Galavant 2.01: "A New Season aka Suck It Cancellation Bear"

“He says he’s going to let me keep our first daughter and not just throw them all out.”
-Gwynne

In a very unexpected turn of events, ABC’s quirky Medieval musical “Galavant” has returned for a second season. The show, back for a short winter season run, ticks all my boxes. I love musicals, and I love “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” (and “Spamalot”), and “Galavant is very much in that vein. It is so quirky (and was so poorly rated) that I never thought it would be back, but back it is! The show’s creative team feels the same way, clearly, as evidenced by the title of the episode, and the musical number, which was called “A New Season” and was extremely meta and wonderful. There are inside baseball references to ratings that will make any television enthusiast laugh. And the laughs just continue from there. Season two of “Galavant” is just as enjoyable as I hoped it would be.

As the cast is singing “A New Season,” we see that Galavant and King Richard are still on the pirate ship sailing back to King Richard’s realm so he can retake the throne. After safely delivering King Richard, Galavant plans to rescue his love Isabella from her creepy dollhouse prison in her tween cousin’s kingdom. Isabella still (understandably) wants to escape said prison, especially before her cousin hits puberty and she has to marry him. King Richard really wants Galavant to sing the show’s theme song from the first season, but the pirates are so sick of it that they threaten to make Galavant walk the plank if he sings it again. And thus “A New Season” is born as this season’s theme. I’ve got to say I do kind of miss the original song. It was quite an earworm. Anyway, Richard thinks he has found the perfect place for he, Galavant, and the pirate crew to go ashore. It turns out to be a pretty terrible place, but Galavant and Richard must continue on their journey anyway. They end up in the “Enchanted Forest,” which worries Richard. Richard’s father told him a story about Richard’s Uncle Keith going to the Enchanted Forest and never coming out. Galavant sees a sign and realizes that the Enchanted Forest is just a pub. He’s feeling much better about things.

Meanwhile, back in Valencia, both Sid and Gareth are wondering about their roles in the new, sure-to-be-brutal regime of Madelena. Since Sid was Galavan’ts right hand man, he’s naturally afraid of what the future will hold. Gareth sits in the throne room next to Madalena, but he feels like he doesn’t have any real power or get any respect. Sid is in a bubble bath, for a reason never explained, when Gareth approaches him with an offer. He wants Sid to be his assistant because, you know, Sid can read. Gareth asks Sid to read the Valencia scrolls and determine if Gareth has any role due to his banishing King Richard. Sid comes to the conclusion that he indeed does. Gareth is, technically, supposed to be King of Valencia. Gareth confronts Madelena with this information. She’s fine with giving Gareth the title of King, but it’s clear she’s not going to give him any real power, and she insists they are introduced as “Queen and King.”

Isabella compalains to her parents about the plan to marry her off to her currently pre-pubescent cousin, but her parents aren’t having it. Her mom says Galavant was hot and all, but he’s just a passing fad. They seriously think marrying the creepy cousin in the best option. Isabella talks to the jester, who has now basically become her cousin’s entertainer. He thinks is the easiest job he’s ever had, but he also seems unfulfilled. She also talks with Chef and Gwynne. Chef has become more cognizant of women’s right since beginning his relationship with Gwynne, so he offers to sneak Isabella the key to her room so she can escape. I like Chef and Gwynne, even if they are a bit ridiculous. It’s nice to see the point of view of people who aren’t nobility. It gives the show some variety.

Finally returning to Galavant and Richard’s adventures, it turns out that the Enchanted Forest is actually a gay bar. The bar is run by a very profit-minded Queen played by Kylie Minogue, who happens to be Joshua Sasse’s (Galavant) real life girlfriend (to which all I can really say is good for her). She sings a musical number in true disco pop diva style called “Off With His Shirt,” which is basically about how hot Galavant is. A shirtless Galavant immediately brings in a fortune in tips. The bar is doing such good business that the Queen isn’t going to allow him to ever leave. Well, she’ll let him leave once his abs start to get a bit flabby, but I have no doubt she doesn’t intend for that to be any time soon.

While hanging around the Enchanted Forest, Richard finds his long lost Uncle Keith. It turns out that Keith came out and went to the Enchanted Forest, not the other way around. It takes Richard an extremely long time to figure this out. If Tim Omundsun wasn’t so charming, I would say it was an annoyingly long time. Only he could really have pulled off that bit and not had me wanting to throw something at the television. Tim Omundsun really is all win. Anyway, Keith doesn’t really think Richard belongs in the Enchanted Forest, so he offers to help him escape. When Richard tells Galavant he has a way to escape, Galavant doesn’t believe him. Richard then decides to knock Galavant out and carry him away. When Galavant comes to, Richard points out that the ladies’ room door just leads to the outside, and that is their escape route. Outside, Galavant meets Uncle Keith. And Uncle Keith’s boyfriend, Destiny. As we wrap up this episode, Galavant and Richard are back on the road, Isabella is ready to escape, and the Queen and King are “ruling” Valencia. It truly is a new season!