This being my belated birthday weekend, I get to choose stuff to watch on TV. My wife and son are at my mercy.
I didn’t want to waste my power on anything usual. This is my chance to expand their horizons—and mine. I chose to pay the 20 bucks for Wicked. I had heard it was good, even for people who don’t like musicals.
It is. It is vibrant and unusual. It sucks you in… sorta.
My son wanted to move on to something else fairly early. In fact, it was before the official opening credits rolled out. He did offer one observation, speaking of Ariana Grande’s Galinda character, “You can tell she’s really into herself.”
I used the excuse of the credits finally rolling out to give it a little more time. We got past the overblown “The Wicked Witch is Dead” spectacle. The tempo changed a little—and it got better.
I’m pretty sure overacting is characteristic of musicals in general. Although it was well done, I got a little tired of that. They broke into what seemed like it would be a longer song so I started suggesting other things to watch. I was surprised to find that my son actually preferred to stick with Wicked. That is mostly a criticism of the other stuff I was offering, but still… he was willing to stick with a musical? He said he hated musicals.
Anyhow, I really wanted something different, not because I hated Wicked, but because I am impatient and really wanted to show my son an educational thing on stocks (Great Courses – Understanding Investments – S1 E3). I am always struggling to get my family to watch educational stuff.
I think we have some more time to finish Wicked and it is still my belated birthday weekend. I think I’ll try to get through some more of it. The story was getting good.
Update:
Well… we finished it today. None of us thought it was great through and through. There was a lot of quality entertainment, singing, dancing etc., but the story fell a little flat. We didn’t really love the songs that much, though there was clearly a lot of singing talent.
My wife and I feel good that we got through it and can now understand cultural references to it, but it felt like a chore to watch the whole shebang.
One thing I will always remember from the movie was, you know… that dance.
Here is my affiliate link to rent Wicked – Bonus X-Ray Edition: