Is Galavant Worth Your Time? - Channel Surfing Podcast
ABCs widely-promoted medieval comedy/musical Galavant had its debut last night and we watched intently. After all, the musical format has a spotty history on the small screen. Anyone remember Cop Rock? Of course, in recent years we have seenGlee succeed wonderfully so maybe Galavant has a chance.
Without any further ado, here are the 5 things we loved and hated in the first hour of the show:
1. The Songs (Mostly Hated) It started out pretty nice with an opening number that had an upbeat feel and did a nice job of telling some story and we loved the moments where the song gave us glimpses into Galavant (Joshua Sasse) and Madalenas (Mallory Jansen) love life but many of the other songs throughout the first hour felt forced and just served to slow down the story. The songs rarely advanced the plot and the lyrics really felt strained at times. But, the thing that really put the songs into the Hated column was that ABCs promotions department even used songs in the promos that ran in the Galvant commercial breaks. Shows like Christella and Last Man Standing were given musical promos that hammered the main Galavant theme into our head again and again and again. They just took it too far.
2. The Cast (Loved) Despite having to suffer through some dreadful songs, we are quickly falling in love with several of the characters. Timothy Omundsons King Richard is funny and reacts in unexpected ways to nearly everything. His captain of the guard, Gareth (Vinnie Jones), has wit and wisdom that are truly surprising coming from a brute and we enjoy seeing him interact with the kings tiny cook. It is clear that Galavant is eventually going to fall in love with the feisty Princess Isabella Lucia Maria Elizabeth (Karen David) because we already love her.
3. The Joust (Loved) When Galavant is exhausted from over-training and his rival Sir Jean Hamm (played with villainous gusto by John Stamos) is sick after being given a poison drink, we get treated to what is surely the most unexpected and funny jousting scene ever! The two knights are so weak, it seems to translate to their horses, who walk at snails pace toward each other. After a few excruciating moments, Galavant and Sir Hamm collapse to the ground. As an added bonus, Galavants pre-joust training with Princess Isabella is a fun and funny montage that was the best three minutes of the entire show.
4. The Script (Hated) Sigh sadly, we are having some trouble really falling for the overall story here. While we enjoyed the surprise that was Madalena picking fame and fortune as a queen over her true love, Galavant, the rest of the story has been pretty blaaah so far. Madalena has quickly turned into a cruel and evil character, and it just doesnt make sense that Galavant never knew that side of her when they were lovers. There were no unexpected twists or turns to pull us in and we yet arent connected to the characters enough to want to watch just to see what happens to them. If the show was just about the loopy King and his crazy Queen, wed be far more interested than we are right now.
5. The Humor (Hated) Most importantly, Galavant just isnt very funny. Aside from the joust scene, we barely cracked a smile for the rest of the first hour of Galavant. The show wants to be a cross between Monty Python and the Holy Grail and The Princess Bride (with singing added in), but it has thus far failed to bring any memorable humorous moments. We think it would be better served on a pay cable channel, where the humor could be even more risqu and bawdy, than the relatively tame world of 8 p.m. on Sunday night broadcast TV.
So, there you have it. There was more to hate than to love in Galavant, but we arent giving up on it yet. Well check it out again next week and hope it can improve. If nothing else, we give it props for trying something bold and new on broadcast TV. If it fails, at least it is failing with style!
If you want to read more of Jason Evans comments on the movie and TV industry, follow him on Twitter @TVFilmTalk. Be sure to check Speakeasy for his recaps of The Blacklist.
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Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2015/01/05/5-things-we-lovedhated-about-galavant/
