For a short while, I had access to one of the million streaming services that are floating around nowadays: Apple TV. This allowed me to watch fantasy and science fiction hits such as Wolfwalkers and Severance (as well as the less speculative Ted Lasso). However, to the joy of our inner musical fanatics, Jasmijn and I also stumbled upon Schmigadoon!, a musical comedy series, a genre that’s far too uncommon if you ask me. Is Schmigadoon! also speculative fiction? Well, hardly. Luckily, due to a technicality we can interpret it as a portal fantasy, allowing me to write a review without any qualms of conscience!

The two modern day main characters of Schmigadoon! are struggling in their relationship and suddenly find themselves stranded in a realm where people can burst into song and dance while conveying their deepest emotions and thoughts. One of the main characters (Cecily Strong) is familiar with musicals and can relate, while the other (Keegan-Michael Key) loathes it. Still, they’ll need each other and the inhabitants of this musical realm to eventually find their way home.

As you can imagine from the premise, Schmigadoon! is both a homage and satire to the musical genre on the whole and some of the most famous musicals in history. They manage this with a lot of self-referential humour and even a few surprisingly touching emotional arcs (though you shouldn’t expect a deep dive into the nuances and repercussions of these emotions). I can really appreciate how the writers and actors took fairly common archetypes and tropes, yet still managed to portray them in fresh ways.

Ultimately, I suppose Schmigadoon! still has more charm to those who love musicals than those who don’t. But if you do love musicals… oh boy. You’ll be spoiled with clever parodies of famous songs and the performances of musical veterans such as Ariana DeBose, Aaron Tveit, Kristin Chenoweth, Patrick Page and many others. Certainly a recommendation, if you ask me. And that leaves me with nothing clever left to say, but: “Flooby wabba noody, Rizzo, Cha Cha, Doody, Flooby nooby wicky, Zuko ‘n Kenickie”.