NBC's SMASH - Series & Broadway Adaptation Thread- Page 59

[kyl3fong2]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 12:25pm

I personally like Katharine McPhee. I think she has a beautiful voice and she does her best with all the "green" and naive things the writers keep making Karen go through. I also enjoy all the cover songs she sings on the show, and even some like "Brighter than the Sun" and "Shake it Out" I thought she sang it better than the original.

[TxTwoStep]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 12:32pm

to me, within the genre, this was the best written of the episodes so far...they trusted the audience to get things without telegraphing them overtly or stating them in text (which leaves nothing much to play in subtext). Numbers good, choreo amazing, good acting played with contrast

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 12:37pm

What sticks in my craw is the fact that Raza Jaffrey is a charming and H-O-T actor who has been asked to be nothing but a nasty little pill.

I second that. But this show seems to be determined to make virtually every character unlikable in some way during the first season. It's as if they only have one option to adding dimension to a character and that is to make us like them and then find a way to make them awful. By episode 4, it had already become formulaic.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 12:43pm

The problem is, when you have Debra Messing and Angelica Houston, you can get away with them doing unlikable things because they have a deacde (or two...or three) of good will built up in the audience. Automatically, you have a feeling towards them because we've known them for so long. They, even when they're playing their characters (and Messing is playing it very, very well), we still know them from outside of this series and we'll forgive a lot. The rest of the cast doesn't get that option because they're unknown. So...we bring no baggage to them, and will only judge them on their characters' actions.

Am I really expending this much energy and thought on this show??

[Patash]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 1:13pm

I know it's only wishful thinking, but when Leo came up missing, I was so hoping he had been kidnapped and murdered, so that we could be spared him in the future -- and it would give the parents lots of guilt issues to work on for quite a few episodes.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
"What sticks in my craw is the fact that Raza Jaffrey is a charming and H-O-T actor who has been asked to be nothing but a nasty little pill."

Really? I find Karen to be the nasty little pill in that relationship. Which one is being totally self-centered? Which one not only turned down a great job offer but didn't even mention it to the other, making a huge sacrifice? Which one keeps "forgetting" to call and cancel dates or simply doesn't show up? Which one doesn't dump all his (her) issues on the other?

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 1:36pm

This is how I think it will go down:

Rebecca has Karen fired after they have some tiff
Ivy discovers Rebecca and Derek are having an affair
Ivy puts peanuts in Rebecca's smoothie in revenge and to get to go on as Marilyn.
Ivy's plot is uncovered and she's fired
They call back Karen a la Peggy Sawyer to do opening night of Bombshell

Season 2: Karen comes to New York as the lead in BOMBSHELL while Ivy gets cast in the lead of a musical being produced by Anjelica's ex husband.

Hopefully next season they really regroup. I think you'll see a lot of new cast members and something a little darker and more sophisticated.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 1:37pm

The stage manager of a Broadway show would not just be standing around helping a star make smoothies. During breaks is when the stage manager is the most busiest. There would have been a product assistant or intern assigned to doing smoothies.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 1:38pm

Has poor Ann Harada been given even one line on this show yet?

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 1:39pm

Last week we were talking about slut-shaming Ivy, but I think this show slut-shames Cousin Debbie. It was funny last week when she told the shrink she had an affair, but this week with Leo's friend getting up in her grill - enough. We get it. She should be wearing an "A" as scarlet as her hair. I wish Leo and Frank would go away and Cousin Debbie could be fabulous without them.

BorstalBoy, we finally have some common ground in this thread, because I think Brian D! James is dreadful in this, too.

Eos, I can't speak for anyone but myself, but my antipathy toward MacPhee comes from the fact that I just don't like her as a performer. It's not because she was on Idol, it's because she's her. Like others have said, there's just such a dead-eyed quality to her. I didn't hate her last night, though, so either she's less annoying or I'm mellowing.

The problem with Dev, at least to me, is that he's suddenly become evil boyfriend and there's been very little to explain the transformation. Remember in the first episodes, where he was telling Karen every thought he had on Marilyn Monroe? I thought it was silly to have him be so hostile to Uma. I get that it's not like wanting success of Broadway and wanting fame like Uma's is the same, but his implication that Karen didn't want Uma's life is silly because Karen even said as much (granted, not to him) earlier in the episode.

The Karen and Dev (as well as Dev at work) and Julia's family stuff is the stuff that's the most problematic in the show, I think, but if they keep making episodes like this, where all the other stuff in it was so enjoyable, I'll be happy.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 1:40pm

Yeah, Ana Harada had like two lines last night. Plus she got to make a funny face in the Bollywood number.

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 2:01pm

http://crushable.com/entertainment/smash-1x12-bollywood-1001-nights-dev-625/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZd6sZ2X9RM

[Patash]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 2:03pm

"Ivy puts peanuts in Rebecca's smoothie in revenge and to get to go on as Marilyn."

Funny you mention that. When Ivy asked the weasel to help her with something, I was convinced she was going to put peanuts in the smoothie. Am I crazy, or in the previews I've been seeing all week, wasn't there a shot of the whole cast running to the door (which is when they were trying to listen to what was going on outside) but it had dialogue over it in the preview that sounded like "she can't breathe"? What happened to that line in the actual show? Perhaps I misunderstood the "can't breathe line" but that's what I thought I heard all week long.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 2:05pm

"Has poor Ann Harada been given even one line on this show yet?"

Yes, last night while there was a fight going on in the rehearsal hall, she stuck her head in and said something like "The entire ensemble is outside this door" or something to the effect that everyone could hear the fight going on.

[Eris0303]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 2:20pm

Am I crazy, or in the previews I've been seeing all week, wasn't there a shot of the whole cast running to the door (which is when they were trying to listen to what was going on outside) but it had dialogue over it in the preview that sounded like "she can't breathe"? What happened to that line in the actual show? Perhaps I misunderstood the "can't breathe line" but that's what I thought I heard all week long

The show likes to add snippets from stuff coming in later episodes in their previews. So I would expect that line to come next week or the week after that.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 2:22pm

I try not to watch previews for anything, because I don't like to be spoiled, and any time I catch a Smash preview they are previewing more than just the next episode, which is even more annoying. I remember in last week's preview Uma says something about wanting someone (Karen? Ivy?) fired.

[E.Davis]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 2:24pm

I know they have been showing things that are in future episodes, but in defense of them they are showing stuff for the end of the season and what will happen over the episodes to come. Since they have been advertising it as ONLY 3 EPISODES left.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 2:26pm

Also, Ann Harada's character has a name. It's Linda. You call her Linda!

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 2:33pm

Also, I liked when Karen was braiding that one chorus boy's hair.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 2:36pm

Is there any possibility after that Bollywood thing that we might get a fantasy number in which Rebecca is chased around by Mr. Peanut?

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 2:37pm

HA! As soon as the peanut thing came up, I imagined Ivy finding out about it and using it to her advantage!

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 2:47pm

I thought last night's episode was a lot of fun. Uma Therman has added so much life to this show.

Did Josh Bergasse choreograph the Bollywood number last night?

[Gothampc]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 3:06pm

"Also, Ann Harada's character has a name. It's Linda. You call her Linda!"

Stage managers are never named Linda. They are always Jackie, Betsy or Sue.

[TxTwoStep]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 3:15pm

Shukert has posted. Loved it!

http://www.vulture.com/2012/04/smash-recap-bollywood-episode-publicity.html

[Eris0303]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 3:17pm

Has poor Ann Harada been given even one line on this show yet?

She doesn't even need lines. She's so good that she's great without them. I remember the episode where Ivy said Derek wasn't that good in bed and stormed out of the room. The look Ann gave him was epicly awesome. No need for a single line.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 3:36pm

Does anyone else think the Bollywood number was just ridiculous?

Ridiculous, random and just a little bit racist. That said, I thought it was well performed.