TV review - "The Marvellous Mrs Maisel - Season Five" (2023) ****

 The addition of flash forwards give this a much needed jolt and sense of purpose. I loved the really time jumpy ones. This costs so much money. Very satisfying ending. Easily the second best season.

TV Review - "The Marvelous Mrs Maisel - Season 4" (2022) **

 They've fallen in love with production design and tracking shots rather than scripts. There's one really good episode when Jane Lynch makes a comeback and the some bright moments throughout (a funny Jackie Kennedy gag, the guy who plays Lenny Bruce is really good) but there's no soul to it, just production design, which is admittedly superb.

TV review - "The Marvelous Mrs Maisel Season 2" (2018) ****

Season 2 occasionally coughs and splutters - Amy Sherman Palladino is spectacularly uninterested in Maisel's kids and perhaps too interested in Joel, who while an interesting figure with his weakness and intelligence, gets maybe too much screentime. I would have liked a more viable love interest than the perfect doctor.  And I missed Lenny Bruce (who does appear just not enough).

But the acting is excellent, the lines divine, there's some classic moments. I loved the plunger at the Catskills stuff, and the buzzing door (that CIA plot is great). It's very well done and I wish someone would give Ms Amy a big screen musical to direct because she is clearly gagging to do so.

TV review - "Bunheads" (2012) ***1/2

Heaps of fun - bright, witty, with some terrific performances and an exciting new TV star in Sutton Foster. And yet I can see why it didn't rate. This is after the event of course but it lacks focus - The Gilmore Girls had a solid center of family but this is spread out: Michelle has a tenuous connection to the town and the people; yes she's the daughter in law of Fanny but not really; she mentors the girls but not really; the girls need Fanny but not really. It feels hollow at the core - it was as if she needed to grow up there or have a step daughter or something. Maybe after another season this would have mattered less.

Still, some knock out moments (such as the dance to the They Might Be Giants Song), superb acting, good dance numbers and genuine warmth.