Almost two years after it arrived like a balm in the middle of summer, ‘Schmigadoon!’ returns to Apple TV+ with a six-episode season 2. And, in case there were any doubts, he’s back in top shape with a few episodes of a darker tint (according to the time) and much more fun.
The season also starts a couple of years after the first excursion to the picturesque town. The Life of Josh and Melissa (Keegan-Michael Key and Cecily Strong) it has become completely routine, boring and unhappy. Suddenly, they are inspired to return to the magical world of Shmigadoon!… only to find it completely changed. Welcome to Schmicago!
The first episode is dedicated to seeing the already well-known inhabitants of the town in their new roles. oblivious to past lives but, equally, they seem to have been born to interpret them in what a getaway for a night to escape becomes too complicated for the couple.
Darker, sexier… and funnier
And it is that the place with which they run into is that of musicals much less colorful than those of the 40s. Five Paul, creator and main composer of the series, immerses us in the style that characterizes the work of some of the great composers of Broadway: from SStephen Sondheim to Andrew Lloyd Weber through John Kander.
In fact, thematically script plays with that contrast of times, including a certain loss of innocence or the extinction of the naive musical, to call it in a way, of pure evasion and happy endings. These concepts fly over the protagonists as the plot progresses and twists take place. There is also an awareness that fifty years later what could cause it then is practically innocuous today.
All this told through stupendous musical numbers executed splendidly. The mixture of humor and winks is continuous in what we enjoy Alan Cumming, Kristin Chenoweth, Dove Cameron, Jane Krakowsky, Ariana DeBose, and Tituss Burgess among many others
A town too eclectic
Perhaps the worst aspect of this season 2 of ‘Schmigadoon!’ come precisely from the world of Schmicago!, which is very (perhaps too much) eclectic in favor of covering the entire range of musicals that Cinco Paul and Christopher Willis seek to honor.
Just like at that time, you had a Jesus Christ Superstar than an Annie, a Sweeney Todd, a Hair or a Chicago, the characters seem to be continually jumping between decades in a difficult cocktail of hippies and cabarets. Although all this provides a wide spectrum of tonalities, choreographies and styles, aesthetically it leaves you with a feeling of a loosely cohesive world. Which, in reality, does not prevent you from wanting to stay and live here again.
I imagine that when judging each season of the series influences your preferences for the musical era on duty… so I don’t know to what extent the fact that I prefer (and know better) the greatest hits of the genre in the seventies makes me think that Schmicago! is better.
I sincerely believe that this is the second season it is much more polished in every way, both in the script and in the direction and, of course, the music. All a joy.
In Espinof | ‘Central Park’: a wonderful musical comedy full of vitality on Apple TV +