I am a 68 year old woman. My father once said to me , when I was in my early 30s, “ Oh, it’s nice to see you reading the newspaper .” I just stared at him. He spent his life telling me what a good wife and mother I would be. He loved me but never expected me to do more than support a husband and raise children. I ended up raising three children but also getting a master’s degree in Education and teaching for 25 years. Women of this era still face challenges to progress in jobs, etc. but thank goodness fathers are looking at their daughters differently now. This is a wonderful scene.
How did he feel when you got your masters and started your job? Was he proud of you? I'm sorry if this comment is invasive and you don't have to answer. I'm just wondering.
I love this scene even more after hearing Esther say that he was the only person she could talk to. He didn't just make this beautiful, impassioned speech, he really changed. He was supportive of Midge in the final episode, and then while maybe he couldn't undo what he did to her, he made sure to support his granddaughter.
This scene made me cry, as I see it did for everyone else. Abe Weissman's character is so sincerely constructed by Tony. I mean, really he steals the show every episode. Amazing amazing amazing.
Amazing scene. Such a powerful monologue about a man coming to terms with the changes in the world and the changes in his life. The writing in the show is absolutely incredible, able to be witty, clever, funny but also very serious and profound when it needs to be. And Tony Shalhoub is an incredible actor. He nails every scene he is in.
What’s interesting is a woman’s capacity for intellect has always been as deep and complex as a man’s. The changes are in how he and other men perceive women. The same is true for a man’s capacity to feel.
Thats the thing I admire about Midge: she is tougher and adaptable than her family and society. Abe is stuck in his ways so it hinders him, Rose has the potential but she chooses to be a static hothouse flower but Midge is the embodiment of this motivational poster "Not all storms stop you, some have come to clear your path"
This always reminds me of Midge when she stumbled upon the women who lived far from her in the park where they protested against building a bridge or something, Midge didn’t know what was going on but she was supportive to them and she acknowledged her privilege for not actually being affected by it as much as others, the park untied all of them and it showed. Midge’s husband leaving her is really what she needed to be her true self
Tony Shaloub hit it out of the park. The delivery, the deliberation... A perfect synchronicity between the writer and actor. Simply... Marvellous (pun intended)!
This was really the perfect way to end the show for Abe. Obviously, this wasn't his last scene but they did a marvelous (hehe, see what i did there) job at redeeming him at the end. For him to finally see all that Midge has done, and can do, just gives his character the best send-off. And Tony Shalhoub has given this part heart and soul. I don't think anyone else could have pulled off the part. I really enjoyed every moment of all five seasons and I am bummed that it's over but I thank the cast and writers for letting us enjoy it while we could.
The drastic change in his personality and understanding about her daughter situation never ever imagined as a dad he will say that, very emotional scene great work done by Writer! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Sorry to hear that. I was so lucky in that my Dad always embraced my intellect and told me that he knew that I could accomplish anything that I put my mind to and that he supported me in anything I wanted to do. Poor Midge had to push and push herself and had no family support. But:She did it!!!!!!!! Marvelous💗
I’m on the spectrum, but no one knew that in the 60s and 70s. My mother, bless her heart, encouraged me to go to community college solely to find a husband, but I could not learn in traditional school. I married too young because I thought that’s what I was supposed to do. After divorcing, I started my first company at 24. Blessings to the women who find their way in spite of the expectations.
I shared some of my writing with my dad when I was about 15. He looked a little pale & scared (normally robust & bravado-y). He asked: “Where did you learn to write like this? Nobody in our family can write…like this.” He also once said: “You don’t have to read everyone’s mind all the time, you know!” I think my spiritual gifts scared him. Everyone in my family is in education. I went another direction. I’m the only one who got published. I’m the only one without a Master’s Degree. My writing comes from my heart. And from Creator.
One of my favorite scenes in the entire series. I think it encapsulates the entire point of the show. My Dad passed when I was 18, so I had the creative where-with-all to imagine all of the good things he'd have said and support he would have provided were he here.
God knows how many times I have watched this scene and cried. I had to go through something similar about a year back. And at that time my father told my mother and she told me that he is not as strong as me and if it was somebody else in my place they would have collapsed. This is the same father who never uttered a word of praise in front of me in thirty years (in front of others, yes). I perpetually felt that I disappointed him. Well, he didn't say those words to me. But we'll get there.
Not really and I think the point of this scene is his realization that he was not much of a father to his daughter, though he certainly became much more supportive through the series.
I will die without this show…..nothing else is written like this, nothing else pays the attention to detail that they do…..let just say, I will stop rewind and play it all again. ❤❤❤❤. Tits up!
The vdo was sent to me by my daughter.The scene with its most powerful message,and a true confession from a father are the distant cry of almost all the old fashioned family...it almost made me cry
The fact that so many of us want this kind of recognition from our fathers and will never get it stings. This is what people mean when they say they want someone to "see" them. Abe thought of Midge as his silly little daughter covered in frills and bows, and to watch it dawn on him that she's actually fierce, intelligent, and a fighter through no effort or parenting of his own just blows you away. I often wonder who I could've been if my father had valued and nurtured all of me instead of trying to push down the parts he didn't like. I think that person would've been really amazing, and I hate that the world will never get to see her.
My laugh at this is the fact that Miriam studied Russian literature, and well, my cousin told me Russian literature was... long, my old school teachers told me Russian literature was hard and complex, and so on. So even if her bachelors wasn't useful, it showed an initial, or a previous to this , type of perseverance .
At the end of the episode, Midge is seen rushing from work after taking a phone call. My assumption was that the call was about Abe and that we would learn on the finale that he had died without ever having told Midge any of these things. I was way off. But they never did explain why she had to leave so hastily.
We knew Abe couldn't have died because he was alive when she was going to marry Phillip Roth. She rushed off to bail Susie out of jail after she was arrested for fighting to cops.
Did anyone else find the tone of this scene very hard to square with the tone of the final season as a whole? The show basically admits that Midge has become a sociopathic megalomaniac (and always was to some degree). Don't get me wrong, I love this show to death, but tonally I was taken aback by this (and the last season) completely.
No, because, in Abe's mind, being a sociopathic megalomaniac is how men succeed. Remember, Abe convinced himself he was vital to national security. In this scene Abe is finally realizing his daughter is more like the man he is than he ever gave her credit for..
@@ClarqueAllen Agreed on all counts. However, I still see some tonal dissonance. Here's my thinking, for what that's worth: The show plays this scene like some great moral revelation, when in reality it's mildly horrifying. Abe's eyes are opened about Midge as a person, but he fails to see what she actually is like, as a "person", because he's a narcissist, etc. This is probably the secondary climax of the whole story, Midge's family not only accepting her but acknowledging her. But what they're acknowledging her for is a mild version of being evil. The last season shows us the consequences of Midge's choices, both direct and indirect, and we're treated to an extraordinarily maladaptive child in therapy, a child who ran away to be a horticulturalist, an ex husband that took a fall and spent his life in prison, the fractured relationship with Suzie, etc. So the last season is letting us know that the check is finally due. But framing Abe's realization as a sub-climax to the story makes it feel like something good and wholesome. Her father finally sees what she is, loves her, and questions his own choices. But he fails to see what she "IS", and that his choices have contributed to that. Abe doesn't learn anything or realize anything, he just got to see in the mirror a little better so that he could catch his daughter right behind him out of the corner of his eye. And yet, this scene plays like Oscar Schindler realizing that he could have done more to save people. Complete tonal dissonance. Honestly, the last whole season was all over the place and felt off to me. But that's a whole convo. Not that I wouldn't mind having it, but people have to get to work Monday.
It started with his visit to Ethan's school where he learned his grandson wasn't intellectually gifted, and continued through Esther being able to play the piece on the piano dispite never having a lesson.
What's beautiful about this scene is that Abe got there after a long journey that started by learning that his whole theory about the Weissman males (which says every firstborn Weissman male is a genius) was not true. He gave all his attention to his grandson Ethan because he thought is the one with true potential. It isn't until the last few episodes that he realized Esther, the granddaughter who he ignored, is the real technical genius. This realization shook him deeply and paved the way to another realization, that Midge had more to offer than being a housewife. And that he ignored her her entire life and never took her seriously. Of course he will try to make it up with Esther who mentioned in her therapy session in the flashforward scene in the first episode that she was close to her grandpa who is the only one who ever understood her
