while I still can't quite figure out HOW they got a nod for a VERY uneven first season, I am legitimately excited for season 2. EW just did a great interview with Josh Safran & I was encouraged that he seemed to have listened to what the fans didn't like & has really worked to tighten up the show. Andy Mientus, Jeremy Jordan, & Krysta Rodriguez seem to be fitting right into the ensemble, and they've brought in theatre actors who have a lot of TV experience.
I watched the first two episodes (3 really since the first is 2 hours) and I can tell you already it has improved leaps and bounds from the first season. Of course Katharine McPhee still can't really act, Megan Hilty still outshines her almost embarrassingly so, and there are still moments in which I literally laugh out loud because of how unrealistic they are, but SO MUCH BETTER. The horrible characters are out and the new ones are great, especially Jeremy Jordan. In fact the one aspect I wasn't swooning over is JHud who was quite annoying and despite her Oscar-having status, is a terrible actress. But all in all cannot wait for the rest of the season. We just might get a season 3 yet!
We know Ellis got fired but how are the other written-out characters referenced? I know Brian D'Arcy James still has a guest-role in the premiere but what about Leo and Michael Swift (especially if he was the DiMaggio in try-outs in Boston)? I know the new show-runner got credos with his work in Gossip Girl to write out unlikeable characters off the map (and also fan-servicing).
The raw emotion Hudson displayed when opening Carrie's gift and seeing the purse she so desperately wanted was nothing short of astonishing in it's beauty.
mmh, Smash was a reasonable ratings success for a network that didn't have a whole lot of them, so yeah, it got renewed. NBC is healthier now, but it's still not nuts to be running a second season of this show. And I say this as an avowed hate-watcher. :P
I, too, sadly find Jennifer Hudson consistently cringeworthy. I wanted to like her, but I just can't. I find her overwrought and annoying.
“I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being.”
``oscar wilde``
I am pretty certain the episode allotment in Smash has a lot to do with cost with having original music, music rights royalties for Top 40 and standards, filming in New York and its specific spaces, etc.
People probably got episodes because people who work in the entertainment industry, especially TV critics, do get a lot of stuff in advance to build up buzz for the show. I think Mad Men is the only show that no longer sends out screeners in advanced (I believe the season premieres are the only exception and then it goes dry after that) because its creator got angry at critics revealing a specific plot-point of the show's major characters.
^Yes I work in the media so I got a screener. Doesn't premiere til February 5th.
And to whoever asked, every character that was written off is explained (briefly).
Look, to the doubters out there,and I know there are MANY, just go into season 2 with an open mind. Is it groundbreaking television? I don't need to answer that. But it's fun. And the first few episodes are so much better than the last few (or like 12) were. I think season 2 will be a pleasant surprise.
But yeah, no. J Hud is horrible. Good thing her arc is only 3 eps!
West End star Julian Ovenden will guest star in the second season of SMASH, and according to TVLine, he will play another one of Marilyn's love interests. Ovenden's character 'Simon' will play JFK to Karen's Marilyn Monroe.
David walked into the valley
With a stone clutched in his hand
He was only a boy
But he knew someone must take a stand
There will always be a valley
Always mountains one must scale
There will always be perilous waters
Which someone must sail
-Into the Fire
Scarlet Pimpernel
You guys! Jennifer Hudson has had a wrought problem all her life and maybe sometimes she's still overwrought but she's joined wrought watchers and id REALLY working on keeping her wrought down.
PLEASE do not attack actresses over their wrought!
Excited about season 2 (and it starts on my birthday!)
As much as I liked Jennifer Hudson in Dreamgirls, I don't care for her in anything else and I think she's a very average (if not bad) actress in anything I've seen her in after Dreamgirls...
I think I'm the most excited about Jeremy Jordan and Liza Minnelli!
In case anyone is interested, Smash is filming today in front of the New York Theater Workshop on East 4th Street. It's great to see how the lobby is tricked out.
I am also very interested in seeing how this all plays out. However, I feel that there are too many characters that were in season one that aren't going to be in the second season. And, I am wondering how they are going to explain all of their departures. For example, I know that D'arcy James is no longer on the show. However, I felt that at the end of the first season his character's marital issues seemed to go away and his family looked as if they were going to be one big happy family again. Not sure how they are going to explain it but curious to see the results of it.
"If you try to shag my husband while I am still alive, I will shove the art of motorcycle maintenance up your rancid little Cu**. That's a good dear"
Tom Stoppard's Rock N Roll