‘Smash’ Review: The Fringe

Guess what this week’s Smash was about? Reviewing/saving Bombshell! Because we’ve never seen that done before, right? This show has so many amazing, talented people in it; I don’t understand why it can’t be better. The plot is repetitive, you have adults behaving like pre-teens and while I know the theater community can be dramatic, it’s come to a point where it’s just ridiculous, not to mention, predictable.

I’m still not buying The Hit List as the artsy, amazing masterpiece they are trying to tell me it is. I was waiting to see it on a proper stage set up like they showed this episode, and maybe if it hadn’t been for that ridiculous wig they threw on Karen, it wouldn’t have been so bad, but overall, it just made me cringe. The song was good, but still not a musical song, not even an indie musical song.

As for Bombshell, I do like both songs that were performed this episode, but that’s about the only thing I liked. All this discussion about the show and pulling it in 300 different directions is so tiring. I do hope that now that the truth about Jerry and Ellis is out, the show will be less of a mess, but who knows? I don’t know if I believe in Tom’s directing skills as much as Julia and Eileen seem to, and even though he’s an a-hole most of the time, I do like Derek.

The one good thing about this week’s episode is that while it created some brand new recycled drama, it seems to have resolved some of it too. Like Julia’s crisis, Eileen’s lack of backbone and the terrible mess that is Ivy’s play. None of those plots particularly interest me, so I’m glad to see them go.

As for next week’s preview, is there really anyone who didn’t see the setup? Karen being perfect on Hit List and Ivy is going to end up back in Bombshell. Personally, I think it’s great because I like Ivy better as Marilyn anyway, but it’s just more recycled, predictable plot.