Thursday, January 07, 2016

Galavant - Season 1: Episodes 1-4 Reviews

I had meant to catch up with this show a bit earlier but with the surprising renewal of a second season, which premiered a few days on ABC, here's a brief rundown on my thoughts for the first four episodes of Season 1 of Galavant.

Episode 1: Pilot


And so begins the noble story of a knight named Galavant (Joshua Sasse) who loved and lost the beautiful Madalena (Mallory Jansen) to King Richard (Timothy Omundson) and has been on something of a drinking spiral ever, much to his squire Sid (Luke Youngblood) chagrin. Enter, Princess Isabella Maria Lucia Elizabetta of Valencia (Karen David) who needs Galavant's help in getting her parents and her kingdom back from King Richard, which Galavant is only motivated to do as the episode draws to it's conclusion and he's given a tiny bit of hope of getting Madalena back. The song highlights from this episode are Galavant and She'll Be Mine.

Episode 2: Joust Friends



With Isabella secretly working for King Richard (which she nearly gave away), things take a detour into a hilariously awful jousting tournament between Galavant and the aptly named Jean Hamm (John Stamos). As the two bicker, resort to 'Yo Mamma' jokes and eventually spar, there's also some sympathy given to King Richard. Yes, he's a horrible brute but oddly enough, Madalena when she isn't shagging the court jester (Ben Presley) is also just royal bitch to her husband as well, not mention Gareth (Vinnie Jones) dishing out marital advice is brilliant. It's a fun second affair with the song highlights being Stand Up and Maybe You're Not The Worst Thing Ever.

Episode 3: Two Balls



An episode giving Sid some much focus as Galavant and Isabella head to the former's home town, meet his parents and realise that Sid has a reputation they were previously unaware about. It's another fun piece with Galavant himself having to pose as a squire and getting a crash course into how knights are really viewed while a public party at the castle saw King Richard learning from an eunuch that Madalena has been copping off with the Jester behind his back. Music highlights in this one include Jackass In A Can and Dance Until You Die.

Episode 4: Comedy Gold



Still desperate to win back Madalena properly, Richard spent most of this episode enlisting the Jester's help into becoming quite the comic, which only worked when pies were added into the equation. The Jester got some decent screen time in this one before suffering Madalena's wrath and being sent to the dungeons. Elsewhere Galavant, Isabella and Sid bickered, got captured by pirates (lead by Hugh Bonneville) and then saved them. Isabella also had a moment of conscience and nearly confessed her true intentions to Galavant. The music highlights of this one were Togetherness and Comedy Gold.

I'll cover episodes 5-8 of Galavant's first season next week.

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