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Smash Season Two |OT|

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L

lenovox1

Member
*DING**DING**DING* Ready for Round 2?

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Description:

“Smash” is a musical drama that celebrates the beauty and heartbreak of the Broadway theater as it follows a cross-section of dreamers and schemers who all have one common desire - to be a “Smash.”

In Season 2, the “Bombshell” team is one step closer to achieving their Broadway dream. The Boston run was the success the team was hoping for, including producer Eileen Rand (Academy Award winner Anjelica Huston, “Prizzi’s Honor”); writers Tom Levitt (Tony Award winner Christian Borle, “Peter and the Starcatcher”); and Julia Houston (Emmy Award winner Debra Messing, “Will & Grace”); last-minute star Karen Cartwright (Katharine McPhee, “American Idol”); and director Derek Wills (Jack Davenport, “Pirates of the Caribbean”). But, they are all about to learn even a charmed show cannot avoid paying for sins of the past. Will Eileen get away with mixing business and pleasure with her shady paramour, Nick (guest star Thorsten Kaye)? Will Julia’s marriage to Frank (guest star Brian d’Arcy James) survive the revelation of her infidelity? Will actress Ivy Lynn (Megan Hilty, “9 to 5: The Musical”) bounce back from the shame of losing the lead role to rival Karen and bedding her fiance in retaliation? And will Tom and Julia’s long-time partnership endure the changing tides of opportunity?

As they all scramble to push forward, one of the show’s players finds Brooklyn natives Jimmy Collins (Tony Award nominee Jeremy Jordan, “Newsies”) and Kyle Bishop (Andy Mientus, “Carrie: The Musical”) toiling away on a current-day rock musical of their own, which could either become “Bombshell”’s biggest rival, or yet one more Broadway false start.

Weighing both the benefits and sacrifices of a career on Broadway, the “Smash” cast of Broadway hopefuls is rounded out by Karen’s lively new roommate/actress Ana Vargas (Krysta Rodriguez, “The Addams Family”) and Tom’s boyfriend, Sam Strickland (Leslie Odom, Jr., “Leap of Faith”).

“Smash” has welcomed an impressive array of guest stars, including Uma Thurman (“The Producers”), Nick Jonas (“Jonas”) and Bernadette Peters (“Gypsy”), and the second season is no different. Oscar-, Golden Globe- and Grammy-winning actress-singer Jennifer Hudson (“Dreamgirls”) will appear in a multi-episode arc as Veronica Moore, a Tony Award-winning Broadway star who impacts the lives of Karen and Ivy Lynn. Emmy Award-winning actor Sean Hayes (NBC’s “Will & Grace”) will also recur as Terrence Falls, the star of the musical “Liaisons,” who becomes a major thorn in the side for Ivy Lynn (Megan Hilty) and other characters. Jesse L. Martin (NBC’s “Law & Order,” “Rent”) will play Scott Nichols, the artistic director of a non-profit off-Broadway theatre. Additionally, Harvey Fierstein (“La Cage aux Folles”) makes a cameo appearance and Nikki Blonsky (“Hairspray”) recurs as Margot, a Broadway producer’s assistant.

From Universal Television in association with DreamWorks Television, the series stemmed from an idea of executive producer and multiple Emmy and Oscar winner Steven Spielberg (“ER,” “Schindler's List”). Executive producers also include Joshua Safran (“Gossip Girl”); Craig Zadan and Neil Meron (Oscar-winning “Chicago,” “Hairspray”); Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey (“United States of Tara,” “The Borgias”); Tony and Grammy Award winners Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (“Hairspray,” “Catch Me If You Can”); Jim Chory (NBC’s “Heroes,” “American Dreams”); and Theresa Rebeck (“Mauritius,” “NYPD Blue”).
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M

Magnus

Member
Raxus said:
The first season took a nosedive after the first episode. Did it get better?
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Yes. Felt like the direction Glee should have taken.

Couple horrible elements persisted throughout; that producer's assistant wound up being a terrible villain. I've already forgotten his name.

Looking forward to this tonight!
 
R

RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
I'll try to watch the season premiere tomorrow. I hope it isn't shit like the first season.

tinabina said:
I almost want to stop watching because of Jennifer Hudson.
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Wha? Oscar Winner Jennifer Hudson makes you want to stop watching? Don't you mean start watching?
 
K

Killthee

helped a brotha out on multiple separate occasions!
Jennifer Hudson was awesome in her solo number last night and I'm glad to see all the dead weight has been cutoff (Leo, Frank, Ellis, Michael). I still can't stand Katharine McPhee though, wish they would have just dumped her already for Megan Hilty.
 
R

RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
Yeah...they really shouldn't give Karen another duet with JHud. She was totally outclassed and I felt embarrassed for her. Karen is such an awful character. She doesn't have any screen presence and while her voice is decent for pop, it's just not cut out for Broadway.

The cast has already shown a marked improvement due to the lack of Ellis, Dev, Frank, Leo, and Michael. Thank god they're off the show.

Ivy's rendition of Don't Dream It's Over slayed me. ;__;

Overall I think the show has shown some improvement. There was nothing egregious in the first two episodes but there wasn't anything that got me excited either.
 
K

Killthee

helped a brotha out on multiple separate occasions!
Jayayess1190 said:
How “Smash” Became TV's Biggest Trainwreck
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Thanks for posting that, it's a real eye opener.

So how in the world did, say, Ellis happen? It's a surprising answer.

"Spielberg loved the Ellis character," said one source. And the actor? "Everyone wanted to recast him except for Theresa."

And even more surprising, another source said that after the pilot was shot, "Spielberg's big push was to recast Megan Hilty" — who was unquestionably one of the only true, unironic bright spots of Smash. In the messy panic of preventing that mistake, especially one dictated by the Oz-like Spielberg himself, "there was so much discussion about Megan Hilty that Ellis just got on the show," said the source. "They loved the character, and Theresa kept writing him."
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Take the Karen/Bar Mitzvah scene, for instance. "The original idea was she goes, she doesn't know what the hell she's doing, she's never met a Jew, she doesn't know anything," said a source who worked on that episode. "The joke was going to be on her. It was going to be kind of a disaster, but she was going to come out kind of ahead because somebody liked her voice. But they wouldn't let us have her at all be even a comic disaster. She's triumphant! There's no conflict there."

Another source added: "It wasn't comic, wasn't funny, wasn't interesting, wasn't complicated."
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The Smash office was not a happy place. Rebeck fought with everyone: her writers, Greenblatt, Falvey and Frank, Zadan and Meron, Shaiman and Wittman.

"She was prone to screaming," said one person. "She would crow about her fights. She sees herself as a victim. It is common for a showrunner to feel victimized — she's not the first. She would retell a lot of the fights, and it was a little tricky to know who was to blame.

"In this case, I think everyone was to blame," this person continued. "I don't think anyone in last year's story comes out looking great except, I would say, David Marshall. He was the one who was totally blameless in this scenario."

One source, who still likes Rebeck personally, said, "For all of her mistakes as showrunner, and there were a few big ones, she was working under impossible conditions."
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Other people I spoke with echoed that sentiment — that they would pray Greenblatt would stop Rebeck. "You know it's bad when our last hope was the network," said one. "She would come up with these horrible ideas; she wouldn't hear it from us, so we were in the upside-down world where the network was the sane one."
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If there's anything everyone agrees on, it is that yes, there were no true discussions — and in the end, Rebeck fought everyone off. "The crazy thing that happened was because she was such a terror to them, she actually kind of bought herself a certain amount of autonomy," says a source. "They kept barraging her with notes and demands, and she was a Mack Truck: She would not take it. Nobody wanted to deal with her to the point that Bob didn't want to deal with her!"

Rebeck's last champion was Spielberg. "But obviously even that went away."
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It was a given that it would be renewed. Hours after that happened last March, Deadline broke the news that Rebeck would "depart" because she was "stepping down." In fact, Greenblatt had fired her.

"From everything I heard, it was like the assassination in Julius Caesar — silence from the conspirators, then a sudden firing," said a source. "I don't think it was handled with much kindness or grace."

Another source put it differently. "Let's just say it was a great day, and I'll remember it for the rest of my life."
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There is a funny, self-referential recurring plot device in the premiere, which is that the Marilyn musical, having had its out-of-town tryout in Boston at the end of the first season, is well on its way to being launched on Broadway — except that its story, as written by Julia, Rebeck's alter ego, is bad. As worded by the fictional version of the New York Post's real-life theater columnist, Michael Riedel, who, oddly, has become an occasional character on the show, "In her unfocused hands, what should be a peek behind the curtain becomes an inch-thin picture show."

After claiming several times that she hadn't read any reviews, Julia breaks down to Tom and tells him that she had on opening night. "I pretended that I didn't because I was so mortified. Everything I've done has turned out so wrong," she says, crying and terrified.

"What if I can't fix it?"
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WOW.
 
Zoe

Zoe

Member
The Karen/Derek relationship is weird. It feels like there was no transition to get to where they are now.
 
K

Killthee

helped a brotha out on multiple separate occasions!
canIhasAnAccount said:
It's amazing that after the son from last season, they make another character just as bad. Jimmy is dreadful.
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Yeah, I can't stand him either. They need to put both him and Karen in a car accident and kill them off. 2 birds, 1 stone.
 
R

RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
The Kyle + Ronnie rendition of Billy Joel's "Everybody Loves You Now" was amazing. Like, maybe the best song the show has done so far. I need to go buy it off iTunes now.

Zoe said:
Fucking Ellis still ruining the show after he's been given the boot.
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Yeah, I can't believe they still have Ellis operating behind the shadows. That's so fucking stupid.

Killthee said:
Yeah, I can't stand him either. They need to put both him and Karen in a car accident and kill them off. 2 birds, 1 stone.
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He is really annoying and childish. I don't like him either.
 
Zoe

Zoe

Member
How is Julia's first draft so great when Boston was so awful? Did they really change that much?
 
N

netguy503

Member
Zoe said:
How is Julia's first draft so great when Boston was so awful? Did they really change that much?
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They are trying to save the show by getting it back to it's season one roots (which people actually liked)by even plot contrivance they can even if it doesn't make sense within the show's universe anymore.
 
L

lenovox1

Member
Oh, hey! NBC is moving the show to Saturday nights at 9 starting April 6th. Do... Do I hear a dump truck? Must be trash day.
 
Zoe

Zoe

Member
I actually liked this episode.

But why does it always have to come back to fucking Ellis??
 
J

Jayayess1190

Member
lenovox1 said:
Oh, hey! NBC is moving the show to Saturday nights at 9 starting April 6th. Do... Do I hear a dump truck? Must be trash day.
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Smash is dead:

NBC just made several scheduling changes, with low-rated Smash moving to Saturdays, and Go On getting a tryout on Thursday following the last episodes of the The Office. There is good news for loyal Smash fans — NBC is committed to airing all 17 episodes of the series’ second (and final) season.
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Vert boil

Vert boil

Member
According to Safran, Episode 17 “was constructed as a series finale.”

“I don’t want [viewers] to think they are going to be left hanging, because they won’t be,” he assures. “The season has a beginning, middle and an end… [And] it just gets better and better.
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*snicker*
 
R

RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
Jimmy is insufferable. He's almost on the same level as Ellis (why is he still affecting the plot?!) and Leo at this point.
 
Vert boil

Vert boil

Member
*rolls eyes* at the promo. The show just can't help itself. Smearing shit all over itself every chance it gets.
 
R

RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
The cast of this show is so great: Anjelica Huston, Jack Davenport, Christian Borle, Debra Messing - all fab. And yet their talents are wasted. Ugh. This show could have been so amazing if they only had as much talent behind the cameras as they do in front of it.

I actually really liked Jimmy and Karen's performance halfway through the episode, as well as the Nat King Cole song performed by Sam. Despite everything else, the musical numbers have always been consistently good. If they offered a collection of all the musical numbers on DVD or Bluray I would probably buy it.
 
Zoe

Zoe

Member
Aside from the Karen/Jimmy drama, I thought this one was decent.

Worried Nick Lane might do something to Ana though :(
 
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