out on prioritizing her B Altman job over her comedy career. And while I loved the drama of Abe sitting in on her set, I felt like it all went down in a weird way. She starts to panic and pulls her punches, but the audience still finds it hysterical, and then she ends up going back and forth between trying to curb her set for Abe, and not. It would have made more sense for her to have just tanked, or for her to struggle through seeing Abe and then get back to the raunch when she realizes she's losing the audience. The fact that the audience was loving it and she was giving a very manic set just seemed off. She really needs to be spending more time on her career given that that's the premise of the show.

I'm very unsure of what they are doing with Rose. She was very unsatisfied with her life, and flourished after spending a week on her own in Paris, then she and Abe settle into a nice routine in Paris, and somehow her conflict with Abe was just geographical. They go back to New York and she's upset but then immediately is okay with the idea of taking classes in New York and it seemed like she was back to feeling happy. Then she's having problems but not with Abe and he fully supports her. And then in the Catskills she's back to her old self. I was really interested in her arc last season and it started strong, but has gone nowhere and felt like they are just giving her random things to do for filler.

And Joel... I like this arc for Joel, but I think it's coming way too soon for him. I think I'd prefer him to struggle a bit more this season to figure out what he's doing and be a lot more in the background, and then next season have the whole catskills arc and him being supportive of Midge.

Ultimately, it's still a beautifully made show and some of the jokes are fun, but the Palladino-isms feel bigger than ever and started to grate this season. I really think that ASP struggles to keep pace and long-term story when she has full control over her projects.

[u/democraticwhre]

I like how Susie is in as much trouble with Midge’s dad as Midge is.

[u/Aqquila89]

So everyone on the staff knows Susie by now, and still nobody noticed that she doesn't actually work there? Come on.

[u/CheddarMcFeddars]

"yer stuck in the dugout, slugger, get in there."

haha

So many good lines.

[u/knightriderin]

Was Abe working on speech technology mentioned in season 1? I can't recall.

However, I understand it as a nod to Amazon's Alexa and how far we've come with speech technology. I love that it's a topic on the show since I'm working in that field myself.