NBC's SMASH - Series & Broadway Adaptation Thread — Page 19

Ratings continue to decline:

"The news for Smash wasn't good though falling another half a point with adults 18-49 to a 2.3 adults 18-49 rating."


http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2012/02/21/tv-ratings-monday-the-voice-down-slightly-but-leads-smash-alcatraz-continue-to-fall-most-cbs-shows-recover-castle-inches-up/120824/

Updated On: 2/21/12 at 11:58 AM

I didn't think the episode was great. I also think that Eileen throwing wine at Jerry is too much like the teens on 'Glee' get slushies thrown at them. Most sources say that episodes 2 & 3 are not as great, but things really start to pick up in episode 4.

Ratings continue to decline:

"The news for Smash wasn't good though falling another half a point with adults 18-49 to a 2.3 adults 18-49 rating."

I think part of the problem was that some television stations like mine did not show previews for this week's episode. But it is unfortunate that the show is now going down the path that 'Pan Am' went with ratings.

However, like I said earlier, it might end up like 'Parks & Recreation' and '30 Rock'. Neither of those shows were hits with ratings yet critics really liked them. The former got mixed reviews in its first season because most people compared it to 'The Office' and Amy Poehler thought it could've been better. Fortunately, the show improved over its next seasons.

I still find it disappointing that the show had inconsistent script writing in its 2nd and 3rd episodes. I felt that 'Once Upon a Time' has had consistently good episodes since it first premiered.

Updated On: 3/20/12 at 12:44 PM

Also, I do find it a little skeevy that Messing and Chase are playing cheaters on the show when in essence they replicated that in real life by leaving their current relationships for each other. Bad timing kids.

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Bettyboy, that's all I thought of when Will Chase was on last night. Just makes me not care for him one bit.

Oh and there is one uptight ninny on the Smash Facebook page who has her panties in a tizzy over the sex scene at the beginning of last night's episode.

Updated On: 2/21/12 at 01:56 PM

However, like I said earlier, it might end up like 'Parks & Recreation' and '30 Rock'. Neither of those shows were hits with ratings yet critics really liked them.

The thing about those two shows is that they're much cheaper to produce than SMASH, and 30 ROCK always had the advantage of having Lorne Michaels and Alec Baldwin, two people that NBC has a long standing relationship with. I certainly hope that NBC at least trusts the show enough to give it a second season.

I want to love the show and I really do love certain parts of it (basically, whenever Debra Messing shows up on screen, or when Hilty gets material that is as good as her acting/singing), but the writing on the last two episodes has been incredibly mediocre. I don't really mind the inaccuracies regarding the business, if I want to watch a documentary about the making of a musical from the ground up, there's a couple good ones out. What I mind are the cliched storylines involving Karen (and I really wish they got rid of McPhee, she's as bland as it gets and can't really act), the could-be-more-interesting-than-it-is director sleeps with young actress plot (though Hilty really sells some of those moments), and Christian Borle's incredibly uninspired take on being a gay man.
GLEE was never good, but it had characters like Sue Sylvester, and some inspired musical moments that made it a phenomenon. This show is filled with too many character types that aren't unique enough to make it stand out, and it lacks the magic that you felt when popular network dramas like LOST and TWIN PEAKS were at their best.

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"The thing about those two shows is that they're much cheaper to produce than SMASH"

Is 'Parenthood' expensive to produce? That has also never been a big hit with ratings.

Firewall and Iceberg Podcast (Alan Sepinwall and Dan Fienberg, respectively), pretty sure The AV Club brought it up, Mo Ryan for AOL brought it up I believe. TV critics get a lot of screeners ahead of time.

TV by the Numbers said it was too soon to think that the show is going to be cancelled. They said that there is still a chance it can be renewed for another season:

"Smash is falling hard and fast, with the third episode down 40% from the premiere two weeks ago based on preliminary ratings. Some critics and anti-fans are calling it a colossal failure for NBC (due to how heavily NBC promoted it), but make no mistake it could fall a ways further and still be renewed. It's still too soon to know if and where Smash will stabilize, but for now it's still on the bubble."




Bubble Watch NBC: 'Smash' Falls Far Fast, But Isn't Dead Yet

This is one of the dullest shows I've ever watched on series TV. Where is the audience for this? Certainly not theatre queens like me! Watching a straight couple screwing every week ain't gonna do, guys. It's not dishy or trashy enough for me, and if poor Anjelica Huston, in her Cleopatra wig, had to throw that drink one more time, it would have put me over the edge.

And who out there believed for a second that the "assistant" was straight? Was that supposed to be a surprise??

I keep watching it because I can't believe that it's not going to get better. A series about the making of a Broadway show?? I am so there! But aside from the great voice of Katherine McPhee, this show has nothing to recommend it. Just hot air...

...PARENTHOOD with its solid ensemble of mainly no-name actors....

I realize that being a "name" in show business is a relative concept, but Lauren Graham, Peter Krause and Craig T. Nelson all starred in hit series before PARENTHOOD. For those of us of a certain age, Bonnie Bedelia was the queen of serious TV movies from the late 1970s through the 1990s and at least one, critically praised feature film, HEART LIKE A WHEEL (which earned her a Golden Globe nomination); she has worked steadily ever since. I'll grant you Erica Christensen, but even she has starred in a dozen films over the past decade.

Okay, nobody is Barbra Streisand. But to me, PARENTHOOD pairs an all-star cast with a group of extremely talented newcomers who play the grandchildren of Craig T. Nelson. I absolutely agree that the ensemble is solid.

Updated On: 2/21/12 at 04:38 PM

Didn't Tom and Julia say in the Pilot that they'd already had the idea of "Marilyn the Musical?" I feel like they said something like they'd tried it, but couldn't make it work. If that's the case, how would Ellis have any claim to the idea at all, other than bringing the team's attention back to the subject?

I think what Borle and Messing were discussing was a Marilyn musical that was already a flop.

I think Ellis knows he is on shakey ground taking credit and that's why he took her notebooks. But now he can blackmail Messing with telling her husband she had an affair.

At least we know Ivy likes to be on top in the (well-placed) sheets. The show needs more sex.