Smash Season 2 Clip Shows Tension Between Karen And...

As January draws to a close, we have the February premieres to look forward to. For NBC, that includes the return of Smash for its second season. The network gave fans of the musical-drama a very big preview of the new season by releasing the first half of the two-hour Season 2 premiere online. This latest preview clip will probably make a bit more sense to those who have watched the first half of the season premiere. And since I'll be referencing something specific that happened during that first hour, consider yourselves spoiler warned!

First and foremost, if you haven't watched the 40+ minute Season 2 preview, you can check it out here.

If you have seen it, then you know that it ends with Katharine McPhee's Karen discovering an amazing singer/piano-player in a bar and giving Tom an earful of it through her cell phone (in a moment that's pretty reminiscent of the Nashville premiere, I might add). The preview clip below (via TVLine), shows a confrontation between Karen and Jimmy (Jeremy Jordan). Judging by this conversation, he's not interested in being discovered by Karen.

Drama! There must be some kind of explanation for his hostile reaction to Karen's interest. In the meantime, as interesting as this story might be, did anyone else find the score to this scene to be a little distracting? I suppose it was supposed to enhance the tension, but it came off as a bit soapy in my opinion. Or I'm just being nitpicky this morning. I wouldn't have minded hearing Jimmy sing again, but I suppose we'll have to wait a bit for that and hope it happens later on in Season 2, since he doesn't seem especially enthusiastic about sharing his talents with Karen.

Smash premieres Tuesday, February 5 at 9:00 p.m. ET on NBC.