NBC's SMASH, Season 2 -- Discussion- Page 74

[Bialystock]

Posted: 4/21/13 at 1:53pm

I never post, but just have to say how much I enjoyed last night's episode. Possibly my favourite Smash episode yet.

After a slow start, I actually think Season 2 is better than Season 1. The Bombshell stories work so well and are so much fun to watch. Hit List is...hit and miss...and is only saved by Derek for me (and with Julia's slight involvement).

Megan Hilty. Wow. Last night was Ivy's episode which is probably why is worked so well. Even Karen was likeable.

Why haven't NBC announced Smash is axed yet as they have done with other shows? I still have slight hope we could see Season 3, especially if the remaining episodes are as good a quality as lasts night.

It's not award winning, it's not mentally challenging - but it is a hell of a lot of fun and the show I look forward too most each week.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/21/13 at 1:58pm

Well most sites like Tvbythenumbers.com are already listing it as cancelled. Maybe they know something we don't.

[Jon]

Posted: 4/21/13 at 1:59pm

Hibbert and McKechnie were seen on the street after the final preview. Hilty overhears Hibbert commenting He "liked it - didn't love it", and that the leading lady isn't a star - just some gal who's been a chorus girl for years.

[Steve C.]

Posted: 4/21/13 at 1:59pm

Edward H and Donna M were the tourists in the 1st scene...

[kyl3fong2]

Posted: 4/21/13 at 2:39pm

Did they cut the Bernadette Peters "At Your Feet" number from last night's episode?

[yankeefan7]

Posted: 4/21/13 at 2:50pm

The ratings for 4/20/13 were the same as 4/13/13 which were pretty darn low. While the quality has been a lot better, just the few faithful are tuning in to watch.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 4/21/13 at 2:55pm

^I'm not suprised. I don't know too many people that go back to tv show that has disappointed them. In the case of a drama, most just feel like they've missed too much.

I'll ride out the storm, but more because my dd has decided she likes it.

[Ham3]

Posted: 4/21/13 at 2:57pm

"Did they cut the Bernadette Peters "At Your Feet" number from last night's episode?"

Maybe it will be shown in a later one. As I noted above, it's the only number on the CD that we haven't seen.

[yankeefan7]

Posted: 4/21/13 at 3:01pm

Dramamama611 - Good point but I thought maybe being before "The Voice" it might pick up some viewers who might give it a shot before a show they like. I will watch until the end and hope they series finale is a good one.

[wonkit]

Posted: 4/21/13 at 3:10pm

I watched last night - my first full episode live watch since last season. Hilty is fabulous - and the finale song of the show was staged well. But the angst just gets tiresome - I understand that the intent of the show is to dramatize the personal difficulties of show folk at work and at play but it just feels like a very poorly scripted soap opera. Fun to catch people like Donna M. And Edward H. - but how many people outside of BWW board people would recognize them or care? I thank this show for introducing me to Megan Hilty but otherwise kind of uninspiring.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 4/21/13 at 3:17pm

Here's a link to the ratings. Smash sadly came in last place for the time slot with a 0.4.

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2013/04/21/tv-ratings-saturday-ufc-on-fox-knocks-out-vegas-bet-on-your-baby-rises/178910/

[Steve C.]

Posted: 4/21/13 at 3:37pm

Thanks for the link to the ratings... and I just saw that NBC is moving Smash yet again next week. It's getting silly to even care anymore about this show.

[Idiot]

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

There's no nice way to put this so I won't try.

Anjelica Houston's performance makes me wonder if she was ever good. Why do I remember her as good?

[yankeefan7]

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

Whizzer- Sad also that it is basically the same low rating as the previous week. Guess it is just the few faithful who will watch it until the end. My daughters were actually home on a Saturday night and I got them to watch it and they really enjoyed it. I have told them the basic story of what was going on and they got the idea and did not seem lost.

[elphaba.scares.me]

Posted: 4/21/13 at 3:43pm

FWIW, Rachel Shukert has given five stars to the past two episodes.


Shukert

[Gothampc]

Posted: 4/21/13 at 3:50pm

"Anjelica Houston's performance makes me wonder if she was ever good. Why do I remember her as good?"

What are you talking about? Nobody can fling a drink in someone's face the way AnjHo can.

I've always thought she was a serviceable actress but never brilliant. I'm not sure whether she's never been pushed to give an outstanding performance or whether she honestly doesn't have it in her.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 4/21/13 at 3:50pm

All in all, I thought it was a pretty good episode.

1. Kyle and Tom! OMG, I never ship and when I finally do, it comes true. Does this mean I am joining the cast to join them in a threeway?

2. I thought Karen looked just lovely at the opening. No snark or anything, I thought she looked gorgeous. AND I really enjoyed her duet with Ivy.

3. The Great Gatsby, though? Really? Maybe in Smash world that big movie version hasn't been looming over their heads for the past two years or whatever, but as soon as Leo (LEO!) found Gatsby on Cousin Debbie's bookshelf I just kept saying "No no no no no no no no."

4. Of all the contrived ways to get Jimmy to renege on his promise to Karen to be good, it had to be Kyle he was defending. That scary brother would have crushed my tiny beloved Kyle, so I was really on team Jimmy at the moment. Karen should have been too, and since things usually turn around 30 minutes after a problem is introduced on this show, she'll probably be over in it the next episode.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 4/21/13 at 3:56pm

5. I still think "Don't Forget Me" is kind of an idiotic song. I thought it was last year when Karen sang it and I still think it was when Ivy did, although I guess having all the men there with her makes a little more sense. Speaking of Marilyn's men...

6. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND HOW JULIA'S WORKSHOP BOOK IS LEAPS AND BOUNDS BETTER THAN THE BOSTON BOOK, WHICH WAS OSTENSIBLY BASED ON THE WORKSHOP BOOK. She got savaged by the critics in Boston but this workshop book (which I swear I thought, until Tracy Turnblad spilled the beans, was only the first act anyway). How is her first draft of script everyone hated when it was ultimately completed PROOF that Julia is a playwright?



Updated On: 4/21/13 at 03:56 PM

[dramamama611]

Posted: 4/21/13 at 3:57pm

Yes, Karen DID look beautiful from head to toe.

And for those that said Karen should be the one to bite the dust...how would we know the difference? (Although I will say her moment before Act II started was very nice....but it didn't make sense for it to be there...it should have happened before Act I.)

[all that jazz]

Posted: 4/21/13 at 3:59pm

"Anjelica Houston's performance makes me wonder if she was ever good. Why do I remember her as good?"

Really? I'm obsessed with her character!

[ucjrdude902]

Posted: 4/21/13 at 4:00pm

Very impressed with last nights episode. I flew in late last night from NYC and couldn't watch until today. I feel like the show (as late as it may be) may have finally found it's footing. Like someone said it works better as a "play with music". A song here and there than full out numbers every 5 minutes.

I've gone from being a Hilty supporter to being a full out fan in the past couple of weeks. She has a talent like none other and crazy gorgeous.

Maybe the tide is starting to turn in Smash getting cancelled? That Facebook page is getting national attention in the media outlets and it's leading that E! poll.

[Wynbish]

Posted: 4/21/13 at 4:00pm

Anjelica Houston's performance makes me wonder if she was ever good. Why do I remember her as good?

For me, it depends on the role. I loved her in The Addams Family and Ever After, but those roles are so different from Eileen. I think she makes a passable Eileen, but that type of part does not suit her as well as other parts.

[Ham3]

Posted: 4/21/13 at 4:02pm

"5. I still think "Don't Forget Me" is kind of an idiotic song. I thought it was last year when Karen sang it and I still think it was when Ivy did, although I guess having all the men there with her makes a little more sense."

Big fat WORD. It was a dumb song and a dumb idea when they threw it together at the last minute in Boston, and it still is. It's the same corniness as Henry Fonda's parting lines in THE GRAPES OF WRATH, and a dreary song to boot.

Updated On: 4/21/13 at 04:02 PM

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

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

7. I have no idea what to make of the return of the Mara Davi character.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 4/21/13 at 4:15pm

I got a peek at the final script. Here is how it ends.

A cramped, dirty apartment in Hell's Kitchen of Manhattan. A washerwoman named Eileen comes through the door at the end of a hard day. She greets her unemployed blue collar husband Jerry.

"How was Ellis today?" Eileen asks.

"He was a real star today." Jerry says.

The camera pans to Ellis, an autistic boy playing with a snowglobe.

"Perhaps one day they will find a cure for his disease," Eileen ponders.

"We can only hope," replies Jerry.

The camera zooms in on Ellis intently looking into the snowglobe. He shakes it and the tiny bits of snow fall on the scene inside the snowglobe which is a blonde woman standing on a stage.

The lights on the apartment dim as the camera pans out the window to the blinking neon sign of a Broadway marquee in the distance.