Apple TV+ musical Schmigadoon! is whistling a brand-new tune. Our heroes find themselves not in the 1950s musical world of Schmigadoon, but in the bleaker, ’70s-style Schmicago.
The whimsy of the show’s first season is replaced with a sarcastic darkness in its second season, which debuts today. The songs get racier, but the show remains much the same. Schmigadoon! is still one of the better shows on Apple’s streaming service.
Schmigadoon! season 2 opener recap
Season 2, Episodes 1 and 2: Josh (played by Keegan-Michael Key) and Melissa (Cecily Strong) have returned from their adventure in the magical land of Schmigadoon, a place permanently stuck in the past where everyone sings and dances all the time. The couple have found themselves. They’re in love again, they have passion for their work, and they’re trying to have a baby.
Of course … their bliss doesn’t last. The jobs become monotonous, their love doesn’t help them deal with it, and their efforts to have a baby come to naught. They’re not happy — and it’s wearing on them. So they decide to do something crazy: They dress in their dandiest outfits, pack a few weeks’ worth of clothes, and head back to the woods to search for Schmigadoon again.
Their efforts result in a dismal failure. They wander around in the woods for hours. Then, when they finally give up and drive home, they get a flat tire. As they’re panicking about what to do they hear something … organ music. They have found themselves in Schmicago, a place much more in line with late 1960s and early ’70s musicals, complete with a narrator (Titus Burgess) who talks directly to them.
In this new surreal world, there’s sex and death and “imperfect rhymes,” which perhaps freak out Melissa the most. She isn’t sure she wants to stay. It’s not the brightly colored fantasy of Schmigadoon, after all. However, Josh likes Schmicago a lot better.
Same Schmigadoon faces, new Schmicago characters
They notice other differences, too. People they recognize from Schmigadoon — like the mayor (Alan Cumming) and his wife (Ann Harada) — are in Schmicago, but they’re playing new characters. The taboo-breaking that defines the town is also distinctly antiquated. As a chorus line accidentally explains in the second big musical number, the stuff that shocked people in the ’70s isn’t all that shocking anymore.
The town is under the thumb of Octavius Kratt (Patrick Page), who takes a shine to Melissa and thus is very likely behind what happens to Josh just 10 seconds after meeting him. He goes looking for the bathroom and finds a dead showgirl. The police haul Josh away, and Melissa must find him a lawyer.
The only game in town is Bobbie Flanagan (Jane Krakowski), who suggests that Melissa should do a little snooping. Step one: Get a job at the club where the girl was killed and start asking questions of the people who work there. Melissa hasn’t danced in years, and almost blows the audition. But Kratt insists that she get the job anyway. Meanwhile, Josh makes friends with his hippie cellmate (Aaron Tveit), an eternal idealist who wants to help him break out.
Hello, boys!
Photo: Apple TV+
The same trouble Schmigadoon! suffered from last season remains in evidence in season two’s opening episodes. The dominant joke structure in the series, which was created by Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul, is still pretty much this: people start singing, Josh and Melissa are overwhelmed by it and have a wry, sarcastic response to it. It’s funny maybe 30% of the time.
The songs are given much more prominence here, and they don’t all have to do with the plot, which means that sometimes you’re just watching straightforward parodies of songs from Cabaret. Which isn’t all bad, of course. I like Cabaret, and the performances here are charismatic, but I like Schmigadoon! better when it’s moving forward.
On the other hand, the press conference Bobbie throws for Josh is a good example of what the show does really well. Bobbie insists that he should blame the showgirl’s death on Jazz. The second he says it, there’s a cut to a previously unseen saxophone player holding a cigarette and wearing sunglasses. “Aw man!” the sax player cries.
Someone asks Josh if he’s sorry for what he did. “No, of course not, because I didn’t do it,” he says.
Just then a little newsie holds up a newspaper with the headline: “Killer says he’s not sorry.”
“How is there a paper already?” Josh asks, incredulously.
Keep those jokes coming
Photo: Apple TV+
The faster the jokes come flying, the better shape we’re in with Schmigadoon!. Having Titus Burgess’ narrator randomly popping up to comment on the action stuffs certain scenes with even more incident, which I like. For instance, Josh and Melissa are talking in prison about the fact that he might be executed. Suddenly, Burgess is there with popcorn.
“That’s why it’s so entertaining!” Burgess says.
Melissa tells Josh to ignore the narrator and he’ll go away.
“You don’t know me,” Burgess says, throwing popcorn in his mouth.
Patrick Page’s humorlessness pays rich dividends in his portrayal of Kratt. And I like Aaron Tveit’s spin on George from Hair. Plus, the idea of musicals like Cabaret, Chicago, Hair and Sweeney Todd joined like slash fiction is an appealing one if you’re a fan of those. (I am, but then I like a lot of musicals, which makes me a member of the Schmigadoon! target audience.)
★★★☆☆
Watch Schmigadoon! on Apple TV+
New episodes of Schmigadoon! season two arrive every Wednesday on Apple TV+.
Rated: TV-14
Watch on: Apple TV+
Scout Tafoya is a film and TV critic, director and creator of the long-running video essay series The Unloved for RogerEbert.com. He has written for The Village Voice, Film Comment, The Los Angeles Review of Books and Nylon Magazine. He is the author of Cinemaphagy: On the Psychedelic Classical Form of Tobe Hooper and But God Made Him A Poet: Watching John Ford in the 21st Century, the director of 30 feature films, and the director and editor of more than 300 video essays, which can be found at Patreon.com/honorszombie.
