“Melrose Place” is alive and well and living on Broadway.
What in Odin’s name happened to “Smash”?
In two weeks it has gone from a good, solid series with terrific musical numbers to a truly suck ass, trashy soap opera.
It’s only a matter of time before all the characters rent apartments in the same building and share a rooftop pool.
The producers (including, you, Mr. Spielberg) can kiss those Peabody and Emmy awards goodbye.
There is not much to say. Vidar is at a loss Nearly everything was bad in Episode 3 – “Enter Mr. DiMaggio.”
“Bad” will now have to be the metric for “Good” and “Very Very Bad” will be the worst.
THE BAD:
THE MUSICAL NUMBERS. Episode 3 really needed good music to get audiences past the terrible soap opera story lines of bed hopping, drink throwing and bizarre personal assistant snooping. There wasn’t good music.
“Redneck Woman” with Karen Carthwright’s (Katharine McPhee) adoring high school (or college?) friends was fine but I believe we’ve now exhausted the karaoke device. And did any of those girls in Iowa have lives of their own? It seems they only live to prop up Katharine McPhee. Michael Mayer (director) and producers, we get it – she has a strong support structure. Now if you can somehow return Karen to the real planet Earth, that would be helpful.
That moronic “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” song would have been fine – if it was only one minute long. It’s one of those pointless little “sweet” songs that is stuck between really good songs in a musical – like “Everything Is Rosie” from “Bye Bye Birdie”. A song like that in the second half hour of the show is a sure fire way to get audiences to change the channel. Not good.
THE VERY BAD:
THE SCRIPT. It now feels as though the concept is too thin to support a long running series.
“Enter Mr. DiMaggio” felt forced and almost like a time killing episode. It’s a problem that “Glee” has had as they try to come up with enough episodes before they get the spring shows when the actual Glee competitions start. It’s nothing but a time killing device.
THE VERY VERY BAD:
THE DIRECTION. The actors are doing all they can with the script they are given but they are getting no help from their director.
Nothing is natural. It’s all overly “staged” (makes sense, Michael Mayer is a stage director first). Even Ivy Lynn (Megan Hlity) is starting to flail – and, as you know, Vidar has much love for her.
All of the actors appear as though they are in some high school musical in which they all believe they are doing amazing work – but when you’re sitting in the audience as an adult – you realize it’s a high school musical, nothing more.
————————–
Is there anything that can save this show (and it’s week-over-week falling ratings)?
Maybe. It would take a subtle overhaul of the entire look and feel of the show. Apartments need to look more lived in. New York City needs to look more lived in. The characters need to look more lived in.
A lot of work – so much so that audiences most likely will not have the patience.
It was a great experiment and kudos to NBC for taking the chance. It just didn’t work out this time.
Vidar is still watching and hoping a new director can right the ship.
Vidar – Norse God of Silence, Stealth & Revenge
Agreed vidar. But I don’t like. I wanted it to be good. Why? That scene in the bar with Kat McPhee and the two Brits. I just wanted to crawl away from the television. Please make it stop. The Voice is great this year. You should review that one instead vidar.
It was truly awful but thank god they dropped that horrible adoption scenario (for at least one week).
Spot on with this write-up, I really think this web site wants far more consideration. I’ll most likely be once more to read much more, thanks for that info.