Every once in a while, your favorite TV show gets dressed up for a fancy night out. It puts a little make-up on, a little special costuming, maybe even some fancy lights, and, of course, the choreography. For one magical evening, a show sets aside its formula and has its characters truly express themselves — in song! While they’re often too much work to be a regular feature, they’re still something everyone looks forward to. They don’t come along every day, but musical episodes of non-musical TV shows are deeply beloved. Let’s take a closer look at just why that is, shall we?
A Fun, Refreshing Shake-Up
The most obvious reason fans get excited about a special musical episode in their favorite series is the simple fact that they’re justfun. Whether they show up in the middle of a drama series, an action show, or even a series that was already comedic, everyone involved gets to let their hair down and just have a good time. There’s a joy to it that’s inarguable. We get to see sides to actors we don’t always get to see. They get dressed to the nines, put on some fancy moves, and for once no longer have to worry about the subtleties of their performances — everything in a musical episode is dialed up to eleven. Many dramatic series, likeGrey’s Anatomy—whose musical episode is admittedly a required taste— rarely get to have the kind of fun that a musical allows for, and for many fans, it’s a welcome break.
Musicals are a refreshing shake-up from a show’s established format, especially in shows that are well past their fifth season and are running out of ways to get their audiences excited about what’s coming up next. They’re also a good marker of where the series is, speaking to the heart of its most important characters. Characters people have loved for years are given the chance to shine based solely on the charisma that made fans fall in love with them in the first place — the essence of them boiled down to a catchy tune that stays stuck in people’s heads for years afterwards. Think of the musical crossover betweenThe FlashandSupergirl— there’s no denying the onscreen charm between Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) and Kara Danvers (Melissa Benoist) as they sing about being each other’s “Super-Friend.” Many actors have hidden talents as singers and dancers that otherwise never see the light of day, so getting to see that on-screen is always a delight.
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An Episode That Captures the Heart
What truly makes musical episodes stand out, however, is how they cut straight through to the heart of whatever the show has going on. It is perhaps best said by Abed Nadir (Danny Pudi) in the musical episode ofCommunityas he sings, “I’ll understand every scene, because they’ll sing what they mean, instead of making a face!”
As mentioned earlier, there’s very little room for subtlety in a musical episode — in fact, they’re all about the opposite. Subtext isn’t just turned into text, it’s belted out loud for everyone to hear. Deep-seated feelings that have been held inside for several seasons in a row are laid bare — and sometimes, it’s not just the audience who gets to see them. Musical episodes rarely miss the chance to have their lead characters express themselves fully to the people around them, and that tends to change things going forward in a major way.
Take one of the all-time classic musical episodes of a non-musical TV show:Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s “Once More With Feeling,” believed by many to be one of thegold standards of musical episodes. While the show did have a lot of fun playing around with the concept, with dancing demons, musically-choreographed action scenes, and an entire number dedicated to one man’s dry-cleaning exultation, it’s also the episode around which the entire season pivots. It’s when Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) finds out that they hadn’t saved her from Hell, but cast her out of Heaven — and how much she longs to go back. It’s where Buffy and Spike’s (James Marsters) romance truly begins, as well as the beginning of the end for several other relationships. The repercussions of that episode are felt right up until the series ends, and the impact is so huge because issues that were kept buried are no longer possible to ignore. Similarly, the aforementionedSupergirl/The Flashmusical is where Barry Allen finally proposes to his long-time romantic interest, Iris West (Candice Patton). When taken as more than just a fun romp, musical episodes can be real game-changers, and that’s an essential part of their design.
Between the spotlights, the costumes, the choreography, musicals are designed to be noticed. They grab attention, they’re spectacles — entertainment untempered by the need to pace out reveals and emotional outbursts in realistic ways. All television, even fantasy and sci-fi, is grounded in a certain realism; good writing necessitates characters reacting as realistically as possible to even the most fantastic situations to be relatable to the audiences. Characters lie to their friends, their family, their co-workers and teammates, and even to themselves, because some feelings are just too much to be able to deal with on a day-to-day basis. A constant barrage of intense feeling might work for a movie, but TV shows have more of a need to dial intensity back down. When set aside for special occasions, though, musical episodes set all care aside, and emotions that were only hinted at before get to be let out in the most earnest of ways — and instyle.
No matter how good a show’s writing is, there’s no more succinct way to express a feeling than through song. Beneath all the glitz, glamour, and razzle-dazzle, that’s the real reason why musicals are so compelling, and what makes them so special when they appear on an otherwise non-musical TV series. For a moment, the curtains are pulled back on what makes the show, and its characters tick, and we get to see them at their best, their most honest, and, if we’re lucky, their best costumed.
