Smash may have gained a reputation for being downright mad and crazy, but there was so much talk about how this second season would be more stable and grounded. Don't get me wrong - there are actually a lot of things I like about this show. But this episode just seemed a little, well, repetitive.
I get that the producers want to make it more consistent, but the big shock of the instalment - Derek quits! - just didn't have the impact it deserved. And when it came to Hit List, I can basically sum up the storyline as: everyone's excited, Karen has to pull back, Jimmy gets annoyed, Karen returns to Jimmy's disdain, everyone's friends again. And that's not something we haven't seen before.
Perhaps I'm being too harsh. The concept of creative differences on Bombshell has been interesting, and it's pushed to the extreme here, pitting best friends Tom and Julia against each other for once. For some reason, Eileen - who up to this point has kind of been set up as all integrity - wants to go for the commercial version of Bombshell. So Julia's sulking and Derek's irascible as always.
Things really begin to heat up when Jerry decides to pull Julia's favourite ballad for the gaudy 'Public Affairs' (I can't help but feel that they chose a too-unrecognisable song for this conflict - 'Let Me Be Your Star' would have been a better choice.) Tom eventually manages to keep it in the show by reworking the choreography, which wins over Julia again, but it's too much for Derek who feels his director chair being pulled out from underneath him - he says goodbye.
I think one of Smash's problems is that it's so easy to see the plot cogs being turned - obviously Derek has to leave Bombshell so that he can turn up at Hit List's performance on the fringe and announce that he'll be helming the ship. Similarly, when you see Ellis's ex-girlfriend (ha) turn up, there can be no other reason than that she can slip into conversation with Karen that Ellis has been working with Jerry.
Of course, Karen then tells this to Eileen, who does a little detective work and discovers Jerry's dastardly plan to take over Bombshell. It's all still hush hush for now, but with Julia and Tom now apparently reunited - I seriously don't know how Julia went so quickly from grumpy 'I'm going to London with Leo and Peter' to 'Everything's fine again!', but whatever - they just need a director to keep things going. So, Tom gets it. This is presented as some kind of revelation but it's so blindingly obvious after his work on the ballad earlier, so it wasn't quite the razzmatazz ending the episode thought it was.
Elsewhere, Hit List does have solid songs (they have a more modern and sparky feel) but like I said, it's difficult to invest too fully in the storyline when we've seen it before. This time, the show's being put on at the fringe festival, but after a piece shows up in Time Out (sure), Jerry announces that Karen's not allowed to take part and Jimmy predictably has a fit.
It's all resolved when Derek quits Bombshell, naturally - Karen becomes all disillusioned and runs over to Hit List to perform alongside Jimmy, complete with a suitably smoochy kiss at the end. And it's no real surprise when Scott from the Manhattan Theatre Workshop is in the audience, loves it, and asks to talk to the writers more (this is the point when Derek can do his: "I'll direct!" intervention.) Not everything's wrapped up too neatly - Jimmy's still furious with Karen for bailing originally, which is fair enough since she's done it a few times by now - but overall there aren't really any surprises here.
Even Ivy's storyline seems like we're treading over old ground, even though the disastrous Terry Falls was only introduced last week. Once again, he's being horrendous, and once again, everyone is horrified about how awful their show is. Ivy eventually breaks down and tells him just how bad he is, and he thanks her for being the only person who is honest with him (yep, this happened last week, too.) On the plus side, it seems like there is actual development here - instead of hilarious jabs about wacky Terry going off his meds, he actually confronts the company to ask how they can make the play better. So that's something, I guess.
I just feel like Smash needs to really get things moving instead of doing things we've seen already over again. I have a horrible feeling that Derek will end up back at Bombshell next week, Jimmy will be annoyed, Karen will be wide-eyed, and Ivy will be sighing in frustration at Terry. I hope I'm just not giving the show enough credit, because I do still have a lot of affection for the cast and some moments are genuinely good. There just needs to be more of them.
Smashed
- Derek's disdain for the idea of a plane on the stage was amazing.
- Jimmy was disconcertingly upbeat and optimistic at the start of this episode, so thank God he went back to being a grumpy-pants.
- Loved the moment in the lift when Ivy and Karen both had to put on brave faces about their respective shows.
- Sheep! Mirrors! Peacocks! Massive underwear! God, that Terry is such a hoot.
- I did like Derek's "I QUIT" speech, but I kind of wish he'd gone even more crazy. Maybe thrown something across the room. (He's so wonderfully smug even when he's down, though: "How many Best Director Tonys do you have?")
- I love Megan Hilty - love her - but her number this episode was frankly bizarre (I know that's the point, but everyone was talking like it was the second coming.)
- I love it when this show makes callbacks to Leo. We even got a Rebecca Duvall shout-out this time around.
- Also, Ellis being described as "kind of a psycho". Well, duh.
What did you think of the episode? Let us know below?
