Galavant: “Love and Death” Review

“There’s sparkly-fizz in my nethers…”

In a not so surprising twist, Galavant didn’t actually die — well, not permanently. Huzzah! The accidental stabbing set the stage for a host of laugh out loud gags including an amusing signpost referencing Game of Thrones, Portlandia, and a popular Los Angeles mall. They played on the mostly dead bit from The Princess Bride, and Galavant got to give Sid grief about the event. The show has been leaning a little too far into homages and relying on referencing other movies or television series this season, but they haven’t gone too far yet and are keeping the jokes fresh. I have a hunch they’re doing a lot of aping with the music numbers, but as I don’t know a ton of musicals inside and out, I admit those sort of nods might be going over my head.

Regardless of whether the tunes in this week’s episode were inspired by something else or not, they were once again top notch. Reece Shearsmith’s Neo and his “Time Is of the Essence” was well-written and enhanced by Shearsmith’s exaggerated take on the character. The song with Death (Eddie Marsan) was a palatable blend of silliness, tight choreography, and lovely lighting and directing. Plus, Galavant knows about Isabella thinking he trash-talked her. I’m relieved they didn’t save the revelation until the end, but I’d hoped this week’s episodes would bring Isabella and Galavant back together. As it stands, we don’t have much time left to see them reunite and explore their feelings beyond the world’s best/worst kiss. The audience shouldn’t be robbed of the chance to see whether Gal and Isabella work out.

At the same time, we’re getting to see other couples together. There’s Richard and Galavant’s friendship, which was sweetly portrayed in this episode. Then there’s the budding romance between Richard and Roberta. Their relationship works because on one side you have a woman who is taking charge to go after what she wants, and on the other side you have Richard, who at this point has been beat up so much you want happiness for him. The duo taking first prize right now though is Madalena and Gareth.

Reece Shearsmith in Galavant

Madalena and Gareth are about as unlikely a pair as you can imagine. After the initial spark a couple of weeks ago, which involved Gareth gifting Madalena earrings and ears, I thought their initial attraction would fizzle out. How can you make a tender anything seem realistic between these two cruel and hard-edged people? But Galavant has done it. They played out the next steps wonderfully in “Love and Death.” Gareth’s love song would be atrocious for most other people in that situation, but for him, it was so very right. Lines like “the sun is doing its shine thing” fit the character perfectly and made me laugh so hard I had to rewind to listen to the song again. Vinnie Jones needs to do all the comedy.

Then there was the talk Madalena and Gareth had through the soldiers. It was a creative way to address Madalena’s hang-ups, and also, a character like her needs to have hang-ups. She can’t jump into a relationship and be all lovey dovey. Wormwood complicated the situation by bringing up a wedding, but I do adore how they have the warmonger jump back and forth between planning battle and choosing a wedding guest list without missing a beat.

What’s happening with Isabella is a little confusing. She’s embracing her role of leading Hortensia’s army, but why were she and her family still there? Not much time has passed since the last episode, but you’d think after breaking the wedding arrangement they’d have left and figured out somewhere else to stay until they could take Valencia back. I was surprised to see them all still there when the save the date invite (they get bonus points for mentioning the date and time) showed up.