Smash (Season 2 Premiere)

What? A man can’t review a show about singing anymore? Oh, you’ve never heard of this show? Well… It’s about this elite Navy SEAL team that sing while parachuting into hostile territory. Obviously, there are new characters each episode because they don’t last very long… seeing as how every enemy literally knows where they are because they’re singing Yellow Submarine while trying to rescue some PoWs.

Are there still PoWs?

-coughs-

Moving on. Smash made a big WAVE. Get the pun? Oh, damn. I meant SMASH. Yeah. It’s funny now.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1825133/

There’s the IMDB page. It’s honestly one of my favorite shows. It’s completely manly, don’t worry. Steven Spielberg produces it. So, I have a perfectly good reason as to why I watch it. Loophole~

Anyways. You’re probably only reading this if you’ve watched the first season already and you’re wondering if season two is just as, if not more, good. I’ll start with the story. Slight spoilers, if you haven’t watched the entire first season.

Karen’s become ‘harder’ in a way, because of all the things Ivy had done in the first season that so affected her. In the previews, a lot of people mentioned how she seemed like a bit of a bitch. To be honest, I think it was the right and logical move. She started out a naive girl, and she’s simply become stronger. If your main competitor for the biggest role in the first musical you’ve ever been in slept with your fiancé, wouldn’t you be a bit of a bitch toward Ivy? You wouldn’t? Wow, you’re a really nice person…

Skip the last two sentences if you would. They’re for the good people reading this, not the…

Ahem. Moving on. Bombshell’s funds have been frozen because Eileen’s ex-husband exposed her boyfriend Nick’s sordid dealings. Apparently, he was a drug lord. Yeah. He’s not a very good one, to be honest. Ivy’s character has improved a lot, actually. She’s sympathetic, and she actually looks like she feels bad about what she’s done to Karen. She may even be likable.

The reviews have come in, and the critics loathe Julia’s (Debra Messing) writing, while loving her partner Tom’s musical numbers. To be fair, what can you do with a Marilyn Monroe story? It’s not really something you can make a comedy out of, and if you do make a drama out of it… Pretty much everyone already knows her story. (If everyone is an American Theatre critic, of course)

So, in all fairness, she’s doing the best with the cards she has been dealt with. There’re no scenes involving her son, by the way. I think the writers realized that they didn’t want to make her any less sympathetic by showing how bad of a mother she is… I mean, dude, she was part of a list called, ‘Television’s Top 10 Worst Mothers.” You would HAVE to be horrible to be on that list. One of the women on the list tried to kill her own son. So, yes. Horrible.

With Bombshell frozen in stasis, Karen ends up drinking at the local watering hole. Well, not really. In the words of one of the characters, “You’ve been watching your ice melt for the past twenty minutes.”

But anyways, she gets kicked out by a bartender after he gets her to sign a pamphlet from his collection of failed musicals. Yeah, I thought it was both inappropriate and amusing at the same time as well. She leaves, but returns because she forgot her phone. The first bartender (who was so rude to her near the beginning of the episode) is playing a song he wrote, and damn. It is good. He’s playing it on the piano. She calls Derek (or is it Derrick? I can never tell with the Brit spelling of things) and lets him listen to the song.

I won’t spoil the rest of the 1 hour episode (Yes, one hour), but you can imagine the drama and all that come after that. The show succeeds in putting the right amount of comedy, as well. It’s surprising, actually. Most shows I see either devote themselves completely to comedy or completely to drama. They’ve achieved the right balance considering the stuff they’ve been dealt with.

Now, the singing… I play the piano, and I like music. But I’m not a musical genius, or anything, so I can’t tell you if Karen was a bit flat thirty seconds into the song, or if Ivy was sharp at the one minute mark. By the way, those two musical terms are the only things I know.

I play the piano, but I didn’t really listen to all of that other stuff. Anyways. The music is honestly AWESOME. Love it. It’s not just the singing by the characters, even. In an earlier post, I talked about how old movies used music to enhance the apprehension of a character when a suspected murderer is climbing the stairs.

Smash uses it to lighten the mood, and it succeeds. It’s pretty awesome. I would watch it based on the music alone, honestly.

My sister doesn’t care for the show much… and I’m trying to convince my parents to disown her for her blaspheme. But, yeah. The show isn’t perfect. Some characters (Karen in season 1) were a bit daft here and there. It’s still a great show, though. Give it a shot.

To Smash fans feeling a bit hesitant about watching season 2, you will not be disappointed. It’s suuuuuper great.

If I were forced to give a rating to this show, it would have to be an 8.7/10. Pretty great.