This is it. The most underrated show (in my opinion) of ALL TIME. And it’s GAAALAAAVAAAAANT (Just watch the video, the whole thing please, there’s no way I can do it justice by explaining).
If the video wasn’t clear enough, Galavant is essentially a medieval spoof musical. I like to describe it as “what people from 2020 would do and say if they were experiencing the musical equivalent of Game of Thrones.”
I’m sure that description really cleared things up for you.
Unlike other, dare I say, “cheesier” musicals, the whole point of Galavant is to address musical cliches with clever plots and quips. Each character fits a typical trope of medieval folklore (the hero, the damsel in distress, the evil king, the henchman, the sidekick/squire), but they react to situations exactly as you or I would.
For example, just in case you dared to skip over the intro video, Galavant, the hero, has his true love, Madalena, stolen by the “tyrannical” King Richard. When he goes to save her, she immediately rebukes him to choose wealth and power over his rescue.
It’s like in Romeo and Juliet when we’re all just like: Are you kidding me, you two are like 12 isn’t this a bit dramatic? Ever heard of ‘dating in secret’?
But the characters themselves are expressing these opinions.
And to take it one step further, the characters are expressing themselves in SONG. Alan Menken, famous Disney composer (think Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Pocahontas, Aladdin, Hercules, Tangled, etc.), is the man behind these amazing musical numbers. His background at Disney helps him capture the innocent melodies that you would expect from a musical, but their lyrics have a starkly different tone.
Here’s a perfect example from “She’ll Be Mine,” (Where King Richard is plotting how to get back at Galavant):
This element of Galavant is what makes it so damn funny. Rather than romanticize the Middle Ages, Galavant portrays all of its flaws (and those of stereotypical medieval tropes), but still in a catchy and entertaining way.
Two characters that very accurately represent some of the downfalls of the middle ages are Kind Richard’s Chef, Vincenzo, and Queen Madalena’s handmaiden, Gwen. The two are pretty much the only characters who are part of the serfdom, and their plotlines are always filled with depressingly realistic material that is presented in the perfect way:
Like in, “If I Could Share My Life with You”:
In addition to the writer’s commentary on medieval content, a lot of the times they parody current jokes or issues. For example, after King Richard is dethroned and Galavant is forced to help him reclaim his kingdom, they return to find that his castle has been torn down and his people instead implemented a fancy new system called “democracy.” While King Richard is there only to reclaim his kingdom, Galavant is trying to raise an army to save his (new) true love, Isabella. When Galavant asks Peasant John (a peasant from Richard’s ex-kingdom) to use their army to go to war, he explains that they would have to put Galavant’s proposal to a vote to be approved. Peasant John then quips:
“I can’t imagine the free people ever voting to send an army into an open-ended foreign conflict which profits only a few.” He then turns and looks straight at the camera and says: “now THAT would be madness.”
Obviously, Peasant John has some opinions that may or may not also relate to issues we deal with today.
The truth of the matter is Galavant never really took off; the show got cut after two seasons. I know you’re all devastated because you’re equally invested in this show after reading one blog post about it. But I swear, it’s the truth! The show only had two magnificent seasons:
I try to look at it as a glass-half-full-glass-half-canceled kinda deal. Galavant is jam-packed with amazing content (because it never hit a rut where the writers ran out of plot points/musical numbers), but at the same time, there are only two seasons with nine episodes each for me to cycle through.
We also got this perfect musical number because of how bad Galavant was doing rating-wise where the characters broke the fourth wall and complained about the show’s lack of popularity:
So as I’m ending my 10th and final blog, I hope I’ve provided you some new potential entertainment ideas for the two months we all have at home. And I hope you all decide to give this underdog show a chance and learn the tale of GAAALAAAVAAAANT!!
I think this show is super interesting. I’ve never heard of a musical show so it definitely stands out in that respect. I also think that the show reflects Romeo and Juliet in many ways. Romeo and Juliet was written as a satirical piece of many of the love stories that were written. Similarly, the show seems to be satirizing the tropes of medieval society and similar love stories. Overall it is an interesting concept of a show and definitely stands in contrast to other contemporary shows.
I never thought I would actually be interested in this series. Although the Middle Ages are mysterious and intriguing, I found repetitive the whole idea of princesses and bein romantic; I hope to learn from a different perspective ngl.