‘Smash’ Review: The Big Finish

Let me start by saying that I was afraid that the Smash series finale was going to mess up two main things that they did right: give the Tony to Ivy and Bombshell. I was going to be so angry if Karen and/or Hit List had won, but that wasn’t the case.

Anyone who has read my reviews of the past few episodes knows I haven’t been impressed with the show and even this episode, particularly the first hour, had a lot of side plots that were unnecessary. Things that just make the show look silly like Tom and Julia’s side plots with their would be significant others that didn’t add anything to the show and in Tom’s case, didn’t even add anything to the character.

I wish there had been a lot of less of those silly things and more of the random musical numbers like “Under Pressure” and the last number that was more of a meta with Ivy and Karen. Those are entertaining, they aren’t being presented as something serious and they can be enjoyable if done right. I particularly liked the “Big Finish” number because they were just basically making fun of the fact the show had been cancelled, and that they knew it had a lot of issues. They didn’t even bother finding a believable way to fit that number into the show and that was exactly the point.

As for the characters, I’m glad that most of them got their happy endings. I don’t know that I trust Derek with Ivy and her baby, but at least he made a mostly believable effort. While Jimmy made an effort too, I still don’t care about him, his life, and I think his existence is one of the biggest problems this season had. I would have liked it better if Daisy had gotten screwed over some more, but at least Ana got things to work for her.

After everything she’s been through, it was good to see Eileen get the awards and her guy back. I was also happy that they included Ivy’s mom in this episode. Despite their drama and ups and downs, they obviously care about each other and Leigh is starting to respect Ivy for the amazingly talented actress and singer she is.

To be honest, I was looking forward for the torture to end, but this episode reminded me of the things I did like about the show. Broadway, theater, musicals, ridiculously talented people singing and even the theater-based drama. It makes me really sad I won’t see these characters anymore but most of all, it upsets me to see a good episode, know the show did have potential, it just didn’t reach it often enough.

Maybe someday, we will see a well done Broadway themed show on TV. For now, I just hope Megan Hilty shows up on something else soon.