Notes on Blackkklansman and Mrs. Maisel

Two notes, first on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Season 2. Far too often the 2nd season of a hit series falls way short of the mark. We watched the first episode of Maisel 2 last night and I'm pretty sure we'll stay with the series but  what a mixture of the good and the bad in this season kickoff! As to the good: Once again Rachel Brosnahan is a completely winning presence in every scene she's in. Her standup routine in this first episode is completely clever and surprising and hilarious; her stint on the B.Altman switchboard in the opening segment is great, too. The biggest surprise, though, was the hilarious episode w/ Alex Borstein (playing Susie Myerson), waylaid by a pair of thugs and talking her way out of trouble and winning them over. OK, but on the downside: The trip to Paris to bring back  Midge's mother is just awful, completely nonsensical, never funny, and never helped by the one-note whining of Shalhoub.

Second, on Spike Lee's Blackkklansman, on which I posted yesterday. First, sorry but I got the date of the setting wrong - it must be about 1972 (not 68), though I'm not sure of the exact year. Sorry. Also, I've since learned that Lee took major liberties with the facts and the source material in turning Stallworth's memoir into this movie. For example (possible spoilers), there was no bombing and "Flip" was not Jewish. I don't object to his doing so - and I think any viewer would know that the relationship with the college activist was Lee's invention. Lee's changes made the narrative far more exciting and didn't belie the truth at the heart of the story - the racism of the klan, the bravery of Stallworth (even if somewhat exaggerated), but I do think Lee should have been more forthright, with some kind of cue that some facts and incidents have been changed and that the film is only loosely based on this true episode.

Spike Lee's exciting drama celebrates the bravery of police officers who infiltrated the Klan

I'll join the chorus in praise of Spike Lee's bold and exciting drama Blackkklansman (2018), which tells the story of Ron Stallworth (based on his book Black Klansman and played well by John David Washington), who in 1968 became the first black police officer in Colorado Springs and on his own initiative began the infiltration of a violent and sadistic local chapter of the KKK. I won't give away precisely how a black cop is able to infiltrate a Klan cell, but he does so in alliance with another police officer, in another challenging and unusual role for the talented Adam Driver. Lee keeps the tension ratcheted right to the top throughout this movie - there's hardly a moment of rest or relaxation, as the two men are in constant danger throughout their investigation - hindered in part by at best lukewarm support from the PD and some outright racist behavior by a fellow officer. This movie of course is painfully relevant today, a half-century later, but I do wish that Lee had let the plot speak for itself rather than pounding home the point through use of contemporary footage of Charlottesville and its aftermath. I'd also quibble with the strangely jocular behavior of the police officers in the final segments and would have liked a little info on the fate and fortunes of Stallworth (and the klan cell in Colorado Springs) since 1968 - but these are small points in the face of a movie that celebrates the bravery of a few people who fought racism and terror in their community and that reminds us to be ever vigilant and to have no tolerance for bigotry.