A whole lot of press people are watching the first eight episodes of the final season of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” The hit comedy returns for a 5th and final season on April 14th on Amazon Prime.
We’re not allowed to breathe a word of the plot or anything else until minutes before the show drops. So what I’m about to tell you is not about any of that. And there will be no spoilers.
But if you read this column you know I just told you last week that the vaunted Friars Club on East 55th St. is padlocked shut and closed, likely for good. The Club lost the trademark rights to its logo. It’s also no longer a registered charity. Decades of history have been squandered by the people who’ve pulled it apart. It’s very sad.
And then– a ha! — I’m watching a screener of “Mrs. Maisel” only to discover that in the sixth episode, the show shot inside the Club. They used the dining room, downstairs entryway, and the front door area. If the Friars gets pulled down one day, it’s now memorialized in “Mrs. Maisel” for a raunchy roast.
What did Amazon pay the remaining squanderers for this right? Someone got the money, and now it’s gone, baby, gone, trust me. But there it is, and so is the now un-trademarked logo hanging above the podium.
The Friars– the remaining people — may think this is a tribute to the Club, and it is. But it’s also a sly dig about how the Club has deteriorated into the mess it became.
I’m not allowed to say anything else, except: after five very good episodes, this is the “Maisel” Emmy show. There’s a lot more to it than the Friars, and the whole thing plays like a hit movie comedy. (One hint: there’s a nod to a Woody Allen classic.)
That’s it, for now. Circle April 14th. Or thereabouts, for more intel.
