Review: Schmigadoon, "Over and Done"
It’s possible Schmigadoon! is settling into being a show that shifts up and down along a sort of x/y axis of good versus fun. Sometimes it shifts too far along one axis without making up the space on the other, although your mileage may vary depending on how much you appreciate the “all fun homages” version of the show. “Over and Done” does what it can to make up for some of the iffy plotting of the season, but it can’t quite overcome that the show didn’t really set up this season’s plot to wrap up in a way that didn’t feel rushed.
The opening scene is the most notable example of traveling up the fun but not good axis. Not in the sense of the performance—Ariana DeBose gives a knockout performance singing the very Dreamgirls-esque “It’s Over and Done.” But the song is almost completely disconnected from the narrative of the show. DeBose hasn’t been a character all season, and the direction of this opening sequence makes only the most minimal effort to suggest the song is connected to Josh and Melissa, cutting to them only once throughout the whole song. It’s an odd way to open the episode, dwelling as it does in the mystery zone this season has sometimes had, where it’s hard to tell if we’re meant to think Josh and Melissa are witnessing what’s happening. And given that the song is performed by someone without any real tie to the action, it’s that much harder to tie it in emotionally to the season overall. It feels strange to complain about an entertaining Ariana DeBose song, but there’s been a lot of that kind of thing this season, where it’s easy to passively enjoy a vocal performance that makes fun references to another musical as long as you ignore that it doesn’t do much for the plot.
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