After 4 episodes, I'm ambivalent about season 5.
Visually the show is knockout gorgeous and impressive. The money they must spend on each episode is sick. Using real NYC backdrops and landmarks such as Carnegie Hall and 30 Rock, plus an impossibly choreographed and filmed chase scene through several subway trains and platforms... it's all a feast for the eyes. Technical Emmys will be given in generous amounts.
If only the story wasn't devolving into chaotic oatmeal.
Midge is becoming less sympathetic as a character with each episode, and I think Amy Sherman-Palladino wants it that way? The flash-forward scenes showing her screwed-up adult children, and her as an oblivious, self-centered diva of a mom... um, okay? Good to know she found success, but became an asshole in the process?
And this last episode was all over the place -- I guess they are laying the groundwork for Midge being a self-centered asshole? Which... why?
The show was always just silly enough but grounded in an intelligence and wit that made it a substantive dessert. But now the flavors aren't mixing as well, and the silliness is taking over. Hopefully it gets better by the finale.