Rachel Brosnahan, who plays the titular Miriam "Midge" Maisel in Amazon's The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, responded to criticism of her character's parenting style on Twitter. Mrs. Maisel's children play a very small role in the story of season two, but some still questioned Midge's parenting skills.
One person wondered whether there was any point in the children having been introduced at all.
Some echoed the concerns, while others vehemently disagreed.
Brosnahan chimed in with her perspective of the character and her relationship with her kids, as well as how odd it is that people are so focused on this one aspect of Midge's life.
Several people pointed out that Midge likely has 2 kids because, as a married woman in the 50s, it would have been expected for her to have children.
Several people, like Brosnahan's costar Alex Borstein, responded to the discussion of Midge's being "likable" or not, and how "likability" is a metric only female characters seem to be judged on.
Others pointed out that a fairly hands-off parenting style was typical for the late 1950s.
Many couldn't help but notice the double standard as well. Driven, work-focused male characters who have children aren't called bad fathers simply because the show doesn't depict them with their children.
The point was also made that just because the kids don't feature heavily on-screen, that doesn't mean she spends no time with them off-screen. There's only so much time for the writers to work with and they need to convey the story during that time.
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is largely the story of Midge's journey to self-discovery and fulfilling her dreams. She is as flawed as any human, and is bound to make mistakes, but the heart of the story is the journey itself.