Yes, No, Maybe So: "Les Miserables"

Q: You know what I always wanted for Christmas?
A: A miserabilist musical epic about whores, convicts, slum lords, revolutionaries and starving street urchins in 19th century France.

Thanks, Santa!

And thanks, Baby Jesus! Even though your dad was not as forgiving as Fantine (Anne Hathaway) dreamed. Les Misérables trailer and discussion after the jump

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Smash: That "Bombshell" Finale

True story. When I pressed play on the DVR to write up this last Smash post of the season, the TV "resumed play" in the middle of the episode somehow though I'd already watched the whole thing through. The mute button was on. Chorus girl Ivy (Megan Hilty) was pulling a ring box from her purse. The ring wasn't hers but fellow chorus girl Karen's (Katharine McPhee) whose fiance had left the ring in Ivy's hotel room after a drunken one night stand. At the exact moment that Ivy opened the ring box, the unmistakably familiar siren song of the ice cream truck sounded outside my apartment. 

I'm not sure where I'm going with this so let it suffice to say that this final episode of Smash's first season was nothing at all like a refreshing creamy treat. The only similarity was that I felt sick to my stomach after devouring it. I don't mean to be a drama queen but at episode's end when Ivy reached for a bottle of pills in her last vain attempt to commune with Marilyn Monroe, that dream role long since torn from her, I knew where she was coming from. I too felt robbed. 

This is not to say that I ever expected Ivy to get the Marilyn role in this fictional soap opera about the creation of a Broadway musical. NBC's peacock of choice from the beginning was the creamy lovely generic American Idol alum Katharine McPhee. The "who will get the role?" drama always felt a little forced since all the marketing was built around McPhee and the show took frequent awkard pains to insist that Katharine McPhee/Karen had "it" while Megan Hilty/Ivy was merely a competent seasoned performer but not a star. I've spent a lot of time shaking my head about the show's absolute inability to notice that the show doesn't play like that at all and they should have rethought their game plan. Megan Hilty has IT in so much bold all caps that it's like she's carting around her own spotlight and orchestra. Every time she performs the show lifts off to a higher level and every time the show tells us she doesn't have charisma, the show becomes as far-fetched as "Bombshell's" narrative that you can rejigger an entire show, rehearse a new lead, refit all the costumes and write a new song and everything will go off without a hitch mere hours later! 

It occurred to me afterwards and somewhat perversely that perhaps Katharine McPhee's generic charms are not the problem but it's Megan Hilty who is miscast. If Smash is not secretly a show about an otherwise talented director (Jack Davenport's Derek) who is terrible at casting --McPhee is beautiful and talented but sounds and moves nothing like Marilyn while Ivy is beautiful and talented and makes a very convincing musical Monroe -- than it is failing terribly. 

...sadly I was hoping she would.Set List: Standards - none; Contemporary - none; Originals -"Don't Forget Me" which is the second worst original song in a generally sensational musical score 
<--- B♡bby & Dennis: This one goes to Dennis (Phillip Spaeth) who is, as ever, adorable. And he always looks so happy!
Anjelica Awesomeness: "Wonderful!" Eileen's what now? exasperation that her ex-husband bought a ticket to the show. 
Best Moment: Sadly, the best moment by far was the little flashback inserts of Megan Hilty doing "Wolf" and Megan Hilty doing the epic "Let's Be Bad" the two best numbers ever seen on the show. But I also loved the sudden change in the title card. It was no longer "Smash" with an orchestra tuning up but "Smash" with an overture. Nice touch now that the show is playing (albeit in out of town tryouts).

Curtain Call: Skinny Katharine McPhee belting the anthemic ballad "Don't Forget Me" a weak song that sounds suspiciously like one of those interchangeable anthemic ballads that they always end American Idol with. In short, "Bombshell"'s finale was 100% Marilyn Monroe free; no blonde wig on McPhee could ever bridge that infinitesimal gap.
Grade: C-
Season as a Whole: B/B- though the first half of the season, particularly episodes four through six suggest that this could be an A level show. Here's to next season. Break a leg!

American Idol Katharine McPhee as American Idolesque American Icon Marilyn Monroe

Previously on Smash
1.1 "Pilot" |  1.2-1.3 "The Callback" & "Enter Joe DiMaggio" |  1.4-1.6 "The Cost of Art", "Let's Be Bad" & "Chemistry" |  1.7 "The Workshop" with Bernadette Peters! |  1.8 "The Coup"...the worst episode |  1.9-1.10 "Hell on Earth", "Understudy" |  1.11-1.12 "The Movie Star", "Publicity" with Uma! |  1.13-1.14 "Tech" & "Previews" with Uma!

Season Awards
Best Episode - The Cost of Art | Best Actress - Debra Messing (and yes I'm surprised by this) | Best Actor - Jack Davenport | Best McPhee Number - "Rumor Has It" from The Cost of Art | Best Hilty Number - "Let's Be Bad from Let's Be Bad | Best Production Number - "Let's Be Bad" in Let's Be Bad | Best Number Not Staged -  "Wolf" in The Cost of Art | Best Number That Doesn't Feature Hilty or McPhee - "Say Yes" with Christian Borle from Understudy | Best Anjelica Huston - Anjelica Huston | Amount of Joy I Suspect I Would Feel If They Staged the Entire "Bombshell" on Broadway with Megan Hilty in the Lead Role - ∞

Smash: "Tech" & "Previews"

Smash recently announced that its creator and season 1 showrunner Theresa Rebeck was moving on. and Josh Safran (who ran Gossip Girl) is moving in for Season 2. What this means for the show we'd rather not speculate because Smash is such a fragile series. Tweak it this way it becomes a great series rather than a good one. Tweak it that way and it all falls apart. Expectations were too high to avoid studio interference but what the show needs is someone who embraces the core of its appeal and doesn't worry about appealing to every demographic. (Even Marilyn Monroe herself was hardly a universally beloved / respected movie star.) Shows that know themselves first and foremost tend to be the ones that people come to and adapt to, not shows that try to adapt to that  mythical monolithic audience.

Happy Birthday.... Mr. Director ♫

1.13 "Tech"
Despite various complaints about the direction of Season 1 I think the show actually has a pretty good handle on forward momentum. more after the jump.

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The Link Initiative

The Avengers Initiative
Wired the physics of the Hulk's jump
Monkey See suggests some other team-up films that should follow The Avengers. Love the ending. Hee!
Guardian have you heard this ridiculously whiny Samuel L Jackson story? He's incensed that AO Scott gave The Avengers a thumbs down. I like AO Scott. The New York Times critic was at my screening and patiently waited in line. NY 1's Neil Rosen thought himself way too important to wait and just walked to the front. How do you like them apples? 
Scanners Jim Emerson sounds off on this same controversy (the Jackson vs Scott thing not Rosen's apples!) 

Not Relation
Empire Joseph Gordon-Levitt may headline a remake of Little Shop of Horrors (1986). Uh, good luck finding another Ellen Greene.
Coming Soon Sharlto Copley (District 9) is lining up a lot of movies. He next stars in Old Grave then Old Boy (the two films are not related) and now maybe Maleficent with Angelina Jolie
Details The Friday Night Lights movie is on! Squeeeeeeee
Cinema Blend Kellan Lutz will play a motion capture animated Tarzan in another adventure for the vine swinging ape man
The Wrap in the most important news of the century Demi Moore changes her twitter handle. She's no longers Mrs Kutcher 
Towleroad Anna Paquin "being bisexual is actually a thing"
Next Movie summer blockbusters reimagined as indies via their posters 

California readers take note: There's a three benefit celebrity-hosted performance of The Last Five Years in Hollywood this weekend. It's easily one of the five best original musicals to emerge in the last 10 years and you can buy tickets here. I can't imagine how it will quite work in terms of cumulative emotion with a rotating cast -- it's a two person musical in which the lovers tell their story forwards (the man) and backwards (the woman) simultaneously but it so transcends its gimmick. If you've never seen it, go. If you're not near Hollywood, give the CD a chance if you love musicals. 

I use to want to see it made into a movie but it's probably better left untouched since it's so very much a stage piece.

Smash: "The Movie Star" & "Publicity"

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.

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