The best pilot to come out of Amazon’s annual test run was The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, an hourlong period comedy from Amy Sherman-Palladino, the creator of Gilmore Girls and Bunheads. As Slate’s Willa Paskin pointed out during pilot season, the show is classic Sherman-Palladino, in that it stars a woman who thinks—and most importantly, talks—at breakneck speed. What’s different is that in this case, that woman is Miriam “Midge” Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan), a 1950s Jewish housewife living on the Upper West Side who puts that combination to good use as a (raunchy!) stand-up comedian.
Amazon ordered two seasons of the show based on the pilot, and we won’t have long to find out where Midge’s new career will lead her, as the first season will premiere on Amazon on Nov. 29. The news is accompanied by a trailer that shows the elements that pull Midge into a life of comedy: a disintegrating marriage, a comedy club employee (Alex Borstein) with a plan, and some police who apparently can’t take a joke.
