‘Life’s a show, and we all play a part’: Free Will and Divine Authority in TV Musical Episodes

TV musical episodes - truly the marmite of TV episode genres. Love ‘em, hate ‘em, tolerate ‘em, you can’t deny that they are amongst the funniest and most memorable episodes in your favourite TV shows. You get to watch your beloved characters sing and dance, whether they want to or not. That’s all there is to it… right?

In this episode, we dig deep into our ability to over-analyse the most banal and cash-grabby content studio execs and showrunners are able to churn by using TV musical episodes as a starting point for an episode all about free will and divine authority. How do we as the audience, the showrunners, and the on-screen characters themselves, justify to ourselves and each other about why we are suddenly accepting that Buffy Summers is singing about her emotions? What dynamic needs to be created in order for us to believe that Snow White and Prince Charming singing about their love for each other is also a powerful weapon to be used against the Evil Queen? Is the Blue Fairy actually God? How does God play into Sam and Dean Winchester witnessing a high school musical production based on their lives? Join us as we crash out to these questions and more. And do enjoy the special musical number we wrote to celebrate this weird and wacky sub-genre of TV episodes.

"The Gifted Child Symposium: The Musical"

• Vocals, songwriters: Felicia Hu and Miyin Delgado Karl
• Producer, mixing, recording, composer: Max Elliott

Music by Max Elliott

Bibliography

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