{"id":6884,"date":"2018-06-27T13:00:57","date_gmt":"2018-06-27T20:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=6884"},"modified":"2018-06-26T13:24:33","modified_gmt":"2018-06-26T20:24:33","slug":"mark-watches-galavant-s01e01-pilot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2018\/06\/mark-watches-galavant-s01e01-pilot\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Galavant’: S01E01 – Pilot"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the first episode of the first season of Galavant<\/i>, I was truly not ready. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Galavant<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Hello, friends! As is customary whenever I start a new show, I want to remind folks that we do things a little different around here. So, unless you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve participated in a Mark Does Stuff project before, I highly suggest that you take note of the following:<\/p>\n

1) Spoilers are not allowed in any form on Mark Watches<\/b>. Please refrain from ever posting (in normal text) any sort of spoiler or reference to future storylines or developments while commenting on this site. This rule is probably a lot more strict than you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re used to, so if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re warned about spoilers or if your comment is edited because of it, trust me. This is for a reason. Please visit the\u00c2\u00a0Spoiler Policy<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0for guidance.<\/p>\n

2) You may, however, post spoilers in rot13.\u00c2\u00a0<\/b>You will inevitably see what looks like gibberish in the comments. We use\u00c2\u00a0rot13<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0to cipher all possible spoilers so that y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all\u00c2\u00a0can<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0still have a conversation about each episode if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen the entire show. Please cipher all spoilers.<\/p>\n

3) Please read the Site Rules before commenting<\/b>. My group of moderators and I try to make Mark Watches an exception to the rule when it comes to online conversations. This means that moderation is more evident here than other places. Please review the rules, as this is your only warning.<\/p>\n

4) Mark Watches videos are attached as a link at the end of the post.<\/b>\u00c2\u00a0They are $0.99 each, and you can download each video 15 times, meaning you can send them to friends or anyone else for free. The system is built to handle free downloads, so download away. The lovely folks over at Mark Spoils run a place called the\u00c2\u00a0Black Market<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0where you can find extra downloads of videos in case you cannot afford them or don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to pay for them. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s totally sanctioned (and adored!) by me, so go ahead! Test them out. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s basically me sitting and yelling at my TV, and I cry a lot because reasons.<\/p>\n

I came into Galavant<\/i> only knowing that it was a musical, and clearly, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a beautiful thing that this was all<\/i> I knew. This show is\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 a lot. And I mean that in the best way possible because WHAT THE FUCK DID I JUST WATCH. In many ways, I imagine y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all knew<\/i> that certain elements of Galavant<\/i> were perfect for me and well-suited to the Mark Watches style. This show is ironic, self-aware, filled to brim with fantasy tropes (which are often immediately subverted or made fun of), and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a musical. I LIKE MUSICALS. And it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s written in<\/i> the musical style and not that thing where they have songs but they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re more like thematic features than part of the actual storytelling.<\/p>\n

And lord, this show wastes no time dropping us into a very familiar narrative\u00e2\u20ac\u201done that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reminiscent of Arthurian myths and Robin Hood\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand then immediately throwing us off a cliff while Timothy Omundson cackles at us. Seriously, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the entire gag from the opening scene! Any of us who are well-versed in fantasy archetypes know exactly how this goes: handsome rogue avenges the kidnapping and forced servitude of their One True Love by destroying everyone in his way, and then they live happily every after.<\/p>\n

Except they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t here, because, in the first of many twists, Galvant\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s One True Love decides\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 meh. She doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want<\/i> the life that Galavant is offering. She wants fame and fortune, and thus, she DELIBERATELY elopes with the very man who kidnapped her in the first place.<\/p>\n

Yeah, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m clearly not ready for this goddamn show.<\/p>\n

But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an interesting twist in terms of storytelling because Madalena immediately sheds away the whole Damsel in Distress trope. Yes, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s funny as hell to see the wind leave Galavant\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sails, but it immediately sets the show on a different course. Madalena is in distress for other reasons\u00e2\u20ac\u201dnamely, she isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t all that into King Richard III\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbut she isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t here to be rescued. No, she becomes something far closer to a villain<\/i>, at least in the sense that she supports her husband\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s violent conquests and desires more wealth and power herself. She is fully<\/i> into the destruction of Valencia, for example, and she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem to have any regrets about this sort of turn of loyalty. She is openly cheating on her husband with the jester (who, in another surprise twist, ends up being the show\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s narrator), and she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem like the nice person she was in the introductory scene. Of course, that scene was more or less from Galavant\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s point of view. What if he had a flawed view of her and that<\/i> is why he never saw this coming?\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It makes me wonder how else the show will subvert common character archetypes. King Richard III, played PERFECTLY by Omundson, is more of a buffoon than a master manipulator and conquerer. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like he got his power by accident and now doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really know what to do with it aside from just violently lashing out at everyone around him. (Like the cook\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s entire family, for example.) He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s split between being a tyrant and<\/i> being desperate for everyone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s love, adoration, and respect, which is not as easy to get as he thinks it is. Also, you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t often get genuine adoration when you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re a tyrant, but clearly, King Richard has never gotten that memo. Or the memo on what flirting looks like. Or\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 any memo on anything ever.<\/p>\n

He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s real fun.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Gareth, Richard\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s right-hand man and the person who actually<\/i> knows what is going on but is reluctant to be honest with his boss. And who can blame him? He gets to be violent and is as close as one can be to the highest seat of power without having to do much work. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also part of the ridiculous sense of humor of this show, which can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem to go five seconds without dropping another joke. (I APPROVE.) Even Sid, Galavant\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s squire, seems like more than his surface self reveals. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the exuberant assistant who dutifully tended to all the duties that Galavant needed\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 right until Galavant because a HOT-ASS MESS. What does his life become once the SOLE PURPOSE OF HIS JOB is rendered obsolete? How can he progress beyond a squire if Galavant literally<\/i> has nothing for him to do? We only get a glimpse of his frustration, but I would love<\/i> if the show explored that, too. (Also, I swear the actor playing Sid looks super familiar. Is that the dude who played Lee Jordan???)<\/p>\n

And then there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Isabella, my ACTUAL queen, and probably my favorite character so far. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, I am not ashamed to say that I fell for her trick completely. Without a single hesitation, I believed that she had escaped Richard, that she had sought out Galavant for help, and that she would be the force to inspire him to finally drop the woe-is-me act and do<\/i> something. What I like about the twist she provides is that it builds off of this sense of denied expectations. We expect Madalena to want to be rescued, but she basically flipped Galavant the bird and became a villain. We expect Madalena and Richard to be happy and all-powerful, but Richard is inadequate, moody, and a total fool, unaware that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s being played. (And the only<\/i> person unaware that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s being played.)\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In Isabella, the show pushes forth her selfishness and her sense of agency. She chose<\/i> to lie to Galavant in order to free her parents. She doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really care about him or his journey; she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s trying to protect Valencia. And she does so by playing directly into Galavant\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s greatest weakness: his mistaken belief that Madalena is so happy where she is that she will leave as soon as he shows up to rescue her. WHICH, MAY I REMIND Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL, IS EXACTLY THE SAME MISTAKE HE MADE THE FIRST TIME AROUND. He already tried this, and look how it turned out!\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is going to be a disaster, and I cannot wait for more of it. The show is strange, funny, and on top of it all, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been given the beginning of a damn good story. Bravo.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Pilot\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n

– My YA contemporary debut, ANGER IS A GIFT<\/a>, is now out in the world!\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>If you’d like to stay up-to-date on all announcements regarding my books, sign up for my newsletter<\/a>! DO IT.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"