Review: Schmigadoon, "Bells and Whistles | Season 2, Episode 3
A visit outside Schmicago leads to the show slipping back into some bad habits
There’s always a delicate balance in parody between hitting all the touchpoints of the thing being spoofed and still telling a compelling narrative. The story only works because it’s putting a spin on a genre, and the satire only hits insofar as it’s used to tell a new story that comments on the original. “Bells and Whistles” shows what happens when that balance tilts too far in one direction, with a barrage of references and some questionable storytelling.
The biggest tell is the way Schmigadoon absolutely churns through plot in this episode. Josh’s decision to break out of prison is foreshadowed as a big mistake in the prior episode and in earlier parts of this one, but he’s with Topher’s hippies too briefly for there to be any consequences or real forward momentum on that plot. And he returns to court with zero repercussions for his absence, and is then immediately cleared on his murder charges. For a court case that the show had spent some time building up to be a major plotline this season, it wraps up blindingly quickly, with so little fanfare that the prosecutor is never even introduced. On the plus side, Bobbie was really worth every penny Melissa paid her. But the whole Topher interlude feels more like an excuse to let Aaron Tveit lean into a Hair parody than a development that’s fully braided into the central plot.