NBC's SMASH - Series & Broadway Adaptation Thread- Page 9

[Starcarolina]

Posted: 2/7/12 at 3:02am

I never really liked living vicariously or ever thought I would need to, but SMASH will make it a genuine pleasure. I like everything about it! The last segment with the song, "Let Me Be Your Star" was excellent and gave me chills. I am not one bit ashamed to say how much I liked it and every cliche', stereotypical character, schmaltzy bit and glittery costume that was a part of the first episode.

Updated On: 2/7/12 at 03:02 AM

[Starcarolina]

Posted: 2/7/12 at 3:15am

"
AS(oo)S(o4)joined:2/2/05

SMASH
Posted On:2/7/12 at 01:09

I tend to "lurk" because i so WHOLEHEARTEDLY disagree with the vast majority of what you people discuss as fact (when in reality, you have almost no idea of the truth behind your hypothesis). That being said, this is one of the worst pieces of garbage on television or in any medium. I know for a fact where this script is headed and it is a MESS. But, you all bought it, hook line and sinker.....so, here we go...may the continued debate continue...but you may not have the opportunity as long as you had thought.

You can al continue to theorize, speculate, debate, argue and jump up and down on your worthless soapboxes...but when the proverbial curtain comes down, the ignorance is deafening. Good luck! "

************************************
Did you miss your last appointment at the Mental Health Center?

[someone.else's.story2]

Posted: 2/7/12 at 3:17am

Am I the only person who felt a bit disappointed by the show. I want to like it, I truly do. I know people (tangentially) who are involved with it and having a legit 60 min drama about Broadway is an amazing idea.

However, I felt that the writing was too pedestrian and on the nose a lot of the time, making for silly cliches (midwestern hick parents? the casting couch? Really...) Not that this stuff doesn't happen but I feel like they handled it in the most obvious manner, which is disappointing.

My second complaint (sorry guys, but I need to vent) is that the minor details seemed overlooked. For instance, McPhee's character singing a Christina Aguilera song in a seemingly legit musical audition. In my experience, not really all that smart nor did the performance blow me away enough for that type of bold choice to work. Also, Messing's character says that Marilyn's last hopes were that she was taken seriously. Then, on comes the cheesy baseball number.

I don't know...I guess I just expected more. Theresa Rebeck is an amazing writer and the cast is chock full of really, really talented people. I hope it gets better next week.

[choitoy]

Posted: 2/7/12 at 3:33am

I guess this is the same reason why I don't watch medical shows. I work in the medical profession and it irks me when there are inconsistencies (really, a doctor can just waltz into the CAT scan room while the CAT scan is going on? And the same said doctor runs the scan?).

But you know any TV show is going to gloss over the facts and bend what would really happen. The medical stuff irritates me too much so I can't do it, but I can handle the fact that Karen sings "Beautiful" as an audition song.

I don't know where I'm going with this.

I really shouldn't post in the middle of the night...

[dramamama611]

Posted: 2/7/12 at 6:39am

I don't think you should expect this to a documentary, its a DRAMA and they need to make it exciting and interesting, especially to those that are not "in the know".

One of the (many) reasons I don't like Glee is the portrayal of the school setting. I actually find it offensive. I'm sure those that aren't in education only see the humor which is fine.

I didn't think it was perfect, and I do think it can/will grrow past it as it develops. It's hard to focus a pilot: enough to get our attention, enough forr us to want more, but not too much.

Might I get bored? Perhaps, but right now, I want to see where they go with it.

[best12bars]

Posted: 2/7/12 at 6:39am

The show is way too phony for me. I probably wouldn't watch again, but I think they're aiming (a lot) younger than me for a core audience. I wasn't pulled in by the characters because they all came out of a cliche handbook on backstage plots, but I did enjoy some of the "fluff." It wasn't bad at all. Just not compelling or realistic. It was yet another nighttime "fun" soap opera, veering closer to camp and comedy than anything truthful or realistic ... with decent enough music and an "American Idol"-esque competition at its center that didn't seem like the stakes were all that high.

I also think a real bio musical on Monroe heading this direction creatively would tank. How do you end it? With the drug overdose and the autopsy? The severe depression and pills? If you don't (and who would want them to?), you're not telling her story, you're just exploiting her for face value as a greeting card icon. After the must-have, "fun" baseball number that says nothing at all about her life or her relationship with DiMaggio, where do you go? It's fine in a gaudy '70s variety show or a dream sequence or a "drag" club, but not in a bio on Monroe.

To me that number symbolizes the entire approach of this TV show pilot. "Make it big, loud, and glitzy. We don't care about truth here, so just sit back and tap your toes."

Updated On: 2/7/12 at 06:39 AM

[random person 112]

Posted: 2/7/12 at 7:42am

I think it's very strange to hear you all criticizing the shows orginal music and only citing one number. there were two disctinct sides of marilyn someting almost every fan will tell you. There was the image she projected to the public and who she really was. If they balance the two (The great problem with a real marilyn musical) it will be great, plus do you really think a workshop show is going to have all perfect songs yet? For all we know they could decide to cut it as soon as anything on the show. The other songs were very good particularly the one Hilty sang before mcphee. So i don't think we should judge Shaiman just yet.

[best12bars]

Posted: 2/7/12 at 7:47am

This isn't a "preview period." It's a pilot. It's a nationally televised first impression, supposedly putting their best foot forward, setting the tone, style, and introducing the initial characters and story lines.

The "I don't think we should judge this just yet" comments are ludicrous.

[artscallion]

Posted: 2/7/12 at 8:00am

Boring. There was not a single thing about this show that was fresh, new or that I haven't already seen a thousand times. Too cliched and predictable. And, if you're going to do a show about Marilyn, you'd damn well better find an actress that has something distinctive and special about her (in a big way.) She needs to make an audience sit up and say, "who is that???" Otherwise all you're doing is inviting people to say, "she's good. But she's no Marilyn."

On the other side of that coin, you have a generation tuning in that really doesn't know Marilyn other than through photos and one or two clips they've seen on the Oscars. Most young people have probably never sat down and watched a Monroe movie. So they don't understand what she brought to the screen. So when they see these competent, yet lusterless actresses up there playing her, they're just going to wonder what the big deal about Marilyn was and why she deserves a musical.

I also thought the musical numbers were uninteresting. C'mon. This is about Broadway! Can we get a few decent Broadway numbers up there??! That baseball number looked like it was lifted out of the Madonna halftime show.

[best12bars]

Posted: 2/7/12 at 8:02am

We definitely share the same sentiments, artscallion.

[random person 112]

Posted: 2/7/12 at 8:19am

Best12 i didn't mean the actual tv show i mean the supposed broadway musical they are working on in the show. And not juding that product yet.

[tazber]

Posted: 2/7/12 at 8:21am

Sadly, I agree with besty and scallion also.

I really wish I could be as excited as Addy, PJ, and Namo. I soooo want to love this show.

I'm not going to stop watching, I'm sure that I'll get involved as time goes on. Maybe I was expecting something else, I don't know.

I liked the ballad at the end even though it was a bit generic (I still bought it off itunes, ha).

On a side note, I saw an article mentioning 6 plot turns we can expect and this one excites me (I don't think this is a spoiler, but be warned I guess):

ELLIS SECRETS?
In the pilot, Ellis (Jaime Cepero) finds himself in hot water after filming a song from Julia and Tom’s (Christian Borle) forthcoming musical without their permission. And though he gets back in their good graces, Meron teases, “There’s going to be lots of twists and turns because he comes off as being such an innocent, but he’s really not an innocent…Nobody’s who you think they are, really.”

Updated On: 2/7/12 at 08:21 AM

[best12bars]

Posted: 2/7/12 at 8:28am

The problem isn't so much the number itself. It could be effective if it were used to illustrate the surface-value image of Monroe and everything she WASN'T in real life. So the setup is key.

I think the setup of it in the TV show was terrible. Messing and Borle's characters go from saying (roughly) "She just wanted to be loved and understood for who she was. She didn't want to be made fun of or exploited," followed immediately by, "We should do a baseball number!"

In other words, "Wow, Monroe really didn't want to be trivialized or turned into a cliche! Hey, let's write us a big snappy tune that does just that!"

I thought the quieter tune that Hilty recorded as a demo was no better. Still playing up on the image of Monroe, not Monroe the person. Way too surface.

My complaint lies more in the treatment of this "surface" production number, rather than the song itself, which could---in the end---be used to great effect, illustrating exactly what's wrong and phony with this image. It's not her. It never was. She invented it and used it as much as everyone else around her did. And it haunted her until the day she died. She was seduced by it and ultimately trapped in it.

Updated On: 2/7/12 at 08:28 AM

[best12bars]

Posted: 2/7/12 at 8:30am

Taz, as far as that upcoming "plot turn," that was pretty easy to spot.

He's the show's real "Eve Harrington." It was obvious to me.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 2/7/12 at 8:32am

I know for a fact where this script is headed and it is a MESS. But, you all bought it, hook line and sinker...the ignorance is deafening.

Oh, noooooooooooooo! Mommy, make the bad man stop scaring me!

[best12bars]

Posted: 2/7/12 at 8:38am

I really don't get that comment either. "You know for a fact?" and ha-ha for "buying it?"

We all (clearly) have different opinions about the show, but I don't think anybody's being duped here. They like it or they don't. They became involved in it or they didn't.

If you've read future scripts, good for you. How or why should that play into anybody's opinions so far? And I'm asking as someone who didn't care for it, not as one of your "accused dupees."

[tazber]

Posted: 2/7/12 at 8:47am

For real.

We can have differing opinions without resorting to such 3rd grade hyperbole.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 2/7/12 at 8:54am

It should go without saying that one doesn't have to imagine loving the show within the sow or finding much freshness or merit in it, or the casting thereof exciting, to find the show itself and that and the casting thereof highly enjoyable. They are two very different things.

Moreover, we are all well aware that flops happen on Broadway. And more importantly, that hits that aren't very good happen on Broadway. The title of SMASH doesn't have to make us believe that MARILYN THE MUSICAL will be one, or, more importantly, deserves to b one.

And finally, why even both judging the show within a show, for what that's worth, which isn't much, by a few numbers, presented in the early stages of its development and audition process?
Updated On: 2/7/12 at 08:54 AM

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 2/7/12 at 9:06am

Should I watch it?

Someone tell me, please, what to do.

[tazber]

Posted: 2/7/12 at 9:09am

There comes a point when we have to learn to make our own decisions in life and accept the consequences, growl.

This is your moment.

I know you will do the right thing.

[best12bars]

Posted: 2/7/12 at 9:10am

A good point for discussion, henrik.

I think the "relevance" of the show-within-a-show was established by the characters all through the pilot. Everyone talks about wanting to get to the essence of who Marilyn Monroe really was and what she really wanted in life. They hold auditions with talented (but inappropriate) girls "bearing their souls" in "truthful" ballads. They find it refreshing when one of them comes in NOT dressed up like her with the expected superficial iconic visual.

Then they proceed to ignore all of their own thoughts and creative perspectives with their first time "up at bat" (pun intended) while creating a big cheesy number for the show. And as I said, the quieter demo song that Hilty sang didn't dig any deeper.

I suppose you could create a TV show about a bunch of doctors being sued for malpractice, or a bunch of construction workers who build a house that falls down, or a bunch of soldiers in wartime who aren't sure how to fire a gun. It sort of takes the edge off of them as "relevant" characters with credibility when you do that.

Again, it was fine as soap opera "fluff." I was mildly entertained. Probably not enough to come back for more.

Updated On: 2/7/12 at 09:10 AM

[best12bars]

Posted: 2/7/12 at 9:13am

growl, if you have an interest in the subject or at least a creative attempt in its general direction, you should check it out, by all means.

If not, then don't.

I know you'll do the right thing.

[tazber]

Posted: 2/7/12 at 9:17am

I confess that when the baseball number was performed I kept thinking how so many people on this board (me included), and probably most critics, would just shred it to pieces had it been in a real show.

But that's one of the things that I liked about show. I'm hoping that they will delve in to the creative process (since the songwriting team seems to be the where the center of the show is focused) and deal with having to make cuts and the impact that has on the company.

[best12bars]

Posted: 2/7/12 at 9:19am

Taz, I'm sure that's the very reason why many here will continue to tune in.

If I had found these characters a little more truthful, I would too. I just didn't care about them all that much.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 2/7/12 at 9:47am

Digital Spy calls the reviews "overwhelmingly positive":


'Smash' pilot: Reviews roundup