So much to discuss to catch up. Smash is playing up the movie angles with Actors Studio & sequel jokes, Uma guest starring, Bollywood numbers, multiple Monroes, and the general lame practice of stunt casting when movie stars hit the stage. The show feels more than a little keyed up all of a sudden with the unstable presence of Rebecca Duvall (Uma Thurman) in the mix.
1.11 "The Movie Star"
The episode begins as the dancers greet Karen (Katharine McPhee) who is uncharacteristically dressed up for a sweaty rehearsal to impress Rebecca (Uma Thurman)
Bobby: Oh you reallly bumped it up a notch, didn't you?
Jessica: Ah, she dressed up for the movie star."
This could also double as an introduction to a show that seems to be trying a little harder now that they've got some genuine starlight in the mix with Uma flouncing about being a pain in the ass. Of course the big problem with Smash is not that Uma's character can't sing (we know she'll eventually quit the show, don't we?) but that TV show itself still wants to convince us that Marilyn should be played by Karen within the show. But Katharine McPhee is such a poor excuse for a Marilyn when Megan Hilty is standing right there deserving the part. Argh. McPhee isn't even convincing as Marilyn when she's handed those full makeup fantasies because she feels and looks nothing like her in face, physique or temperament.
Her Day Will Come?Brando & Dean jokes,
Brando and Dean jokes and Bollywood strangeness after the jump... It's the biggest SMASH post ever.
Overall this was a solid episode, with a very strong first ten minutes setting up new tensions or reestablishing old dynamics (Ivy returns to the chorus). Rebecca complains that her scenes are too shot and why is she always breaking out into song? In other words, Rebecca isn't as big of a fan of musicals as she first seemed. Karen keeps insisting that she likes Rebecca and her frenemy Ivy serves up this tart funny retort.
Don't lie. She's annoying. We hate her."
Set List: Originals - "Let Me Be Your Star" (Thurman singing badly), "Dig Deep" (Thurman singing as well as movie actors usually do which is to say competent and no more); Contemporary - "Our Day Will Come" (McPhee)
Gay Gay Gay: "Oh gurrrrrrrl. Oh no she di't"...Sam chastises Tom for flaming out at rehearsal and then in a later sequence gets all religious and judgy about Tom's sexual behavior. "Trust me, my way is better." Ick. I'm not liking this internalized homophobia on the show.
Anjelica Awesomeness: "There's power in proximity as I think you already know." The only good thing about having the evil Ellis on the show is that Anjelica Huston is always entertaining when she's instructing him, dissing him, or generally bossing him around. But at this point, Debra Messing is sucking up all the awesomeness. She is loose and funny in the opening minutes, teasing Tom and his dancer-crush and amusingly blunt and self-deprecating in her at-home moments trying to fix her broken family. Debra for the Emmy.
Curtain Call: Rebecca works at it (offscreen. closed set) and finally manages a decent number with the Actors Studio set "Dig Deep" and then ends the episode with the cheerful threat
I've got lots more ideas."
Uh-oh!
Grade: B
P.S. I'm adding a new category to my rundowns because I just heart them so.
B♡bby and/or Dennis (Wesley Taylor and Phillip Spaeth): In this episode the chorus boys get to flank Uma in the big number and throw in a little James Dean and Marlon Brando.
Fun.
Moving on...
1.12 "Publicity"
We'll do this one quick because there's only one moment anyone talks about from it. The plot as it was... Rebecca continues to be a nightmare wanting to cut numbers and making ordering at an Indian restaurant an ordeal. She also befriends Karen for somewhat inexplicable reasons (this show isn't anything like Glee-level incompetent with consistent characterizations but there are a couple of erratic characters). Meanwhile, Ivy schemes to get a solo.
Set List: Contemporary "Run" (McPhee), "A Thousand and One Nights" (Raza Jaffrey & Katharine McPhee); Originals "Second Hand White Baby Grand" (Borle then McPhee then Hilty) I love when they let a song work its way through the entire episode. It makes the show about what it's supposed to be about: the creation of another show.
Gay Gay Gay: This.
B♡BBY: Karen gets everything. Recording contracts, national commercials, easy breaks.
Now she even gets to play with Bobby's hair. I hate her.
Anjelica Awesomeness: Control your movie star, Eileen. "I did that last week." Hee! I literally LOL'ed.
Best Worst Craziest Stupidest Awesomest Weirdest Most inexplicable Moment: A full Bollywood production number in Karen's mind, somehow prompted by her new friend and her boyfriend bickering about fame.
The silliest and best thing about the number is the cutaways to each of the characters that somehow comment on their current story, like this family portrait where the smiles fade a second too soon...
Or a great beat where Eileen is suddenly demure with her new lover, and Ellis pops into frame to steal some jewelry. Or Derek feeding Ivy grapes and being shewed away; Or Tom rubbing a genie lamp.
It's all extremely fussy and excessively theatrical and completely insane. This is what's called "gilding the lily". But usually when your lily is this gloriously eye-catching
...there's precious little reason to gild!
Curtain Call: Uma listens to her shadow self and Megan Hilty returns to the spotlight for a new ballad. Just glorious. Damn, Hilty! That voice.
Grade: B