I’m sickened (that’s right, Vidar is now using the pronoun “I” because unless you are Elmo, it’s fucking annoying to talk all the time in the third person).
I am Vidar – the Norse God of Silence – and I hate “Smash.”
The latest episode in this endless train wreck – like that scene in “Spider-man” where it takes about 15 minutes for Spider-man to stop the train with his web – is “The Workshop.”
So am I supposed to believe that “Marilyn” sucks just because the characters all say it sucks? If that’s true, then why have we been blasted over and over again, week after week, with “crappy” Broadway type songs?
Is it going to be great (a “Smash” if you will) when the characters tell us it’s great?
Shouldn’t it suck because I, the audience, can see that it sucks? When, in three or four episodes, the characters tell me it’s finally great, I have a feeling it’s going to look and feel exactly the same.
So why does “Marilyn” suck?
Is it because all the backers and agents who showed up in stifling heat – who apparently can’t appreciate an appliance malfunction in New York City – witnessed Megan Hilty (as Ivy playing Marilyn) slip once? Or did they see Katharine McPhee fall off a dancing block? Was that the deal killer for them?
Ugh – this show is annoying in its simplicity. Can someone please fix it? Or not – and just stop doing it? Can the digital hard drives containing the latest precious footage be erased and replaced with “All That Jazz”?
And NBC has renewed it for another season.
Fuck.
I’m not going to go into details on this episode “The Workshop” because the greatest write-up possible has been already done by Rachel Shukert at New York Magazine. So read that one. It’s much better writing than anything on “Smash.”
Vidar – The Norse God of Silence, Stealth & Revenge
Renewed? They just couldn’t admit their mistake. Next year it falls hard.
It’s just a TV show, man. Don’t worry about it. Just dont’ watch. Some people like it. Some dont’. No big deal.
I’m glad it’s getting another season. I enjoy the show, but I hope it’s going to figure out that it’s audience is not stupid. It’s soapy fun, bit has the potential to be *smart*, soapy fun. And give Katherine McPhee’s character some believability, or at least some self-awareness; nobody in the audience is rooting for her, and she needs to either get wicked or realize that she isn’t very easy to take.
EXCLUSIVE: Smash, which was just renewed for a second season, will return next fall without its creator/executive producer/showrunner Theresa Rebeck. I’ve learned that Rebeck is stepping down as showrunner of the musical drama after its maiden season. Details about her future involvement with Smash are still being worked out. Rebeck will keep her executive producer title and may write scripts but will not be involved in the day-to-day running of series, returning to her theater career. Word is NBC will bring in a new showrunner for Season 2. It is unclear how that would affect writing executive producer David Marshall Grant, who joined the series after the pilot.
While the pilot of Smash was universally praised, there have been some qualms about the creative direction of the series, chronicling the creation of a Marilyn Monroe Broadway musical, which became increasingly soapy. Additionally, Smash, which started off big and broad, sometimes meandered into niche territory by focusing too much on the insider Broadway stuff over the human drama of the two singers, played by Megan Hilty and Katharine McPhee, battling it out for the role of their career. Rebeck, a playwright in addition to being a screenwriter, will have a continuing presence on Smash — the female lead on the show, Julia (Debra Messing), half of a successful Broadway writing team, was based on her.