Smash: Discussion Thread

[DRW50]

I mostly just see as kind of annoying/boring depressed person.

[DeliaIrisFan]

I'm a bit late to the party, but I sometimes forget that this board has a primetime section. I was completely annoyed by something while watching last week's episode, which oddly enough has to do with the same issue that this quote encapsulates: I was watching on-demand (where you can't FF through the commercials) and was forced to watch a commercial during Smash for Smash..or, rather, for Katherine McPhee. It was a best-of highlight reel of every character talking about how great "Karen" is. And my first thought was to come to a soap board to complain about it, because it really is the epitome of what daytime soaps have become. (Except I think soaps would never waste precious ad time promoting something that people are already watching. It's the writers' job to tell the audience whom to root for specifically, within the allotted ~ 38 minutes, dammit!) Using a scripted Anjelica Houston line a la "this girl really has something" or whatever the exact quote was is as shameless as when Ryan's Hope brought on Joan Fontaine in a cameo to tell Kelli Maroney's Kim what a great actress she was.

Anyway, I agree completely with those who've said that Hilty seems much more believable as a potential "star," and that Karen is an annoying character.

Really? That's fascinating. It occurred to me while watching the very first episode that Ahrens and Flaherty were the closest real-life songwriting duo to Borle and Messing's characters, but there has to be at least a twenty-year age difference. That's a big deal, when a huge problem with Broadway musicals today is that nobody who's the age of those characters - let alone anybody younger - has had a career anything like these characters'. Not that the real-life Ahrens and Flaherty have, either. The Smash folks have a "hit" show still running on Broadway and another that's close enough to Broadway to be in workshops with a name Hollywood actress and a big producer working full-time on it. Has that happened to any composer/lyricist since the '70s (ok, maybe in London in the '80s)? Have Ahrens and Flaherty even had a show on Broadway since Ragtime, two decades ago? Did they even have another Broadway show before that (I forget if Once on this Island actually made it to Broadway)? Smash wants to be considered contemporary, and they even insert little throwaway lines about what's wrong with Broadway now, so I don't think we should be asked to suspend disbelief on something like that.

I actually think all of the main plot points could have worked - and the characters might be more likable - if the creative team were supposed to be "nobodies," and the real powerbrokers either were more tentative in their involvement or were involved with the show dubiously for their own motives. And there actually are talented actors with interesting resumes who've attached themselves to productions in that New York Musicals Festival (or whatever it's called) and so forth.

I do wish Ahrens and Flaherty had written the music. I think it exemplifies how misguided this show's priorities are that they obviously spent a lot of money producing the show and ended up shelving it for six months because they thought it would help the ratings to premiere it in January with The Voice, but they wouldn't wait for their first choice to write the actual music in a show about musical drama! I loved "Let Me Be Your Star" because it was so ridiculous, but the rest is generic and completely forgettable, and that's how I would describe all of Shaiman's "real" songs that I know. And some of the songs are blatant rip-offs - "Let's Be Bad" was obviously Cole Porter's "Let's Misbehave," and that one Marilyn and DiMaggio fantasy number was "Somewhere That's Green" from Little Shop. Although I noticed that in the montage from the workshop, one or both of the songs were omitted...is it possible the writers were smart enough to intentionally order some rip-off songs that wouldn't make it into the show because the creators eventually realized they had subconsciously borrowed something they'd heard? Somehow, I think I'm giving them too much credit.

My other complaint is that the show seems to jump from one superficial plot point to the next and then forget them. Like this past week, Tom was freaking out that he's dating someone who believes in God, and was shocked when Julia told him that she does, too - which sounds like a recycled Will and Grace script, by the way. But their last show was called "Heaven on Earth," and aside from the campy costumes, we know that it presumably had some sort of metaphysical themes. Surely their thoughts on the matter must have come up when creating that show? And in the premiere, Megan Hilty was shown in a one-sided phone call, visibly hurt that her mother was more interested in her brother's office politics at a car dealership than in Ivy's big break; but then, because they booked Bernadette Peters (and, I suspect, because they wanted to build sympathy for Karen by implying Ivy got everything handed to her), within weeks, they change Ivy's back story to make her the daughter of a Broadway star.

The suggestions that the show focus on being more soapy and campy next season seem to be the best bet, as far as I can see. The basic setup is too trite and superficial for it to be turned into something like Madmen (which I would argue is a soap, and I would also say that its writers did enough research on the history of ATWT to show that they are less dismissive of the daytime genre than most primetime showrunners who balk at the comparison, but nevertheless). The best Smash can do at this point is probably a Melrose Place-esque revamp. I personally would vote for permanent "Special Guest Star" Bernadette Peters to help Ivy pull a Kimberly after one last straw and terrorize everyone who gets in her way from here on out. They could even make tongue-in-cheek soap references:

Ivy: Ugh, look at Karen, her acting is so soap opera.

Bitchy Chorus Boy: Oh Ivy, you only say that as if it's a bad thing because all the New York soaps are gone and you can't make any extra buck playing Nurse # 2 on All My Children anymore.

Ivy: You know, after all of those scenes about switching pregnancy tests, I'm having an idea... (glares at Karen)

[marceline]

I just watched that video. I haven't the words. I'll never be able to un-see that.

[alwaysAMC]

LMAO - just saw the episode and Kaye in the Bollywood scene... WOW that was embarrassing.

I keep watching this show and I'm not sure why... It's just mediocre, and it never has a good cliffhanger. Yet I still keep watching... it's weird.

[JackPeyton]

I am with you. For me I think that I have this very odd, strong love of Karen.

[marceline]

For me it's a combination of things: the trainwreck/guilty pleasure factor, my love of New York/Broadway (anything that gives me a chance to see Norbert Leo Butz or Christian Borle perform without my having to board a plane or watch YouTube bootlegs works for me) and a chance to watch a show that isn't about lawyers, doctors, crime scene techs or vampires. It's just silly, enjoyable, eye rolling fluff for me. At least until the actor who plays Leo comes on screen, then it's torture.

[marceline]

There's some BTS footage of the Bollywood number. You can see a little more of TK's "dancing." God bless him. He's trying. He's really, really trying. LOL!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YFhGUzoQ2c

[Ann_SS]

LOL! TK is awkward and has no rhythm. No DTWS for him. I find it hilarious that someone with his ego has to embarrass himself even more as tries to advance his career. Ah, Hollywood is a harsh town.

[marceline]

I respect all that awkward dancing. Ego or no ego, he's putting himself out there and putting in the work. I'm less embarrassed for him than I am for some of his former colleagues who are trying to keep GH afloat.

[Ann_SS]

Still when I think about his ego and how he was scornful of so many things that he had to do on the soaps... Now here he is, no different from any other actor doing whatever it takes to advance their career. Eh, good luck to him.

[Jonathan]

It's Passions all over again.

[marceline]

LMAO! It really is and I'm not seeing a lot of excitement around the new showrunner. I've never watched Gossip Girl so I have no opinion of whether he's a good pick or not.

[DRW50]

He's best known for his controversial comments about that show's abusive relationship with Chuck and Blair.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=550-FDajRJQ

http://www.eonline.com/news/watch_with_kristin/gossip_girl_boss_chuck_has_never_will/239902

[Jonathan]

OMG! Ivy and Dev!

[dragonflies]

LOL what ego? the man cared about what happened with his character, so now that's a crime?

I love that he wasn't afraid to embarass himself Bollywood dancing, when he's said in the past he's not a dancer LOL