Smash: "The Producers"
Tuesday, April 30, 2013 at 8:37PM One might also read that blogpost title as a command, "Smash the producers!" Go ahead. I won't stop you.
Tonight I am deeply in envy of my friend Glenn who took over Smash review duties over a week ago while I was in Nashville and lucked upon the best episode of the season "Opening Night". That episode was so good I even liked Karen Cartwright in it! *gasp*
But beware the fall when you reach a peak! Last week was too good to be true and this week's episode proves that Smash won't really be missed when it's finally put down despite its intermittent and blessedly unique high points. Last season's "hate watching," so widely reported because musicals are favored targets of scorn, seems to have turned into "hate-to-watch" since the ratings fall each week. Did you see Theresa Rebeck's e-mail to Buzzfeed? For all of the problematic agenda and ego that might have prompted her very late reply to their infamous Behind the Scenes expose on the troubled Season 1 show, she may well have a talking-about-herself-in-the-third-person point here:
If in fact Theresa Rebeck was the problem with Smash and the trainwreck it became, wouldn't things have gotten better rather than drastically worse - once she left?
Yeah, yeah, I'm avoiding talking about this episode.
A lot of screaming. Which is what I do whenever the show focuses on "Hit List"
2.1 "The Producers" was terrible. Can we leave it at that? No? Okay then we're racing through this one.
Best Moment: Karen gets shot. Briefly I got confused and thought the prop gun was real.
Most Indicative of the Giant Letdown Of it All: Previously we got Liza / Bernadette cameos. Now we get Kathie Lee?
Worst Moment: The "surprise" ending - spoilers ahead. For several weeks I've been bemoaning the addition of Jeremy Jordan's utterly hateful "Jimmy" character -- who the show still expects us to feel sympathetic towards despite the weekly burning of bridges and pissing on art thing -- but really he's just a sympton of a larger problem the show has in rooting against the success of its characters and even against the success of their creative endeavors and now their very lives. It's really kind of a hateful show if you stop to mull it over.
I probably wouldn't be so angry if the episode hadn't ended with (presumably) young book writer Kyle being run over by a car or bus or something just as he finishes singing Jeff Buckley's "Last Goodbye". This cheap gotcha-goosing of the already messy drama with a car crash wasn't telegraphed as shamelessly as when it happened on Glee. That other cursed musical also started off strong only to nose dive into complete unwatchability -- i stopped watching right after its similar cliffhanger. I've never missed it. This death is surely an attempt to further position "Hit List" as this fictional Broadway-world's own "Rent" -- Rent's creator Jonathan Larson died of a brain aneuryism just before his show's massive success -- but wow that's in bad taste. Especially pairing it with a Jeff Buckley classic. Uncool, Smash, uncool. F
In closing... if you're still watching Smash but are behind a few episodes, stop with "Opening Night" which was a rare great episode and would have actually worked beautifully as a series finale.
Broadway and Stage, LGBT, Smash, TV
Reader Comments (12)
Given how the return of that dancer who filed a sexual harrassment case against Derek turned into absolute nothing this week, it's hard not to wonder why they didn't just spend the time last week with another musical number. And there in lies one of Smash's biggest problems. It has such ADD with what it wants to follow. This week was all about producers and writers and directors moving on once the project has no further use for them and that's what the show does with character (Jennifer Hudson, are you okay in that ditch they dumped you into after episode four?) and story.
And also: Tom was SO VERY MUCH IN THE WRONG I CAN'T EVEN. Seriously, he very clearly did not want to work with Julia on City of Angels so it seems so pigheaded and over-the-top to be that angry with her. Ugh.
I've been waiting for this!
you've already covered that awful cliffhanger, where kyle's supposed death will surely lead to jimmy's redemption arc and "hit list" going to broadway. ok. (btw, what was the point of having kyle cheat his boyfriend with tom? I guess to have bombshell people tied to the mourning of his death - this in very good taste).
but I have to comment about that karen 'seduction' scene in the end of the episode. didn't she say last week she wouldn't be with derek even if she was not seeing someone? didn't she say the week before that that derek was a bitter old man or something and that she would not want to work with him ever again?
yes, I get why she ended her relationship with jimmy the jerk, but she did that VERY easily (and he was a jerk from the first time she ever met him, what changed? that fight at the bombshell party?). this episode, karen (or mcphee maybe) could not care less in acting like she gave a damn about the man she had just said last week she wanted a future with.
and then, when "hit list" might not be her big break after all, she goes after derek all like "let's decide our next project, after we f*ck".
the thing is, I can like a character who is ambitious and does 'bad' things (I generally DO), but the writing must acknowledge this in some form, and I'm almost sure the writers won't treat this storyline like that.
karen will still be inocent, right and sweet, and flirting like a teenager.
on a totally shallow note, what happened to debra messing this last few episodes? suddenly she's very pretty (not that she was not pretty before). and she's very good in those fighting scenes with tom - annoying as they are [the scenes], both actors do good work.
Opening Night would've been a lovely series finale. I thought that the entire time of the episode. While this episode was awful, i'm somewhat satisfied with the season with the continuous highs and lows and Rebeck sounds a bit bitter. That article was all kinds of informative/juicy though.
I know i say "ugh, fucking Karen" at least every episode so i'm somewhat biased but this episode has got to be McPhee's worst as an actress. She's the very definition of vacant. There was one scene where i'm sure she was wondering what shade of lipgloss she was wearing instead of paying attention.
Plus, Jimmy. Oh man. He was THE WORST in this episode. If anyone needs to be hit by a car (repeatedly) it's him. Kyle's (maybe?) death will be Jimmy's redemption but its much too late so he can go and overdose behind a door for all i care. This episode was dead on arrival when you consider that it focuses alot on Hit List and Jimmy and has minimal Megan Hilty.
and i'm with Marcelo with Debra Messing. She's looked noticeably fantastic for the last couple episodes. But she usually brings it with the acting when her character is not being difficult. I thought she did a great job with the Michael Swift fiasco even though that story ran out its welcome pretty fast. I'm liking the drama between her and Tom because it seems completely understandable though Tom is totally in the wrong. Whatever. I'm just waiting for them to perform "The Right Regrets" off of the Bombshell soundtrack.
Five dollars to anyone who knows the plot of Hit List. Plus, none of the Hit List numbers holds anything to Bombshell where i instantly fell in love with a good number of them.
and i'll lose every bit of sanity if Karen and Ivy end up fighting over Derek.
Yes, the show seems extremely annoyed when characters are successful that weren't in their plan. Season 1, Ivy's character was savaged when she was obviously more popular than Karen, who was the PLANNED popular one. Season 2, Tom becomes the central character and one of the most popular ones. But he wasn't Supposed to be, he was just supposed to be support for the TV star. So Tom's character has to be trashed.
There are still some fun things, because this is a skilled professional cast (mostly) capable of adding some special touch of their own. I loved the shot of Jesse L. Martin in the room when Julia was working. Now there's a totally appealing fantasy. You can actually work in the same room with this beautiful person who is totally at ease with you, charming and supportive. And yet-- why doesn't he get to sing? That would have been the perfect moment for a love song.
I was glad when Jimmy was fired, and yet-- why wasn't it Jimmy playing in traffic?
The moment I saw Kyle this season I went, 'They are going to make him too precious to this world.' And then I realized the other musical they were making was Rent adjacent. I held my breath. Somebody had to be the Jonathan Larsen martyr figure. Jimmy's too much of a jerk, it had to be Kyle. Then they decided to cast two actors from the original cast of Rent in DRV and Jesse L. Martin and my blood BOILED when that scene happened.
I think I seriously clapped and laughed delightfully out loud when Karen got shot. Made me so happy. This damn show and its complete inability to focus on the pure simple pleasures (Hilty, the music of Bombshell). They dumped all that dead weight only to add the single most hateful character currently on tv and added a new show where every moody mid-tempo song sounds exactly like the other (I'll add another $5 for the person that comes up with that Hit List plot). In another life, I imagine that this show as 30 Rock on Broadway. McPhee could be Cerie, where her being vacant would actually an asset, even if she doesn't seem talented enough to be in on the joke...
Ugh.
I was with this episode pretty much up until that ending. That ridiculous, ridiculously awful ending. I don't even think it's worth it to waste my words on this show anymore.
I don't know if it's a product of their filming schedule or what, but it's clear that SMASH has an image problem: How it sees its characters is almost COMPLETELY different from how its audience sees its characters, and it has absolutely zero ability to course-correct.
As if the thing with Kyle wasn't bad enough, Karen has (apparently) finally decided to abandon every single guiding principle she's ever had and sleep with Derek - or, at the very least, lead him on in a completely inappropriate way. And if she doesn't know what she's doing, then she's an even bigger idiot.
But there were good things in this episode - I freakin' CHEERED when Julia told Tom that he was being a selfish, passive-aggressive asshole and that she was going to do Gatsby her way, with Scott; the Bombshell publicity tour was fun to see, even if Kathie Lee's presence was an offense unto God (or Liza); and I LOVE Eileen when she's an operator, asserting herself boldly in a man's world. AND the producers didn't buy Hit List (which we have seen such fragmented pieces of that I cannot make heads or tails of what is even going on in any given scene, despite the fact that the plot is more or less pretty straightforward) - although they did say it was too edgy/dark for Broadway, which made me laugh, but still! They didn't act like it was a work of genius that must be brought to the Great White Way at all costs! IMPROVEMENT! And then, as per usual, they went and threw all that goodwill right into the crapper with the most pathetic, audience-baiting deus ex machina of all time. I could go with it if the show was in on the joke (like, say, Revenge is at its best moments), but it's all too clear that it most assuredly is not. We are meant to take this ridiculata seriously.
Well I'm calling bullshit.
This episode was infuriating. Tom fighting with Julia despite having no leg to stand on, Kyle trying to defend Jimmy for getting into a fight at a Broadway Opening, two horrendous songs (that horrid finale to The Hit List and Kyle's half-sung Buckley song), cameos from random producers I guess I'm supposed to know, and then a preview of Karen and Ivy fighting again in the next episode?
Ufffff.
I agree that Debra Messing looks gorgeous these last few episodes. Her hair is great, her makeup perfect, the lighting on her wonderful, and she gets the best supportive boyfriend, and lots of good lines, and she gets to be in the right.
Again, my theory is, Tom was more popular than Julia. So Julia has to be built up, and Tom torn down. Tom&Kyle=Ivy&Dev. But like the English expression, I feel bolshie about that, and I'm just going to ignore the punish Tom storylines like I ignored the punish Ivy storylines.
Nathaniel...why would you waste your energy hating the Jimmy character? He is a fictional character that is specifically written to be unlikeable and to create conflict and tension. As far as I'm concerned, the character is quite effective. I wasn't familiar with Jeremy Jordan's work before Smash, but from what I see, he's doing a pretty damn good job (and he has a kick-ass voice too).
I agree Debra looks noticeably brighter in these last few episodes...maybe its afterglow?
Fingers crossed that Jimmy rushes in, pushes Kyle out of the way, and gets run over himself.
@Roark, I love that idea! FINALLY, a selfless act from Jimmy!
I don't get to Broadway much, the last time being 1990, but I'm pretty sure they've had some dark, edgy shows, like oh I don't know, Sweeney Todd, Little Shop of Horrors, The Diary of Anne Frank, Urinetown, 'Night, Mother, etc., etc. Oy, this show!!!