The best tweets about ‘Peter Pan Live,’ a ratings disappointment

Update Friday morning: Last night’s “Peter Pan Live” reportedly averaged 9.1 million viewers — less than half the 18.6 million who tuned in to NBC this time last year to watch “The Sound of Music Live,” the first live TV musical in half a century. “Pan’s” ratings dropped during each half hour of the three-hour-long production. Click here for more on the ratings.

#PeterPanLive lit up Twitter, but not the way most expected.

In general, the tweets were pretty tame. Dare I say complimentary. A far cry from the steady stream of (often hilarious) vitriol unleashed by the hate-watchers who tuned in to last year’s “Sound of Music Live!”

It seemed like the Twitter tide turned about halfway through the three-hour-long performance. Ennui set in. We were fed up with Christopher “Walken Dead’s” performance. The snark started flowing, at least more than it did at the outset. And that’s OK. No one said the second screen experience had to be sweet. I found it far more entertaining to read my Twitter feed than to watch a poorly choreographed sword fight or to play Count the Cables during the flight scenes.

But there’s no denying that “Peter Pan” was better than “Sound of Music,” and the kinder response on Twitter reflected that.

I still believe that musicals on TV are like sex on the kitchen table. It doesn’t take long before it’s painfully obvious that this isn’t what it was made for.

You know what Twitter was made for? Shows like this. Here’s a look at some of the best tweets: