How to immediately hook the audience — Screenwriting lessons from The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel was a TV show set in the 50’s, but that can still resonates with the current audience.
Midge Maisel is a housewife that discovers herself as a stand-up comedian after a heartbreak.
The pilot is a perfect example of how a writer can immediately hook the audience.
How it starts
The story begins with a toast. Midge is getting married with Joe. They both share their love for comedy and frequently attend to stand-up shows at the Gaslight Café. It’s a montage with flashbacks that perfectly introduces what kind of person she is: a entertainer, someone that captivates the audience and can make people laugh.
Joe also has such qualities. He performs at the bar and the public adores him. Except one: Susie, the bartender.
The midpoint
Midge is a traditional housewife who is always occupied with domestic duties. She also cares way too much about her appearance and is always doing everything she can to please Joe and her parents.
Her disappointment begins when she discovers that her husband steals jokes from other artists and that’s a common thing in the business.
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The couple arrives late at the bar and Joe is distressed because his wife brought a sweater that he dislikes. To get things worse, this time their friends are attending.
The performance is a disaster. Nothing like the previous one and, after sharing a uncomfortable cab drive, Joe decides that it’s time to leave Midge.
Feeling that her world is crumbling, she opens a bottle of wine and heads to the place that always soothe her: Gaslight Café.
Midge tries to figure out what’s the deal about it. As we seen before, she takes the mic and dominates the audience. The unexpected happens: she reveals to be a great performer, surprising everyone, including Susie.
So… what’s next?
A confusion makes Midge get arrested and, after paying her bail, Susie tells Midge that they should work together. She hesitates, but eventually agrees and accepts Susie as her manager. At the end, she asks to a comedian for advice and decides that this is the path that she wants to follow.
In the first act, Midge is perfectly introduced. We get a glimpse of not only her essence, but also what’s the series is about. And not all TV shows can pull this off. The fun montage also helps to quickly hook the viewer.
We witness the relationship between Midge and Joe. She seems to care more about the stand-up than he does, always keeping notes of the jokes that worked. The communication with Susie is complicated and the she couldn’t care less about Joe’s future as a comedian.
In the second act, when Joe decides to leave after an argument, Midge is caught by surprise because she would never guess that this was a career path for him. And we see that maybe she also agrees with Susie when it comes to her husband’s talent. This is the worst imaginable scenario. Everything is conspiring against her goals. She wanted to take care of someone, to be the woman that she was raised to be and now she’s alone.
In the final act, she lets her pain guides her. And this leads to a surprise turn of events. Her carisma softs Susie’s heart that can see a bright future for her and Midge. It’s a satisfactory payoff that ends with a question: will she make it as a comedian?
