My problem with Ellis is that he's supposed to be the villain you love to hate, but he has no actual power, and except for the "you already tried to fire me once, and that didn't work, did it?" speech to Julia, any time he tried to assert himself, he got smacked down immediately by Eileen and retreated. And I think Jaime Cepero wasn't a good fit for the role. There's no weight to his performance, and I think this kind of villain needs some. As was said earlier, he just seemed like an annoying gnat. He's not actually threatening to anyone else. He could have been re-envisioned successfully as a junior Michael Riedel, but he's not really a worthwhile villain.
Over the past couple of weeks, I re-watched all of Season 1, and knowing what to expect, it was actually much more entertaining than when I watched it the first time around. It was kind of said in jest earlier, but if you ditch all of the non-theater-related stuff (Dev and the Mayor's office, Leo's pot troubles and the adoption storyline, all of the pop songs out of context like the bowling alley scene), the rest of the show was fun and watchable.
A few things I disliked more this time around:
-Katherine McPhee's horrible acting -- she has no facial expression
-Karen does in fact have everything handed to her on a plate with minimal effort on her part, and she is a very 2-dimensional character
-Heaven on Earth seems like a horrible show, dated and corny
Things I appreciated more:
-the Shaiman/Wittman songs are really good, really well-performed, and reflect well the "real-life" storylines
-Uma Thurman is really great.
-Ann Harada has great facial expressions
-Ivy Lynn is totally messed up, but she is fascinating to watch (kind of like Juliette Barnes on Nashville)
"What was the name of that cheese that I like?"
"you can't run away forever...but there's nothing wrong with getting a good head start"
"well I hope and I pray, that maybe someday, you'll walk in the room with my heart"
