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This week, Smash was mildly better. Of course there wasn’t much they could do to make it worse than last week’s, but I think the musical numbers helped a lot this week too. There were all of four of them this episode! I know; I was shocked too.
The actual plot of the episode could have gone worse. With Bombshell, they had Tom starting to lose his directorial grip by trying to please everyone, but since that already got solved, that’s a good start. Bonus for Ivy singing “Let Me Be Your Star” and killing it s usual. Have I mentioned I’m really glad to see her back as Marilyn? Because really, there’s absolutely no contest.
The JFK song performed at Tom and Julia’s apartment by Sam was pretty awesome too. For a moment there, I had Mad Men flashbacks, it was pretty awesome, but I don’t know if it would fit with the rest of Bombshell either. Besides, Tom’s personal life bores me, so I hope that’s done.
Now, The Hit List. Yawn. The one song they performed from it was better than the ones we’ve seen in the past, but the contemporary dance and the characters are boring. Also, I want a story to be more about a girl and a guy in love. Moulin Rouge managed to pull that off, The Hit List doesn’t because there’s nothing more to it. And Jimmy isn’t Ewan McGregor.
Wednesday’s song was cute, but they could have given her something with a lot more range and character because she can pull it off. At least it looks like she will have more to do now, so there is that. Bonus points for Lea Michele mention, though. She would have saved the show (and although I know she could never be on Smash, I would love to see her perform against Megan Hilty because hi, perfect Wicked movie casting!).
Karen was a little less annoying this episode; probably because she didn’t have a lot of screen time, and I actually feel bad for Good Guy Derek, who innocently dropped her off at home just before Bad Guy Jimmy came in.
Speaking of Jimmy, if the preview for next week is anything to go by, looks like it will be the worst episode of Smash yet, including but not limited to, rushed plots that had no proper build-up, awkward situations and a bunch of stuff no one cares about! Looking forward to that.
“I Heard Your Voice in a Dream” was such a great song. I was so bummed when Jack’s Mannequin called it quits, but now that Andrew McMahon has moved on to do cool things like write songs for Smash, and “I Heard Your Voice in a Dream” was a great contribution. Hope he keeps on writing more for this show, and maybe even one day writes a whole musical