Galavant – A New Season/World’s Best Kiss

I can’t quite believe it’s true, but Galavant is back. The genius show, with music by Disney legend Alan Menken, was only watched by ten people or so worldwide, but it somehow managed to get a second season – network executives must have recognised the quality and uniqueness of the show, and we are lucky. This second season picks up right where the first left off, with top-quality musical numbers and a lot of humour promising another solid run.

Much of the first episode (a good quarter, at least) is a huge Broadway number that serves as a comical boast about the fact the show is recommissioned, to the total surprise of everyone. When that is through, we’re on with a bit of plot set-up. Galavant (Joshua Sasse) and King Richard (Timothy Omundson) have landed on shore, and wind up in the Enchanted Forest – in a subversion of expectations, it turns out the place is a medieval gay bar. Madalena (Mallory Jansen) has fully taken over the kingdom, and Gareth (Vinnie Jones) intends to become king. In a further plot thread, Isabella (Karen David) is still trapped by her young cousin, who intends to marry her.

The show shook up several of its established partnerships this season, and it really works. Galavant and Richard are a perfect comedy duo, and the former’s frustration with the latter betrays a genuine friendship. In this instalment, Richard’s uselessness leads to a gay bar run by Kylie Minogue of all people (she gets a fun disco number with a lot of outdated gay humour, but it works), but he helps them escape too. Well, with a little help from his Uncle Keith (Simon Williams), who Richard can’t quite figure out is gay. Another patron, in a nice cameo, is season one’s Sir John Hamm (John Stamos).

Galavant is back and, on the strength of these two episodes, it’s not before time

The second of the two episodes, ‘World’s Best Kiss’, takes some steps to advance the narrative. Both Galavant and Isabella are worried about finding each other, and that their single shared kiss at the end of the first season may not be enough to keep the flame alive. Galavant and Richard take a diversion to fix one of the king’s shoes, and encounter a fortune teller (Simon Callow) who may be able to help the couple communicate. Meanwhile, Madalena and Gareth are struggling to adapt to living with each other, but Sid (Luke Youngblood) might be able to help.

Galavant was never afraid to explore serious emotional territory, and ‘World’s Best Kiss’ is a good example. Galavant and Isabella are dealing with some very complex feelings, which demonstrates the series’ habit of subverting fairy tale tropes – what if their first kiss wasn’t very good? In episode one, the conventional storybook romance was thrown out of the window and, in a spot of medieval phone humour that doesn’t quite land, it seems entirely possible that Galavant and Isabella’s could go the same way. It did seem a little wrong to me that Isabella would deliberately return to captivity at the end of this episode after spending several episodes complaining about being captured, but we’ll see where the plot thread goes.

The rest of the episode is really fun. The Madalena-Gareth partnership develops, and their mutual loathing is resolved through a song (probably called something like ‘Let’s Agree to Disagree’) that reveals the only thing they have in common is an equal dislike for Sid. The song also contains a phenomenal joke – the best of the two episodes, by far, and it shows Jones’ talent for comedy. It’s a shame to tear him away from Richard, but I’m very intrigued to see where this dynamic leads. And, on the subject of Richard, he is tormented by a virgin-seeking unicorn before claiming a sword that indicates he is the one true king – so, a good episode overall for him.

Galavant is back and, on the strength of these two episodes, it’s not before time. We’ll have to wait and see whether it rectifies the major issue with season one (that the plot essentially went nowhere), but I can confirm the meta-humour and beautiful songs are as good as ever. Just don’t sing the classic Galavant tune, or you may be killed by pirates!