Lovers’ Spat
Episode 2 of Schmigadoon Season 1 begins with Melissa and Josh realizing that they may not actually be in love. Josh is determined to figure out how to get back to their world though, even suggesting they try and romance other people to see if that does the trick. This inevitably leads to a lover’s tiff between the two…which obviously sees the whole town break into song. After this ensemble, Melissa does break things off with Josh for real. Out in the woods, weeping, Mel runs into Mr Mayor. He reassures her that love is waiting out there somewhere. Meanwhile, Josh runs into Betsy and her siblings. Betsy encourages Josh to show up at the picnic basket auction. When Melissa finds out though, she’s not exactly happy. However, she does show up to drink punch and watch from afar. Josh wins Betsy’s picnic basket and bids 20 dollars to do so. While this impresses the townsfolk, Melissa is far from happy. After drinking a lot of punch, she heads to the podium and tries to bid herself off to the men in town. No one bids on Mel… until Danny Bailey shows up and offers 2 dollars. Predictably, Danny and Melissa end up together at the Tunnel of Love. Danny encourages Melissa how to shoot, eventually leading to the pair kissing and getting involved in another song. It’s a wonderful little number too, while over with Betsy and Josh things take a wild turn. The pair head up for a picnic at Virginity Ruins. Josh starts to get cold feet though, unsure on Betsy’s real age and sussing out that she must be pretty young. Just as Betsy kisses Josh, her Father shows up with a shotgun, “You best get proposing there, son!”
The Episode Review
The second episode of Schmigadoon takes everything we’ve established so far in this show and dials it up a notch. There’s some great musical numbers in this episode, especially the song near the end which seamlessly weaves between Josh and Melissa as they head off on their own adventures. They say absence makes the heart grow fonder and that seems to be the message here. With Mel and Josh separated for the second half of this episode, both are given their own time in the spotlight. It was perhaps obvious that it would come to this but Schmigadoon takes these ideas about the highs and lows of relationships and juxtaposes that against the old-school established order of men and women in the past. Schmigadoon is likely to be a love/hate series but it’s very much a love in our eyes. There’s enough music, laughter and romance here to keep things engaging and exciting.
