An open thread dedicated to discussing books, movies, and tv shows we love. And occasionally some politics.

Lately I've been binge-watching Galavant. If you haven't yet experienced this show, go find it on Netflix at your earliest convenience because it's freaking hysterical.

When's the last time a TV series described itself as "a real butt-clencher?"

Disney has been in an interesting mood lately, critiquing its own "fairy-tale cliches" while deploying them. I'm a real sucker for this kind of meta play, because I like all sorts of stories, including the extremely familiar narrative structures that one finds in fairy tales, folktales, and myths. But I don't like to be swallowed in those stories and just coast along like a bit of flotsam in the wake of a ship. I know that a lot of rotten ideas and outmoded assumptions can hide in the nooks and crannies of even my favorite stories. (For instance, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, like its source material, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, basically replays the capitalist myth of the virtuous poor boy who rises to being one of the owners BECAUSE he is virtuous and passes the owner's morality test. In other words, if you're good enough the bosses will notice and promote you until you become one of them). I'm very critical of that myth, and rightfully so, I think, but I love the story. What to do?

Early on in my life I realized that if I rejected all the stories that contained bad ideas or outmoded assumptions I'd have mighty slim pickings to read, watch, or listen to (because the same goes for pop and rock music). The extremely imperfect and highly impure path I chose was to continue watching, reading, and listening to whatever I wanted but with part of my attention on the messaging I was being given. In fact, that's the origin of What's the Message, Mr. Gardiner.

I first struggled with this problem as a feminist, because I was a teenaged girl in the 80s, and there was a lot of sexism about. Not only was there the ordinary sexist background noise of the culture but also a full-scale reactionary backlash against the feminism of the late 60s and 70s. A lot of the writing, movies, tv shows and music I watched was chock full of the sexism I objected to. But I didn't want to end up listening to nothing but this:

Yes, I know what's wrong with being a feminist and deciding it's OK to watch James Bond movies and listen to Led Zeppelin, as long as you watch and listen in the right way. It's like continuing to drive but only if it's a hybrid car or eating meat as long as it's less frequently and locally pasture-raised. But the problem is that when you reject everything that has a bad idea in it, you end up like this:

http://www.gocomics.com/bloomcounty/2012/07/19

Watching things on more than one level allows me to enjoy stories and art without mindlessly absorbing all their messaging. I mindlessly absorb some of the messaging, yes, but that's a small price to pay for being able to read, watch and listen to whatever I want. When there is meta play in stories and art it's as if the authors, producers, composers KNOW that their audience is responding in exactly that way, and they're encouraging it.

Disney has been deeply into this way of writing of late. Their series Once is pretty explicitly about being both inside and outside of a fairy tale at once, and spends most of its time dismantling fairy-tale assumptions to see what's underneath--and then immediately rebuilding them again, but with a difference. Ten years ago, their film Enchanted did the same thing, albeit more simply.

Galavant is so packed with meta that the constant spoofs, send-ups and critiques would overwhelm the story if the characters weren't so likeable and engaging,

and if there weren't, at the heart of the show, an actual, serious hero's journey with a couple of serious points being made: one about masculinity:

and one about the nature of evil. Disney is very much into promoting an "evil is made not born" anti-essentialist moral ideology right now; just as the "evil queen" and pretty much every other evil character in Once is evil because of choices they made, usually under pressure, and thus they can all also choose, at any moment, to become good, almost every villain in Galavant gets humanized:

If you see only one episode of Galavant, it must be "Aw, Hell, the King." The lyrics to one of the songs in that episode "Build a New Tomorrow" brought down ABC's censors on the writers. They changed the lyrics, but still managed to skewer American democracy right in its soft, corrupt underbelly. I'm convinced this is the episode that got the series cancelled, because--well, look at this:

You can't critique democracy, the Iraq War and marriage in one episode without raising some eyebrows, even if you have toned it down for the censors.

I love this show.

Even if you don't like musicals, give it a whirl. You'll be glad you did.

Sadly, there are only two seasons, but I hope Alan Mencken convinces Disney to bring it to Broadway. I'd actually save money to go see that.

Galavant