A musical extravaganza in its own right, and with tunes that are catchy enough to get trapped in your head for months to come, ABC’s “Galavant” is definitely a program to watch. This four part medieval adventure tells the story of Galavant (Joshua Sasse), a knight who falls in love with a beautiful peasant woman named Madalena (Mallory Jansen) that has, quoted straight from the show, “cleavage you could hold a whole parade in.” Madalena is stolen away by the evil King Richard (Timothy Omundson). Galavant, being the hero, sets off to save his lady love from a life of torment.
What he comes to find out, unfortunately, is that the life of a rich Queen in a miserable relationship has a lot more prospects for Madalena than the poor peasant life full of romance she would lead with Galavant. Madalena refuses to run away with Galavant, and this decision causes Galavant to quit being a knight. He proceeds to take up a professional career as a drinker and general pathetic sod. That is, until the mysterious Princess Isabella (Karen David) comes to him, pleading that King Richard has taken over her kingdom and that she desperately needs his help to save her family. Reluctantly, Galavant agrees, if only to get another chance to save Madalena, who still has his heart.
On paper, a musical television show doesn’t sound like the best idea, but “Galavant” really works. If Disney ever partnered with, say, Monty Python to make a medieval musical, “Galavant” would be that brain child. It’s everything that you’d want it to be. The songs are incredibly catchy, and the cast is incredibly talented. It’s nice to see a show on television that doesn’t take itself seriously, and is really just along for a rip roarin’ good time.
The songwriters for “Galavant” are Alan Menken and Glenn Slater. They both have experience writing songs for several Broadway musicals. They’ve also written songs for popular Disney movies such as “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Little Mermaid,” “Aladdin,” “Pocahontas,” “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” “Hercules,” “Home on the Range” and most recently “Tangled.” Both have been nominated for awards, and clearly they know what they’re doing because the songs in “Galavant” are genius.
Really, you can’t go wrong with songs that revolve around sex, violence and backstabbing. Some of the more popular songs happen to be titled “I want to shoot him with a crossbow,” “Jackass in a can” and “Maybe you’re not the worst thing ever.” This is probably the right moment to say that this show isn’t for young children.
Between the different songs, “Galavant” can get a bit dry. The songs are so funny that the dialog just pales in comparison. It’s enough of a difference to be noticeable, but the characters are colorful enough that it can be forgiven, because there is some character development that has to happen in order for the show to progress. There’s just times where I find myself watching it and using the dialog driven parts as bathroom breaks, to apply another coat of nail polish, or maybe hatch a few eggs in Pokemon Y. Those parts are nice for background noise, but really fall flat in comparison with the rest of the show. It’s a bit of a downer, but “Galavant” is a musical, so the songs have to stand out.
For a television show, “Galavant” goes above and beyond what’s expected. It’s good, not so clean fun. It’s nice to know that writers for Disney score big with an adult audience. Unfortunately, “Galavant” is only a four week mini-series, and now it’s half way done. On a scale of one to five gummy bears, with five being the highest, “Galavant” dances into a solid three gummy bears. If you would like to watch “Galavant” (and really, you SHOULD want to watch it), it airs Sundays on ABC at 8 p.m. If you happen to miss it airing on television, you can find it On Demand. If you can’t find it there, you can go to abc.go.com, choose your cable provider, sign in and check it out. Watch. Enjoy. Thank me later!
