This time, she declared war on the uncertainty of life

◎ Han Siqi

"Revenge. I really want revenge, I need revenge. Sometimes life seems to be going smoothly, and then all of a sudden, someone rushes over and makes a mess of your life. You didn't expect this to happen, because you were busy living happily. I know this is life, there will always be times when I step on the, and the man should be a little more atmospheric, don't be angry. Hmmm, I'm a woman, shut me up! ”

After three years of empty windows, the fourth season of "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" has finally returned. This is precisely the declaration of "revenge" issued by our great Mrs. Maisel, Mickey, after her return. Rather than "revenge" on life, her sonorous words are a direct "declaration of war", and the object of the declaration of war is the uncertainty and loss of control of life, as well as the random probability confrontation of the unlucky egg who is hurt by life.

Inheriting the plot of the third season, the beginning is that the touring qualification is temporarily cancelled. Emotionally, Mickey took off her performance suit directly on the street, picked up a dead branch on the side of the road and slammed the taxi. That night, she and her agent were both homeless and had to go back to where it all started. When she messes up her life again, this time her choice is still to fight and get back to her home field again.

With such a setup, on the one hand, the producer is limited to the consideration of renewal, and it is necessary to find a balance between dramatic conflict and smooth narrative. Therefore, in the setting of the plot, it is necessary to constantly pull the protagonist back to the starting point and reset her predicament, only in this way can the next season of the plot start reasonably again, and at the same time ensure that the new season of the plot can start in the low valley of empathy and end in the heart-wrenching suspense.

On the other hand, related to the setting of the character of Maggie in the story itself, she is not a perfect "big heroine" who will not make mistakes. Mickey will repeat the same mistake: she will never learn the word "taboo", and the "unobstructed" mouth will make up the industry tycoon Sophie into paragraphs, playing in the performance to allude to her boss's sexuality. She also paid a terrible price for this, but it always seems that it is difficult to "learn to be good" and it is difficult to eat a long and wise.

So, this season's story, what do the audience want to see?

Attentive fans of the show may have glimpsed the mystery from the poster. The posters officially released in each season of "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" are implicitly related to the theme of this season's story.

In the poster for the first season, Mickey slyly looks back at a crowd of men in top hats, a woman who has "disappeared" from married life and an "interloper" — breaking into the talk show industry that never welcomes actresses. The transition between the two identities is cut off by Mickey's divorce, which was accurately summarized by her ex-husband as "She's a lot." A lot is the perfect American "configuration" in the 50s: born in the rich district of New York, receiving higher education from an Ivy League girls' school, maintaining her body shape for ten years, being a husband who is a vice president, and having a son and a daughter. Until her husband "slipped away" in marriage, she was dragged into a life called "awakening" or "rebirth" without warning.

In the poster of the second season, she holds her face with one hand in the middle shot, and is being watched at the same time. The square-necked rose pink vintage skirt lined her slender neck. In this season's story, Mickey "conquests" from New York to Paris.

The poster for the third season uses a large-range shot of the camera, with Mickey standing in the middle of the back of the two male characters, facing the audience. The sky and the plane behind them interestingly buried the clues of this season's story: just like the flight is about to take off, they meet, but after a brief meeting stop, they still have to go to their respective routes. Two and three seasons of 2018 and 2019 that renewed in one go discussed the same issue in a row: Be prepared to be alone for rest of your life.

In the fourth season's poster, Mickey still stands in the middle of the poster, but the agent Susie, her parents and her ex-husband's family occupy the same size frame. Just like the position and proportion of the poster, the story of the fourth season of "The Great Mrs. Maisel" is more like "The Great Mrs. Maisel and Her Family", and Mickey's scene is a narrative thread that strings together the story of the group portrait.

Mickey wants to "be myself every time I go on stage, no, be myself." In the future, I will only be able to take the performances that I want to talk about", although it is clear that the market is not like this, but try to change the market, which is a new step in her story in the new season.

The energy of her "awakening" infects those around her, and this "awakening" is fused with a narrative full of crisis: her father regains his favorite career and dreams, and she rebels in the ignorant community after losing a stable job, a comfortable house, and dignity as a father. But after losing nothing, his choice is to be "loyal" to himself, no longer being a frog, but a stinging scorpion. The mother started by regaining the initiative and finding her long-lost self.

Similarly, agent Susie constantly questioned at a friend's funeral, asking others to ask himself: "Why does a man who has joined the army, received the Medal of Valor, likes the flute, secretly repaired the trough for the bishop, and has a bunch of girls courting letters, and has no good luck in his life?" Only 4 people mourn after death? Can't even afford to pay 1/3 of the rent in the basement? It was her "awakening" moment, and after the loss she was determined to see more of those ordinary "people" who were alive and well.

Therefore, we found that the so-called "drama eyes" and highlight scenes in this season's story are not in Mickey, but more in the agent, father, and mother. Thus, the core of the story of the fourth season goes further from the feminist expression of the first three seasons.

It can be said that the story of "The Great Mrs. Maisel" began with a certain timely work, when the actress raised allegations of abuse against the American gold medal producer, which opened up a global "feminist" boom in film, and the female video works wrote about the plight of women's survival, reflected on women's values, and formed intertextuality with the real situation. This has allowed producers and producers to outperform both commercial interests and artistic accolades: 2018's "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" became the first in Amazon's history to win the best Drama Series in the Emmy Comedy category, and the first Ever Streamer to win the highest Emmy Award.

This wave of repercussions in women's dramas is reflected not only in the growing discussion of "toxic marriages", but also in the fragile power relations in marriage relationships, people's dissatisfaction and infidelity. In the past, husbands in marriage were backward compatible with wives, the former having the capital of "favor" and "love", and the latter packaging "virtuous help" as "the glory of being favored by fate". Mickey's ex-husband is such a kind of "husband" who is not annoying, and has the bottom line of affection for his wife.

Usually, the "awakening" in this type of plot is mainly based on the banner of the second wave of feminist thought, reflecting on the root causes of inequality between men and women, and exploring how social culture allows men to dominate women "structurally". In other words, the problem does not point to a single person, but to a "structure" superimposed on the sociality of gender order, poverty, and class.

And the embodiment of this "structure" is as shown in the play, "The girl at that time was not without ideals, nor did she study hard, but no one would take the ideal of girls seriously." In the end, they only have one way left: to find a reliable husband with a more cute appearance and a more knowledgeable character. ”

In this sense, the special feature of "The Great Mrs. Maisel" is that it adds some newer thinking with bright tones and out-of-the-loop "little skirts": acknowledging "femininity", the pursuit of exquisite appearance and perfect body is not all "consumerism trap", and of course they have the right to consciously pursue beauty, show curves and charm.

As Mickey offers this season, "Words can illuminate the darkness, words can change people's hearts and thus change people's actions, but you have to speak them first", "The Great Mrs. Maisel" shows us: Exploration itself is meaning.