I work in the performing arts, where somehow, there's still this weird connotation around television, and sometimes, the quality of its programming is called into question by virtue of the medium alone. I'm a big fan of TV shows I don't have to apologize for; when it's good and intricate and brassy and accessible all at once, it's some sort of a minor miracle. And when it's about a topic that's near and dear to my heart, well...slam dunk. Smash is just that for me. The second episode does what all good sophomore chapters have to do: it takes the balls in motion from the pilot and accelerates things, turning a teaser into the opening chapters of a story in fifteen installments we're going to witness over the course of the spring.
So, here's my problem--the first episode, in tandem with this one, are better than the sum of their parts. There's a lot I loved about Episode Two, but there's a few key moments where there's room for improvement. I love this show. I want it to succeed. It's got a rock-star pedigree. It can't afford some of the missteps that I'm worried it's trekking towards. But, I'm getting ahead of myself.
THE SHORT VERSION: In this episode, we get a second round of callbacks; Ivy and Karen both read scenes, and we see Karen's dance audition, the Twentieth Century Fox Mambo. We also see a hookup between Derek and Ivy and the fallout from Derek and Karen's not-hookup on her relationship with Dev--in hanging out at an extra-long rehearsal, Karen misses dinner with Dev's coworkers, leaving him brushed off and alone. There's also a bit of interplay between Eileen and her soon-to-be-ex-husband Jerry--he's strangling the money and is trying to pull Derek away to work on My Fair Lady.
Derek may be a complete man-slut, but he's loyal to Eileen; he's all-in for Marilyn. Julia and her husband go back and forth on the adoption question, before deciding to formally start the process, which will take about two years. And, after many opinions from all involved parties and some nail-biting, we get our Marilyn: It's Ivy, who proves that experience will beat neophyte charm, at least at this stage of the game.
Hoo-kay. Now:
THE GOOD TO GREAT: The episode opens with Karen covering Blondie's "Call Me," which flips from a fab club number with our entire cast in attendance to a fantasy, as she waits tables in her day job. It's a cheeky bit of wordplay, as she waits for word from her agent. Sure, it's a little bit on the nose, but it's handled with enough glam and legit talent that I bought it.
Karen's "Twentieth Century Fox" mambo is nothing short of fantastic; subtle, playful, interesting, well choreo'd, and full of neat camera angles and cool moments. I want to see this musical...
There's a great scene where Julia and Tom are shuffling the numbers of the show around, trying to figure out the book and structure of the show. Sometimes, across these two episodes, I've had trouble completely buying the "behind the scenes" moments of creation like this. This one worked for me, because we got to see how Julia's mind works, as a writer, in reframing her songs as part of a narrative in the musical. it also gave us an intriguing look into how the musical may start, with both Ivy and Karen taking on different parts.
Broadway mega-producer Jordan Roth makes a nice cameo as himself in this episode. I love it when we get a little bit of the real world of theater, bleeding into this one.
Karen and Ivy are very fun to watch on-screen together, and I want more of it. There's a little bit of a subplot with the dance captain working as Ivy's "spy" in Karen's audition, which is a little hackneyed. But--it does give us how these women perceive each other, and leads to a little scene of how they play off each other. I hope there's more of that ahead.
The title card, and the "previously on" interstitials with the breaking lightbulbs, are really cool and stylized. Kudos to whoever did the awesome design on that.
THE QUESTIONABLE TO NOT-SO-GREAT: Okay, I'm saying this here, right now: the adoption plotline is a waste of Debra Messing and Brian d'Arcy James. Here are two incredibly good-looking, talented actors, and I'm buying none of it. I had a moment of "thank God!" when he mentioned that, at the age of 47, maybe it was time to give up on adoption, because 65 is too old to attend a daughter's high school graduation. But nope--their son Leo gives a plaintive speech to his mom, keeping the adoption on. Leo either needs better writing or some better direction--it was a painful scene to watch, and had all the subtlety of a brick to the face.
It's early yet in this story, yes. And I know we have some twists ahead; that said, the relationships between Julia and her husband and Karen and Dev are cookie-cutter showbiz cliches right now. Julia's chief conflict of "family versus career" feels a little like Liz Lemon without the punchline right now, and Karen...I have this feeling like there's something interesting and dangerous in there. We get these punctuated bits of "wow," when she seduced Derek in the first episode and when she breaks out the freakin' awesome mambo in this ep.
Eileen, after choosing Ivy, advises us to "keep an eye on her." And I think we'll do that; her disappointment could lead to some interesting choices. And I really want to see them--she's so much more than the damsel in distress she gets shoehorned into, when Dev is yelling at her or Derek is manipulating her. There's a future out there where Karen could be a damn fine anti-hero for Smash, if the team wants to take her down the rabbit hole. And I'm all for that; just take her SOMEWHERE!
Ivy ends the episode with a cover of Carrie Underwood's "Crazy Dreams Come True," and it's well-shot, composed, staged...and a total clunker. The first episode ends on a cliffhanger...this one ends on a montage and a country song. It's a bizarre moment that made me yell, "C'MON, GUYS! THIS SHOW IS AWESOME! BE BETTER!"
THE FINAL WORD:
This is a great show. As second episodes go, this one delivered, but not quite to the potential it could have. I said in my previous write-up that this show has class written all over it, and has the potential to adopt some of the beloved feel and tropes of The West Wing. I stand by that; it's also got shades of Studio 60, and SportsNight, and Upstairs, Downstairs, and even a little bit of Downton Abbey. But it really doesn't have much in common, in its best moments, with Glee. And that's a good thing; this show works when the choices are complicated, the stagings are well-executed and expensive, and New York is allowed to throb and vibrate as a character in Smash. I'm hooked, for good; I only hope that the creative team has an eye on a good story to tell, and not so much on singles to be sold via iTunes.
See you next week, friends. Team Ivy: you win this round. But Team Karen isn't down and out yet...
