Galavant: A Review (NO SPOILERS)

I just finished watching yet another TV show, Galavant. I keep picking up on these shows with short reigns (but at least Legion has more seasons to come). This one, however, is stuck with only two rather short seasons. But they are two phenomenal seasons!

What is it, you ask?

It is a satire of the fairytale genre. Like, the sort of happily ever afters, brave knights, evil kings, princesses in distress, mysterious sorcerers, and all that. It’s got that sort of Disney-esque, Errol Flynn vibe... except satire.

Anyways, it’s about this brave and dashing knight who is the greatest in all the land, Sir Galavant, whose true love is kidnapped by an evil king to be forced to marry him. However, when he arrives to rescue her, she chooses the king over him. He becomes bitterly depressed and drops out of the hero business, turning into a washed up has-been. One day, a princess shows up at his door, begging him to help save her kingdom from the same evil king.

I’m telling you, this show is hilarious! It’s not a blatant, in-your-face humor like some shows, but there is a lot of wit. The plot can get a little generic and predictable at times, but that’s what it’s supposed to do! It’s just making fun of the classic fairytale. (Obviously this is why it got cancelled: for not being “exciting” enough. Satire always goes over people’s heads.) But most of the time when it seems like it's getting cliched and predictable, it takes a turn. It takes a generic plot and makes it silly. 

Oh, did I mention it’s a musical?

Yes, there are songs written by Alan Menken and Glenn Slater (the same team who worked on Tangled). They are fabulous! So many hilarious and catchy songs. The lyrics and the music just... ah! Great teamwork! 

They have a lot of their own material, but they do spoof a lot of musical numbers from other musicals; The West Side Story, Grease, Les Miserables, Rocky Horror Picture Show, to name a few. (They’re just so seamlessly written in to fit the situation, it’s great!) 

I love the musical numbers, they break the fourth wall a lot to recap the season/episode, to explain why a character can’t die so early in the season, to talk about how annoying all the singing is (ha!), etc.

The humor is great! I was cracking up for the majority of the show and sniggering for the rest. It’s like Monty Python and the Holy Grail meets The Princess Bride with a blend of Robin Hood: Men In Tights. It is very blunt in telling you what’s what. It’s kind of hard to explain. But like I said, it’s a satire. Satire is different from spoof because it pokes fun at things while also sort of paying homage at the same time (it’s like, “we know this is kind of silly and overdone, but we love it any way”). Whereas a spoof is just flat out making fun of it (like “ha! Look how dumb this thing is! Isn’t it hilarious?”). 

And with Satire comes wit and cleverness. I love that! Like, the healer lives in Sporin and his name is Neo... Neo of Sporin. I laughed. It was a little dumb, but I laughed. 

Or how two people are singing about how perfect their first kiss was like a total fairytale, but then as the song progresses, they realize that maybe it wasn’t so perfect after all and it was just alright.

Don’t even get me started on the “Enchanted Forest”. I was absolutely dying the entire time! “I have to save my true love. She resides...” “Awww!” “Yes, SHE!”

Or the Forest of Coincidence. Ahahaha!

So the comedy is what really carries it. But the characters are all a lot of fun. I enjoyed every single one of them from the main ones like Galavant, the king, and the princess to the minor roles like the cook and the jester. Yes, they all sing well. Different characters are on different levels. Obviously the main characters have a wider range than the lesser roles. The minor characters tend to have little goofy voices, but can still sing decently... Except for the jester who’s the narrator because dang, that guy’s got pipes! 

They all have kind of the stereotypical character development for each of their character archetypes (except for maybe the king, he took an unexpected turn, for me at least). But like I said, that’s kind of the point. Some of them even blatantly state it at times (that’s what I mean by blunt comedy). 

There's just tons of references, tons of guest stars (I mean Weird Al plays a singing monk, what? Haha!), great scenery, lovely people, and entertaining everything!

So sadly, it had a short run, but it was a beautiful short run. It is totally worth a watch. Is it perfect? No. Is it entertaining? Yes! Would I recommend it? YES!!! 9/10.

PLEASE GO WATCH THE SHOW!!! It was only cancelled a year ago. Perhaps the more attention it gets, the more likely it will get picked up again. (But also because it is amazing and you deserve to have amazing things in your life)

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