Smash's inaugural season is over, and most of the commentary I see on the internet pronounces it a failure. People seem to have a variety of beefs with the show, but I think they mostly boil down to people not accepting it for what it is: a soap opera with a Broadway backdrop.
Taken on those terms, Smash works perfectly. And pretty much every criticism of the show can be defended by the simple assertion of what the show is: a soap opera. About a Broadway musical.
I must hereby apologize to Anjelica Huston. On seeing the first episode, I wrote that she "didn't know what to do with the character." O, Angelica, I was wrong! Indeed, in the pilot episode, Angelica Huston was actually the only one who seemed to fully understand what show she was in. She played it over the top and soapy from the beginning.
I actually believe people's disappointment/annoyance with Smash is NBC's fault. They promoted it like it was The Wire about Broadway, instead of like it was Beverly Hills 90210 about Broadway. So all the people who keep expecting it to be some kind of realistic drama keep being put off by the over-the-top, soapy, all-about-Eve dialogue, when, in fact, that's key to the show's success.
But let's talk about some of the strengths. First of all, Smash is breaking TV taboos left and right in a way I have never seen another network show doing. To wit: guys making out with guys! (seriously. Even Glee doesn't show this shit.) White guys making out with black guys! Women having affairs without being evil strumpets! (Here Smash triumphs over 90210. Julia has an affair and is still essentally sympathetic (at least partly because they've made the poor guy who plays her husband appear pretty much asexual). Compare to Valerie, or Emily Valentine, or Lucinda, or any other 90210 character who showed any sexual agency.) Women in their 60's being sexual beings! (61-year-old Angelica Huston is shown having a sexy, if not entirely believable, romance with a younger man. Find me another show that has allowed a woman of that age to be sexual! And I'm not counting the Golden Girls, where the joke was on the character.)
So, yeah, I love this show. I love hating Julia's inexplicably frumpy outfits. (Kind of revealing that the only time she looked really good was when she was having her illicit romp on the couch in the rehearsal studio. And I loved that they kept using that couch in the rehearsals.) I love Tom.
In a purely heterosexual way.
And Megan Hilty's performance has been completely awesome.
She has, from the first episode, showed this very believable and sympathetic hunger and vulnerability that has kept Ivy appealing.
HERE BE SPOILERS!
And yeah, Ivy totally should have gotten the part. She was better than Karen in every way--deeper, more interesting, and, relevant to being cast as Marilyn, curvier. (The article, I think it was on Slate but I don't feel like looking for it, that called Katherine McPhee "an anodyne performer" was spot on.) But that's life, and that's showbiz.
If I were writing for the show (call me! I totally would!) I would totally have Karen go all Valley of the Dolls and get overwhelmed by her success and then have Ivy swoop in to pick up the pieces. I would even have a recovering Ivy give Karen the pills.
I saw that neither Dev nor Ellis will return. I won't miss Dev (no knock on Raza Jeffrey, who did the best he could with a part that didn't really have a place in the show), but it's folly to do away with Ellis.
Jaime Cepero made a fantastic villain, and, again, if I were writing, I'd have him suing for producer credit and totally threatening the success of Bombshell. The only misstep was the show's continuing assertion that Ellis was straight. In a show where almost every utterance was over the top, it was the only thing that I couldn't suspend my disbelief about.
I'm looking forward to next season.






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