Loving it. I grew up despising musicals because of the reasons Josh points out as a kid, and as an adult found a few I like, but I don’t know most of the source material. My girlfriend, on the other hand, is a musical fan and constantly points out what’s being parodied (“This is Music Man…”) and loves the show at a level deeper than I can.
Like Ted Lasso, it’s just FUN. Yeah, KMK’s character is being an ass, but entertainment is about drama and change and I expect to see him redeemed on Friday’s finale. (I also didn’t agree with Ted adding Jamie back without alerting Sam, but I’m sure that’s going to end up having consequences.)
We are very similar in so many ways (sci-fi nerd cat guy space gamers) and sooo different in others. I can’t imagine investing the time to watch 50% of a show and not watching the last half because you don’t like a character who is written to be flawed.
Must be that same gene that makes you like Larry Holland’s Star Wars puzzle games. :)
I mean, a parody of a musical has to be a musical, by definition.
I’m not sure that two musical numbers per episode is a “formula” as much as a technical necessity since the episodes are only like 25 minutes long. Any more musical numbers and there’s no room for the story. Any fewer and it’s not really a musical.
I don’t know…considering there are literally six episodes total, I feel like the story has been moving along pretty quickly. But I’ve also been enjoying it a bunch, so maybe I’m just not really worried about the pacing.
I thought it pretty predictable. Very much a homage - rather than a parody - of 1940s musicals, and by the end it’s abandoned the wink-wink of the first episodes and basically expects us to accept 1940’s musical logic works. Apart from Emma Tate, the characters in this are really paper thin caricatures… and the finale is easily the weakest episode (both in rushing to a resolution as well as the musical numbers).
Still liked it overall and some of the numbers are really good (and the musical performers are amazing), but overall feels like a bit of a missed opportunity.
Like pretty much everyone has said, loved the musical numbers but the plot and characters was meh. It both made fun of musics tropes but also fell for the worst of them itself. Really disliked the stylistic change in the last episode and I thought it was the weakest song in the show.
At the very least, this show has reminded me how much I love golden-age musicals, worts and all.
Have I already mentioned the Schmigadoon Schmeakdown episodes on YouTube? Just a couple of theater fans breaking down the references from each episode.
I enjoyed this show, but I do think is wore out its welcome by the end.
100% agree with this. It felt like a song from a more modern musical. Maybe that was to reflect the characters returning to the real world, but I just didn’t like it.
Even though this was only 6 episodes, I think it might have been paced better as 4.
I think that the change in tone was intentional, to show that the town had moved from a more traditional '30s/'40s era of repressed musicals to a more inclusive era of '60s and '70s musicals. Changing musical styles was a great way to express that shift.
I also think that the final episode was a step down from earlier episodes, only because you knew where the plot was going by then and you had to watch it play out. But Josh’s song still got me, and I thought it was a fun adventure all the way through.
I finally watched this over the past week and really enjoyed it. Definitely recommended for any fans of musicals or the fabulous Cecily Strong. I’m glad they kept it fairly short, total running time of the 6 episodes is about the same as The Sound of Music, give or take. They probably could have tightened it up by one episode or so if they sharpened their editing tools.
The Smartless podcast had Barry Sonnenfeld on just last week who directed and he said he hates musical theater. I do, too. My daughters love it, so I watched with them pretty soon after it was released. I guess his loathing came through and that’s why I actually enjoyed it.
Now, he could have been half kidding as he added, “I’d go in and say, 'do we have to have them sing here?” HAHA.
The whole podcast episode was great as is every Smartless episode.
