NBC's SMASH, Season 2 -- Discussion- Page 42

[justagirl2]

Posted: 3/21/13 at 11:59am

Yeah, I HATE the Hit List songs. They sound like bad 90s alt (or at least the one from this week did). But maybe it's my hatred of Jeremy Jordan's character and Karen coming through.

[Ham3]

Posted: 3/21/13 at 12:18pm

"Yeah, I HATE the Hit List songs. They sound like bad 90s alt (or at least the one from this week did). "

I hate them too. I suspect the new showrunner thought he could attract a younger audience with this type of stuff rather than the classic musical numbers of BOMBSHELL.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 3/21/13 at 12:25pm

I like them. And I suspect it's a fool's game to fantasize about "what they were thinking" because we can never know.

[darquegk]

Posted: 3/21/13 at 1:48pm

The idea seems to be the contrast not only of generations but of approaches- I'm frankly surprised they haven't made this a plot point or even brought it up on the show. Tom and Julia are classicists, writing in a deliberately "outdated" style: tap dancing, jazz harmonies, big band sounds and old-school song genres (rather like Shaiman's own signature sound and style of choice). The songs of Hit List seem to be consciously crafted by two contemporary-mainstream pop songwriters with stage aspirations but no real background in the genre- it's made clear that the songs exist way more than the show, and they are still learning how a book "comes together."

I find the intersection of "real" mainstream music and the theatre fascinating, because after the late-Sixties schism there have been hints of a reunion but it never comes together. Can contemporary songs written authentically in the styles du jour carry dramatic weight, or must they be "theatre songs first, genre songs second" always?

[Patash]

Posted: 3/21/13 at 1:51pm

"Yeah, I HATE the Hit List songs. They sound like bad 90s alt (or at least the one from this week did)."

Wait a minute. Aren't those songs lifted directly from Spring Awakening?

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/21/13 at 4:12pm

I don't mind the Hitlist songs, though I think they're a bit too generic (I don't hear 90s alt-rock there whatsoever, but more rock style power ballads like Googoo Dolls' Iris type stuff--and wouldn't mind them being a bit more edgy or distinctive.) I think I like the two Pasek and Paul ones best. But I do think they were made to contrast and maybe sell on iTunes better than the SHaiman songs (Shaiman and Whittman did do the incredibly bland power ballad Can't Let Go that the two boys were meant to have written.)

As for the music not being as as strong--it might also being the writing time--S/W wrote the Bombshell score with some time to get through it, the other stuff seems to be written more quickly.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 3/21/13 at 4:30pm

The songs in HIT LIST are atrocious though, they are so so so generic and to me they just sound like what a 50-year-old executive thinks "contemporary" music sounds like. There is nothing we've seen about the show that sounds remotely appealing and it's so strange that they've decided to make the Jeremy Jordan character to be not just one of the worst characters on TV right now but also the worst kind of artist type one can imagine. How are we supposed to believe that he doesn't want to change anything about his show even though the whole point is that they are working on the show and it's a show in progress? Absurd.
Add me to those who didn't get the LIAISONS number at all. So are we supposed to think the Sean Hayes character came up with that choreography out of the blue? And did the show always have that funny song in the repertoire? I couldn't agree more with the poster who said everything they've said about LIAISONS is full of inconsistencies, including the fact that it already opened. Oh, SMASH, you're such a mess.
Also, people, please stop kidding yourselves that the move to Saturdays will result in the show being picked up for a new season, never gonna happen.

Updated On: 3/21/13 at 04:30 PM

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/21/13 at 4:38pm

I don't feel as strongly as you, but they are generic (and show nothing of the bizarre Hit List storyline we're told they're all about--and poor little Kyle, why doe he even bother to attend rehearsals anymore except to feebly attempt to calm Jordan's character down--I mean he's not really involved creatively anymore...)

Yeah, exactly agreed about Liaisons. Did everyone basically quickly "get" what Terry was doing and instantly adjust theior performances? Dangerous Liaisons has always been a comedy of sorts, but a dark and fairly serious social comedy--and that seemed to be the point Ivy was making about his performance style, but the two songs we've seen (the Glitter and be Gay pastiche and much more this Pas ma Fautte song) seem to show it was always a bawdy farce. ANd furthermore... it's not likehis performance of the song was all that outlandish or shocking (it seemed to be similar enough to that number in Heaven on Earth that Ivy stumbled through last season which is meant to be a big hit musical.)

I guess they needed a story for Hayes' 3 episodes, and something for Ivy to do until she could go back to Bombshell but in these kinds of soapy shows it's always a bad idea to isolate characters in their own storyline with no interconnection.

[Ham3]

Posted: 3/21/13 at 5:40pm

"The idea seems to be the contrast not only of generations but of approaches..."

An astute post, darquegk. I agree with you totally.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 3/21/13 at 5:49pm

Nothing about Liaisons made sense.

That last Hit List number reminded me of (what I've seen of) Ghost. - People marching around a stage screaming generic rock music.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/21/13 at 6:06pm

Complete with moving city projections!

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 3/21/13 at 6:22pm

Yes!

And I was happy this week Derek didn't fantasize an awful wig for Karen, even if he still dreams of that wind machine.

[darquegk]

Posted: 3/21/13 at 6:52pm

Is this show supposed to have roman a clef influences? Every week I find myself sitting and pondering- are the main characters on the show stand-ins for anyone real?

We had discussed if Ronnie was supposed to be some hybrid Sutton Foster/Audra MacDonald, or just a generic character for Jennifer Hudson. It also just occurred to me that Sean Hayes's character could be seen as an expy of Martin Short (Shaiman's lifelong comedy partner): the campy and somewhat effete beloved/loathed ham comic who drowns his performances in schtick and semi-jokingly insists that his comedy comes from a dark and troubling place, all elements of Marty's comic persona. Hayes and Short even have very similar singing voices, although I could just be drawing this whole thing from the Short-Shaiman-Wittman association and overthinking it.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/21/13 at 7:05pm

Well we apparently know that Rebecks based Julia on her, down to the scares and wanting to adopt a baby...

I dunno, I think most of them are more just "theatre people" tropes--I get what you mean about Steve Martin but I doubt he would be clueless that he signed up for a play not knowing if it was a comedy, etc.

[darquegk]

Posted: 3/21/13 at 7:11pm

Not Steve Martin. Definitely not Steve Martin.

Martin SHORT. Big difference- big, big, BIG difference.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/21/13 at 7:14pm

LOL I knew you meant Martin Short, and I meant to type Martin Short, but Steve Martin came out instead lol

[darquegk]

Posted: 3/21/13 at 7:23pm

Yeah. Now, a Steve Martin like character would be fascinating... A true legend, known to be fantastically gifted at literally everything he does, who frankly does not care what kind of work he takes as long as it pays and leaves him enough time to pursue his varied dilettante's interests.

[beautywickedlover]

Posted: 3/23/13 at 12:51am

Katharine will have her first major post-'Smash' performance next week on the program where she was discovered.


Katharine McPhee to Appear on American Idol Next Week

[ACL2006]

Posted: 3/24/13 at 8:22pm

Finally got around to watching this week's episode. Only one quetion: was I the only one to hit the "mute" button when Jeremy Jordan & McPhee were singing their badly auto-tuned song??

[all that jazz]

Posted: 3/24/13 at 8:27pm

To me the only thing that Smash needs to improve is their sound. Am I the only one who thinks the music too loud for the vocals?

[all that jazz]

Posted: 3/24/13 at 8:27pm

To me the only thing that Smash needs to improve is their sound. Am I the only one who thinks the music too loud for the vocals?

[ClydeBarrow]

Posted: 3/25/13 at 5:32pm

I just got around to watching last week's episode. This was a show I couldn't wait to see and now I'm getting bored halfway through the episodes.

I agree with Whizzer about a lot of the ridiculousness of the proceedings especially the wonky timelines for the three shows. That's probably part of the reason they focused only on Bombshell in the first season.

My biggest problem this season stems from Jeremy Jordan. Watching him on this show makes me confused as to how I loved him so much on stage. Maybe it was because there wasn't such a close-up of his face in a constant snarl. The other issue is with The HIt List itself. I don't find the music to be horrible but it definitely doesn't sound like it's from a Broadway musical. Nor do I even understand what the hell that show is even supposed to be about.

I'm not even going to get into that Liaison debacle or try to understand why they think people would ever buy that Sean Hayes song on iTunes.

The writers are making the inevitable cancellation much easier to stomach if they keep this up.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 3/25/13 at 5:34pm

I stopped watching completely. I've lost interest in everyone. Couldn't give a rat's ass about any of them-that's some seriously bad writing.

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 3/25/13 at 10:10pm

I've never really understood what the network was thinking when they cooked this idea up. GLEE for adults, maybe? I watched about half the first season, then gave up. It was like watching a show in production as filtered through a DYNASTY lens.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/25/13 at 10:31pm

I actually wish that were more true. More Dynasty style soap (whichI think many of us expected this season when they hired a Gossip Girl writer) would work better for me.