NBC's SMASH - Series & Broadway Adaptation Thread — Page 81

Ivy will definitely not be out of the picture, she is what carries the show. However bitchy her character is, Ivy is just magnetic and amazing, I lover her and Megan Hilty. In an ideal world, both Ivy and Karen would play the role alternating each night. Perhaps an ingenious idea to keep in mind when Bombshell actually comes to Broadway. (If it does).

Also, Katharine McPhee was flawless in the wolf number! She looked stunning and hit all her dance moves perfectly. Before tonight's episode, I thought Ivy was and would be the only one who could play Marilyn, but tonight's finale proved me wrong.

Well done writers!

They never actually showed Ivy take the pills *dun, dun, dun*

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I also loved the finale...I can hardly wait for season 2.

Loved it. However, the way Will Chase scrunches up his face drives me crazy.

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The fact that the Marilyn who wound up going on (Karen) is not the same Marilyn who was recorded (Ivy). I could just be looking too into it, but it caught my attention.

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I mostly hated it. This show is frustrating, because it has so much potential and some great performers involved, but pretty much every plot point is either cliched or illogical. I also don't like being told who is a star without being shown it--or in this case, where the "star" is OK and definitely has some talent, but the "also-ran" is the real star. I just do not see how Ivy would lose the part to Karen in a real world situation.

I had no prejudice against McPhee because of Idol. I actually voted for her during her season, because I think she's a great pop singer, but I think Megan Hilty is a better musical theatre performer and a much better fit for the role of Marilyn. Whenever anyone on the show mentioned how much of a "star" Karen was or that she had "it" and Ivy didn't, I kept wondering if I was watching the same two performers. It felt like Karen was being shoehorned into the role simply because somebody at NBC wants badly to make Katharine McPhee a star. The real star that emerged from this show in my opinion, however, was Megan Hilty. No matter how much crap the writers gave her to do, she did it with style and no matter how much I felt like I was "supposed" to hate her, I didn't. She was also so much better and more believable in the Marilyn numbers than McPhee was.

I want this show to be great, but it keeps disappointing me. Still, I will keep watching, in the hope that it gets better next season.

beagle, I feel I agree with you regarding Hilty vs. McPhee. I think most Broadway directors would have put Hilty into the role with such short notice(12 hours?). And to add to it that she's simply better than McPhee.

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As a person who believes strongly in coincidences, here is what I think about the casting of Karen as Marilyn. If I were the SMASH creative team and I were shooting the season finale long before I knew if there were even going to be a second season, I would have done the same thing so that the story could feel complete on its own, and satisfying to the viewers who stuck through it. It's always been Karen's fairy tale, and Ivy's always been her antagonist. At this stage of the story, it makes sense in order to give Karen her complete story arc.

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She also pouted onstage again when she didn't get the part she told the understudy she'd boinked her boyfriend just to sabotage her.

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She also pouted onstage again when she didn't get the part she told the understudy she'd boinked her boyfriend just to sabotage her.

I didn't read it that way. I felt that she was genuinely feeling guilty and didn't want Karen to "play the fool" in regards to Dev.

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Tonight, for the first time, I was actually satisfied with Katherine McPhee. Most of the season she just felt like a weak link to me, but tonight changed all that. I really enjoyed her throughout the entire episode and was rooting for her the entire time.

On a more ironic note, I feel my relationship with this show correlated to the character's relationship with, and the state of, "Bombshell" throughout the season. Sometimes I loved it, sometimes I was confused, sometimes I wasn't sure of the show's success, sometimes I thought it would crash and burn, and sometimes I thought it would be a hit. In the beginning I had high hopes and excitement, as it progresses things got frustrating and stressful, but ultimately I ended up being satisfied and happy. Maybe this is getting too deep, but I think it is a cool parallel to experience the same emotions about the TV series that the characters in it were feeling about their musical's creation process.

What do you mean "Ivy was the one recorded"?

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"I'm still rooting for Ivy though. Poor girl can't catch a break."

Are you kidding me? Ivy has been a despicable, manipulative, unprofessional mess since day one. She had her shot at playing Marilyn and completely blew it with her erratic behavior, and then proceeded to subsequently get herself fired from another show for being equally unstable. She was lucky to get hired back for BOMBSHELL in the chorus, and her shock at being passed over for Marilyn when she knew she wasn't even the understudy was laughable. The most satisfying part of the finale was seeing her finally get her just deserts after pulling yet another insane stunt to try and sabotage Karen, who has been nothing but graceful and poised in the face of being crapped on by practically every character all season. To watch her step up to the plate and ultimately triumph was incredibly fulfilling.

Say what you will about Katharine McPhee, but she completely earned her stripes tonight and knocked this episode out of the park. I only hope that the "Who will play Marilyn?" drama is finally solved for good, and that next season will move on to exploring the other endless narrative possibilities presented by this cast of characters. Josh Safran has his work cut out for him, but at least things ended on a major high after such a season of lows.

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Updated On: 5/15/12 at 01:27 AM