You might recall the success of last year’s “Maisel Day,” a one-day event in Los Angeles put on by Amazon Prime Video as part of their FYC campaign for “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” You could get sandwiches, cupcakes, even a hotel room for the price they were in 1959. Suffice it to say it was a massive success — it isn’t a party unless the cops get called — and set the bar high for this year’s Emmy campaign.
Unfortunately, like most of 2020, the global pandemic put a monkey wrench into everything, including the Emmy plans for “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” which is up for a whopping 18 Primetime Emmy Awards. But like Midge Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan) herself, they’re adapting and working with what they got. This year’s Emmys campaign seeks to remind you just what makes “Mrs. Maisel” so marvelous — virtually.
You can go on a journey deep into the world of 1950s New York and Miami, both heavily represented in Season 3 of the series, courtesy of the show’s beautiful new Emmy site. “Making Maisel Marvelous” focuses on three key areas: Donna Zakowska’s breathtaking costumes, Bill Groom’s luminous production design, and the firecracker script written by showrunner Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino.
“It’s a pretty big transitional season, I think, and it’s very much about performance and her look as a performer [in] different environments,” said two-time Emmy-winning costume designer Zakowska to IndieWire’s Bill Desowitz earlier this year. A key section of the Emmy FYC site focuses on Zakowska’s beautiful work in the tearoom that comprises the final two episodes of Season 3.
“I wanted it to feel like you were entering a garden of women in a profusion of colorful, flowered hats — resembling actual blossoms and bouquets,” she says on the site. It’s amazingly eye-catching to see the different textures and patterns represented on the hats, all that aids towards making each woman her own flower, in a sense.
With Midge being the opening act to performer Shy Baldwin (LeRoy McClain) this season, there’s a heavy emphasis on music and the nightclubs that Midge finds herself in. Emmy-nominated cinematographer David Mullen explains the Cuban Club sequence in Miami was inspired by a 1964 Soviet movie called “I Am Cuba,” directed by Mikhail Kalatozov, with the whole sequence filmed as a single shot.
Speaking of Miami, there’s an entire section of the Maisel campaign dedicated to Midge’s visit to the famed Fountainbleau Hotel. Production designer Bill Groom says about the famous hotel: “From the moment I stepped into the lobby of the Fountainbleau Miami I knew it was the place for Midge.” He says that they scouted other areas throughout the country but “Miami just seemed right.” The hotel was famously restored between 2006-2008 to bring it back to its famed 1950s look, and the whole thing glitters.
In his review of Season 3, IndieWire’s Ben Travers said, “The rhythms are still the same, the visuals are still excellent, and all your favorite faces are still chatting away. But ‘Mrs. Maisel’ shouldn’t fear change. Whether it leans harder into its comedic roots or stirs up some actual drama for once, taking a chance or two is the only way to stay marvelous.”
You can visit the “Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” FYC site here.
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