NBC's SMASH - Series & Broadway Adaptation Thread- Page 60

[TxTwoStep]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 3:41pm

it seemed to me the connection was the Bollywood musical playing on big screen in the restaurant and Karen's need to escape the tension between her two user/lovers? i'd like to see the lyrics as i think even the views of the other characters were connected with their function in the main plot...for instance i can recall "Goddess of Love" as they showed Uma/Oprah/Dvall.

[Kalimba]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 3:42pm

I try reading Rachel "overrated" Shukert's recaps and all I get is, "blah, blah, blah...."

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 3:47pm

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 3:48pm

I do also continue to find Uma the most likable thing about the show - she seems to be the only character who is given any humour to play (she of course nails it) and she manages to make Rebecca both a stereotype and refreshingly realistic.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 3:48pm

I feel pretty much the same way about those as I do the people who overanalyze they show to death in this thread.

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 3:51pm

I wonder if Uma will get offered a sitcom deal after her stint on the show. She's very appealing.

Posted: 4/24/12 at 3:56pm

How in the world is the Bollywood number racist?

[TxTwoStep]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 3:56pm

no one forces anyone to click on Shukert. That way you can save the "blah" for your own posts.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 4:09pm

How in the world is the Bollywood number racist?

You took the most important words out of my post: "little bit".

I'm not proposing a boycott or anything. But I find it odd that when you introduce your Indian boyfriend to your new gal pal, you make sure to do so at an Indian restaurant. I guess some people just love theme parties.

And then they went out of their way to make Indian food seem strange and exotic by pretending Rebecca had never tried it. (As if anyone in LA, including movie stars, hasn't been to an Indian restaurant or two or three!)

And the Bollywood number was so weakly motivated (the Indian restaurant happens to have a TV set which is of course playing a Bollywood movie) that the only justification for the number was the ethnicity of Karen's boyfriend.

So "racist" as in "superficially based on racial identity", not as in "burning cross on the lawn".

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 4:11pm

No, no one forces anyone to read the Vulture recaps, but since they are a hot topic in this thread, it's just good sense to stay informed.

[SporkGoddess]

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

I think Broadway Abridged's recaps are funnier than Rachel Shukert's, personally.

Posted: 4/24/12 at 4:35pm

Well EVERYTHING is a "little bit" racist.

[Kalimba]

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

TxTwoStep, my point being, I've tried to read Rachel's recaps, and personally it's difficult for me to get through them.

The woman who writes the fact-of-fiction quiz on Smash each week is another story. I really like her writing.

[TxTwoStep]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 6:11pm

thanks i'd love links to the other related stuff. Perhaps i wrongly got ruffled with "overrated" since there was no point of reference. Quoting other such parallel articles and linking them would help greatly.

[Patash]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 6:15pm

Just a comment to all those who question why Karen didn't have to go back to the rehearsal room to get her bag. As she and Rebecca entered the building from getting the chips, Karen clearly has the big bag over her shoulder -- the same one she entered rehearsal with earlier. I guess she's smart enough to know NOT to leave her bag where all those characters (the weasel included) could go through it.

[ACL2006]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 6:20pm

according to the credits from the episode, Josh did indeed choreograph it along with his assistant Valerie Salgado.

I'll say that after last night's episode, Hilty is hands down a better singer than McPhee. McPhee seemed to be doing most of the solos in recent episodes, but Hilty nailed that song at the end. Be interesting to see what happens in the remaining episodes and what they'll fix for season 2.

[Kalimba]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 6:21pm

Here you go. The author I was referring to is Sharon Wheatley.

I also like her, "What I Like About" articles as well.
Smash - Fact or Faction?

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 6:26pm

"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 "

I would agree--except for the peanut allergy thing.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 6:32pm

Mister Midwest, that crushable link was a good read, and one I agree with. While I don't want the show to turn into Glee, let's face it, playing it as totally serious drama has not worked for the show, and more fantasy, etc, song numbers would be fine by me. Certainly better than more crammed in karaoke routines.

I vote for Michael Bennett's Mr Peanut idea :P

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 6:34pm

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

I think I enjoyed it because it was ridiculous and obviously not trying to take itself too seriously, something the show sometimes falls into. Not sure about racist--the actor who plays Dev is famous for Bombay Dreams, and they did set it in (as contrived as this was) an Indian restaurant with Bollywood on TV. Though if we get a fantasy hip hop number from Ellis or dancer boy I might start to go with that...

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 6:36pm

"And then they went out of their way to make Indian food seem strange and exotic by pretending Rebecca had never tried it. (As if anyone in LA, including movie stars"

Wasn't that done more just to further show Rebecca's personality and "foibles"? I thought part of the joke was the fact that she was surprisingly oblivious to Indian food and more obsessed with that damn peanut allergy plot point.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 6:51pm

Eric, I should emphasize again that I'm not suggesting we call the NAACP over the Bollywood number. I think my problem stemmed at least in part from the seeming lack of point of view of the number itself.

Another poster has said he thought the number was from Karen's p.o.v., since it included characters Rebecca and Dev wouldn't know. But the first 2/3 of the song was sung by Dev, seemingly from HIS p.o.v. Yet at the start of the number, it is Rebecca who seems transfixed by the Bollywood video on TV, so maybe the song was REBECCA's fantasy.

Since it seemed to be everyone's point of view and therefore no one's, it just became a generic number expressing the view of the show itself. And thus seemed to be cheap stereotyping on the part of the writers. (The fact that I NOW know the actor who plays Dev starred in BOMBAY DREAMS helps, but there was no pop up to give me that info during the show.)

So I just had a show with an Indian character that felt a need to introduce him musically with a Bollywood number, even though we've seen nothing about his character that would indicate an interest in Indian musicals. There's no malice in that, necessarily, but it is the type of lazy ethnic shorthand all shows should be trying to avoid.

***

P.S. to Joe: Yes, as the song says, "everyone's a little bit racist". The point, I think, is we should all be trying to grow. I probably wouldn't have used the word "racist" except that it made an alliteration with "ridiculous" and "random".

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 6:56pm

Oh, I know you didn't mean more by it, I just still admit I find the idea of even slightly racist, in this context weird--though I think I get your point more now. If anything I thought they realized Bollywood was hot right now (hence the Bollywood performance recently on Dancing with the Stars, and the popularity of Bollywood on So You Think You Can Dance) so yes shoehorned it in. But I think it was clearly Karen's fantasy--we showed her eyes glazing over as the others talked and she looked annoyed with Dev and then she stared into the tv screen smiling as it faded into it...

But yes lazy--still I felt it had a lot more connection, and was more interesting, to the stories of the show than, say, singing at a bowling alley, or two "frenemies" singing some drinking song to a homeless man's keyboard in the middle of Times Square.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 7:10pm

Wasn't that done more just to further show Rebecca's personality and "foibles"? I thought part of the joke was the fact that she was surprisingly oblivious to Indian food and more obsessed with that damn peanut allergy plot point.

I guess I find the joke mildly hypocritical and therefore not very funny. We're supposed to laugh at Rebecca's lack of ethnic awareness and political correctness, yet the show itself builds contrivances on ethnic stereotyping. Not a big deal in either case, but enough to keep me from fully embracing the lunacy of the Bollywood number.

I did like the number. I just wish they had found a better way to set it up.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 7:14pm

That's more than fair. I admit some of my attitude is based on lowered expectations--the show has done far more contrived musical set ups that I give them kudos for any vague attempt to fit them in more... Or something.

With Rebecca I think it's more meant to be that she's just so self absorbed--she doesn't reallyt know what kind of food is which because she's just too obsessed about not eating peanuts, etc.