An ode the ‘Rumble on the Wonder Wheel’ fight scene

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is back. And if one brilliant scene in the Season 4 premiere is any indication of what’s to come, we’re in for quite a ride.

Though the kickoff provided mere morsels of storyline progression, the first episode of the season, “Rumble on the Wonder Wheel,” included a dialogue-heavy four-minute scene more delicious than a Coney Island funnel cake.

Season 4 finds Midge (Rachel Brosnahan) unexpectedly returning to New York after Shy Baldwin (LeRoy McClain) fired her from his tour for telling jokes about his sexuality. (Oy!) Her parents, her ex-husband, his parents, and the kids are all at Coney Island, celebrating her son’s fake birthday. So, Midge makes her way to the amusement park to break the news.

By the time she catches up with everyone they’re getting onto the Wonder Wheel, the park’s iconic 150-foot Ferris Wheel that was built in 1920. She hops into her own car right before the group takes off, and together they embark on one of the most memorable Maisel/Weissman family rumbles yet.

They’re very happy!
Credit: Christopher Saunders

With everyone suspended in separate Wonder Wheel cars high above the amusement park, Rose Weissman (Marin Hinkle) sets up the scene by loudly asking Midge why she’s no longer in Prague. Midge shouts back to explain that she was fired, which causes Joel’s father, Moishe (Kevin Pollak), to loudly spiral because he recently loaned Midge money to buy back her apartment and fears she won’t be able to repay him. That’s news to Joel (Michael Zegen), who shouts some follow-up questions of his own. Meanwhile, Midge’s dad, Abe Weissman (Tony Shalhoub), decides this is the perfect time to scream-ask his wife whether they were, in fact, set up by a matchmaker. And Shirley Maisel (Caroline Aaron) just wants to know is if everyone’s enjoying their funnel cakes!

The gorgeous cinematography and impeccable, high-energy performances impress, but the real standout in the scene is Amy Sherman-Palladino’s script. She’s mastered the art of writing multiple conversations at once and finding moments of humor in serious arguments. She’s an expert at crafting quick-paced back-and-forths and effortless flows of witty banter, and this scene is an electrifying illustration of those signature talents.

As a diehard Gilmore Girls fan, I’d be remiss if I didn’t note that the Wonder Wheel scene reminds me of the infamous Friday night dinner blowout in the Season 6 Gilmore Girls episode, “Friday Night’s Alright for Fighting.” In the 2006 episode, Rory, Lorelai, Emily, and Richard have a variety of mini arguments all around the Connecticut home.

Get the Gilmores tickets to the Wonder Wheel and sit the Maisel/Weissman gang down to a Friday night dinner. They’d duke it out like the best of ’em, so long as Sherman-Palladino is wielding the pen.

Both scenes present rapidly ascending chaos that’s briefly diffused with humorous interjections — in some cases, conversations about food. The Gilmore’s first timeout is brought on by a shared enjoyment of passion fruit sorbet. And in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, everyone takes a beat while Shirley’s comically grating voice screams, “This funnel cake is delicious.” She proceeds to hold check-ins with all the kids on the Wonder Wheel through lines that made me laugh so hard tears welled in my eyes.

“Ethan! Is your funnel cake delicious?” Shirley hollers.

“Jacob, is your funnel cake delicious?” she screeches.

“Petey, is your funnel cake delicious?” she squawks.

By the time she finishes, the camera has punched out to show the entirety of the Wonder Wheel as a reminder of just how monumentally inappropriate and laughable it is for these people to be screaming private conversations in such a bizarre public setting.

The complete scene, from Midge hopping into a car and storming out of it, is almost uncomfortably long. Typically, a minute on the page translates to a minute on screen, but Sherman-Palladino is known for her fast-paced, lengthy scripts. In script format, the Wonder Wheel dialogue alone — with no directions or descriptions — came in at almost eight pages. Few showrunners, writers, or casts could successfully pull off a stunt so ambitious. I can’t imagine many people, aside from Sherman-Palladino, would even get away with the scene fully intact come final edit.

The majority of the Wonder Wheel rumble was shot on a soundstage and enhanced with visual effects, but the complex, aesthetically stunning scene was far from simple to film. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Brosnahan called it “a miraculous technological feat” and explained that the Ferris Wheel feud not only took an exhausting two days to film but also left the actors without voices.

When Season 4’s first two episodes dropped on Feb. 18, the cast and crew shared behind-the-scenes photos, videos, and stories of the extraordinary Wonder Wheel scene on Instagram. Over the course of several Instagram Stories, camera assistant Kellon Innocent revealed that five cameras were used to film the scene and showed a photo of Brosnahan. She was sitting on a wooden makeshift Wonder Wheel car in front of a green screen on an elevated platform that was only accessible by a ladder. The height, Entertainment Weekly noted, was necessary to “get an unimpeded shot that could sell the illusion of really being above the beach and the pier.”

Brosnahan also shared a photo of herself filming in front of the green screen, along with a delightful video, which shows camera operators shooting Rose and Shirley in their shared Wonder Wheel car while the rest of the cast, including Brosnahan and Shalhoub, are off-screen shouting their lines. And Pollack posted a photo of a Lego model of the scene from the set.

Capturing the Wonder Wheel scene may have been a massive effort, but it paid off immensely and brought another quintessential Amy Sherman-Palladino vision to life.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 4 is now on Prime Video.