Tuesday, July 20, 2021

Round Two: Schmigadoon

Schmigadoon: Season 1, Episode 2 “Lovers’ Spat” (B+)

I very much enjoyed this second installment, and I like that there’s a good amount of time spent on the reality of this situation and its inescapability, which of course means very different things to our two protagonists. Melissa picked up quickly on the fact that Josh didn’t think what they had was true love, and he handled every part of that very poorly. Finally getting into the spirit of the town and suiting up to go to the auction because Betsy had indicated her interest was not a good look, though Melissa didn’t respond too well either, drinking a lot of the punch meant only for gentlemen and then getting up there awkwardly to auction herself off. I like that she embraced the chance to get her own musical number with Aaron Tveit’s impossibly charming Danny, while Josh found himself in an intimate situation with Betsy just as he was growing more and more concerned about how young she was, which was made even more problematic by the arrival of her father with a shotgun pointed right at him. I’m thrilled that Alan Cumming is getting such good material on this show, and his mayor fully missed the point Melissa was making when she asked him outright if he was gay. I’m not sure there’s actually some magic recipe for how things might change if both Melissa and Josh find happiness or true love in Schmigadoon, but I’m loving seeing how they both approach their truly bizarre state in very different ways.

No comments: