“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” is back for a second season that’s just as captivating, whimsical, and, yes, marvelous as the first. But this season is also something more. It’s honest. Scrape off the gilding of frosting and fondant, and you’ll find something a bit more hearty than cake. Think more along the lines of Midge’s brisket — savory, but with plenty to chew on.

While season one sketches the contours of housewife-turned-comic Miriam “Midge” Maisel’s double life, season two leans into the tensions of her identity crisis with greater force and narrative realism. Midge (Emmy winner Rachel Brosnahan) finds herself pulled between two very different worlds, straddling that imaginary demarcation between uptown and downtown life. On top of all that, she paces back and forth between two distinct ideals: Will she embody the kind of domestic perfection her mother has always demanded, or will she embrace the emergent feminist independence she has uncovered on stage?