Dear Smash, Try Harder

Awh, twas but only a few short months ago that I watched the pilot for Smash and declared that I was in love. Turns out, it was one of those crappy junior high crushes that only lasts till the end of Geometry. Sigh. I was in denial at first, having been so delighted by the wonderfully-crafted pilot, but as the episodes wore on, there were only so many excuses I could make for the show and only so many ridicularities (yes, I know it's not a real word) I could excuse.

"Hey, it's only the second episode. Second episodes are tough. It'll get better."
"Okay, so the third episode was a disaster, I hear the fourth is excellent."
"Hey, that episode had slightly more semblance of story and working knowledge of logic to it than the last, so... that's an improvement..."
"The whole episode was a disaster, but it had 80% less Ellis, so... WIN!"

I've finally given up the ghost. Smash is kind of a disaster. Sure it has brief glimmers of potential that flare up every so often, but by and large, it's a train wreck. What I thought would be saved on my DVR till the end of time (or till the DVDs came out, at the very least) is now hastily deleted after each viewing. In my glowing review of the pilot, I proffered that it wasn't akin to Glee in any but the most superficial of ways, but in terms of speed with which I hit "Delete! Please dear god, delete!" after each episode, I'd say they were separated at birth.

Why do I keep watching, you ask? At its core, it really does have a hell of a lot of potential. Quite frankly, it should be very, very easy to make Smash spectacular. Solid concept with built in drama, stellar cast, uncommon and exciting conceit, and a central location where all the characters can very logically get together. Should be a cakewalk. And for writers who actually like TV, I think it would be. My prevailing theory is that the writers of this show think television is a lesser medium that can be slapped together with no effort whatsoever. Well, kiddies, you reap what you sow. My main hope for the show, and one of the main reasons I'm sticking with it, is that the showrunner (Theresa Rebeck) and most of the writing staff is being ousted prior to season 2. It can only get better. This show has problems. Lots and lots of problems and I don't think it would take a genius to identify them. Fixing them is another story, but pointing them out is quite simple.

Let me count the ways:

1) The writers of the show hate TV. Or at the very least, they don't respect it.
As mentioned above, I think this is the biggest problem here. Even before the show aired, concerns were expressed by the team that the general population simply doesn't appreciate Broadway and that Smash might suffer as a result. Well, kiddies, your show isn't exactly helping the cause. The disdain for television as a trash medium runs through the show like an undertow. Every casual mention of Broadway being the best thing in the whole wide world undercuts the medium in which this show exists. That's... a problem. At various points in the show, the theater roots of the writing staff get written right into the script, whether it be Karen and Ivy vying for a humiliating commercial spot or Derek deriding television as a wasteland of forensic science crime procedurals. Don't get me wrong, there are humiliating commercials out there and more than enough unfortunate crime procedurals to go around, but the way it's woven into Smash gives the impression that the theater is the only true bastion of creative expression. Everyone associated with the production of Marilyn is a true genius! A maestro! An embodiment of all things creative and fantastic! I hate to break it to theater, but there's at least as much bad theater out there as there is in any other medium. To place themselves on a pedestal where TV is lesser is not only a fallacy, but a big problem when you're working in television. I guess my feathers just get ruffled when I get this nagging suspicion that the show is trying to teach television how great it could be (you know, if it were more like theatre), but totally sucking at it in the process. It should be noted that I LOVE the theater and think that this show really could have been a lesson to other network shows about how to break out of the box, but so far, Smash is making me want to crawl back inside said box and determine who killed somebody using little more than tri-lobal carpet fibers. (That means they came from a car, by the way. Yeah. I actually know that. Damn CSI.)

2) The show keeps telling me what to think rather than letting the work/art/writing speak for itself.
To be fair, Smash has a taller order than most shows in this regard. The vast majority of cop, lawyer, doctor, comedy sketch, ad executive, what-have-you shows are based around the main characters being the best of the best. The difference is that the general population has no idea whether or not Dr. Benton's surgical skills were really that impressive or if the analysis of that blood sample really makes sense at all. Those shows can tell you their characters are splendorous and the audience can generally suspend disbelief enough to take their word for it. Smash has a much harder job to do. Everyone has a decent perception of what good music and lyrics sound like. Nevertheless, Smash keeps trying to tell me what's what rather than letting me decide for myself. To be honest, the musical numbers are generally the more successful elements of the show. I really did think that baseball number was wonderful. The most brilliant piece of work to have ever existed ever? No. That god-awful rendition of "Touch Me" with the ever-so-inspired-and-original Derek Wills directing Karen to roll around on a bed while prison bars sprang up around her? PAINFULLY BAD. Karen and Ivy as the best two options to play Marilyn? Nope. For as many times as Derek tells me that Karen is spectacular, she needs to show me before I'll believe you. If anything, proclaiming her as such and hoping the audience simply believes you makes me scrutinize her even more. Hell, even things completely unrelated to the music are subject to telling me what to think. Early on in the series when Julia reads her adoption letter to the group, rather than letting me judge its worth, the room immediately deems is the best letter they've ever heard. UGH. Smash, if you're going to make proclamations like that, they better be true. More importantly though, I, as the viewer, have the ability to make such decisions by myself. You don't need to tell me what to think. You need to show me who these people are and what they can do and I'll tell you if it's good. It's the same problem Studio 60 had and it's one of the primary reasons that show failed. For as often as the characters patted each other on the backs and proclaimed themselves to be the wittiest creatures on the planet, the sketches weren't funny. Plain and simple. For the record, I actually quite enjoyed Studio 60 and it was a far better show than Smash, and I still take issue with that fact.

3) The show doesn't earn the big moments because it won't take the time to set them up.
There are a lot of shows out there that can burn through story like nobody's business and make it work. The Vampire Diaries crams more delectable twists and turns into a single episode than most shows do in a whole season. And it works. They delivery story at a breakneck pace AND find the time for powerful character moments that have been building over time. Many shows excel at this. Smash is not one of them. With Smash, it feels like they aren't willing (or able?) to set the scene before telling the story. It's like people who can't tell a joke because they're so over-eager to get to the punchline. Instead of getting a laugh, they get a "huh?" And so it goes with Smash, only they're aren't trying to be funny. Well, not intentionally funny. The primary example here, although there are literally dozens that I could rattle off with absolutely not effort whatsoever, is the Julia/Michael Swift affair. All together now, "UGH." This was a disaster from beginning to end, all of which happened over the course of like, 4 episodes? Seriously? Yep. Here's the thing. This could have worked. It could have been compelling, titillating, erotic, multi-layered, conflicted, and heart-wrenching. Instead, it was non-sensical, insulting, absurd, annoying, and idiotically fleeting. They easily could have set Michael and Julia up exactly as they did: former flings who had had a brief affair 5 years ago. No problem. If they had wanted viewers to actually care about any of this, however, they needed to stop there and rewrite the entire storyline from what they actually did. There are many ways this could have played out successfully. They could have had Michael and Julia thrown together like this and played on the awkwardness of it all at first. They're both in happy, loving relationships and they look back on their former dalliance with mixed feelings of regret and desire. Over the course of the entire first season (at least), they could have been placed in scenarios that poignantly explored their conflicted affection for one another, possibly leading to minor, unintentional infractions that left both feeling embarrassed, but intrigued. The show could have laid the groundwork for Julia's reasons for cheating on her husband 5 years ago and the reasons she would do so again now. Instead, the show opted for blind lust, with absolutely nothing behind it. Hell, even if they had wanted to go with blind lust, that could have worked if they'd rolled it out slowly, letting the sexual tension build over time. Give me a reason to care about these people! Give them enough complexity that I can understand why they're doing this and enough depth that I want to learn more! Ugh. This show simply refuses to take it's time to really lay a solid foundation. Without the groundwork, the stories seem superficial at best and utterly non-sensical/cliched/annoying at worst. Groan. Seriously, at most points during this idiotic affair, I wanted to throw things at the TV. I'm sorry, did he seriously just show up at her house, force his way inside, make nice with her son, then kiss her in plain view of the son's bedroom (which we all saw coming from 6 miles off)?!?! Wait, wait, wait, is he actually threatening to expose the relationship in the middle of rehearsal?? Why is she meeting up with him in her pajamas?? What the hell is this?! And then it was over. Don't get me wrong, I was thrilled it was over, but it just made it all the more ridiculous. The list goes on and on and it makes the story arcs fall as flat as a bad joke. You have to earn the big moments. Michael and Julia getting together could have been amazing. Instead, it was cheap and pointless. They didn't earn and I didn't buy it. Or care.

4) Uncomplicated characters in an underdeveloped, unexplored universe.
The concept for this show should be dripping with built-in drama. The very process of putting on a Broadway musical is a stressful, gut-wrenching, exciting, grueling ordeal. All the writers needed to do was develop this universe and then explore the people inside it. Instead, they've opted to have cardboard cut-outs stand in front of a matte painting while a soap opera is read aloud. For a well-built universe, the actual events can be totally minimal, subtle, or nearly non-existent. For Breaking Bad, Justified, Luck, Deadwood, and even Hell on Wheels, you can oftentimes sum up the major plot points of an episode in a blink. Man alive, I'm pretty sure I was 4 episodes into Luck before anything actually happened. And yet, I totally enjoyed it. The writers constructed a world that was so rich, so interesting, and with so many multi-layered characters that something as simple as a conversation between old friends could be completely riveting. Breaking Bad, in particular, has any number of episodes where all that happens is talking. A bunch of old guys sit around a table obliquely talking about meth and I'm glued to the edge of my seat. The characters are so well-defined, so deep, and so interesting that it doesn't matter what they do. It matters. It all matters. With Smash? Well, technically speaking, tons of stuff happens, but none of it matters. These characters are simple. They have simple goals and simple means. I can't dissect the intricacies of their motives because there are none. Or, if there are, they're completely ridiculous. Had the writers fleshed out this universe in a compelling way and simply let some realistic people inhabit that world, it would be gold. As is, I just don't care. Neither the characters nor the world of Broadway is as complex and compelling as they very easily could be. My only thought is that the writers of this show are too accustomed to Broadway musicals and haven't been able to translate to TV. In a musical, you have to have simpler characters and more straight-forward methods as a matter of medium. A musical simply hasn't the time to explore each and every character and doesn't have to format for subtlety. When you have to play to the rafters, you can't have a tiny facial expression say it all. TV is different. It just is. And until the show has writers who can work with this medium, the show will continue to falter.

5) Not to beat the dead horse of shoddy storytelling, but the narrative has no focus, no cohesion, and no consistent ongoing themes.
So, you know, no big. Seriously though, it sometimes feels like the writers are passing half-completed scripts from one to another and not talking about it as a whole. Kinda sounds like Glee, right? Right. The best shows on TV have a focus, a theme, and a plan going forward. Smash feels like they're improvising the next episode based loosely on the previous episode. Great shows do exactly the opposite. They plan out exactly where they're going, at least thematically, and then figure out how to get there step by step. I just watched the season 3 finale of Justified and it all worked. Every single element. This season has been chaotic, intense, complicated, and moving, but it all came together exactly as it should. When writers have a plan, a long-term, season-long (if not series-long) plan, it's a lot harder to write themselves into a corner or fly off the rails. When writers are reactionary, they spiral out of control, lose their focus, forget their underlying themes and end up where Smash already is. I don't think it's too late for Smash to course-correct and rein in the show, but the sooner the better. It's not like the later seasons of Lost where it was just way too late to backtrack. In small defense of Smash, they produced almost all of their first 15-episode season prior to airing. This means that when something didn't end up working for viewers, it was entirely too late to take it back or reshoot it. With that in mind, I think if they can really sit down, figure out a plan for season 2 and lay out more than a couple of episodes in advance, they could make this work. I'm not holding my breath or anything, but a girl can dream. Speaking of, do you remember in the kickass pilot when we were presented with a thrilling tale of the dream for greatness and the cost of success? Yeah, I hardly remember that either. This show is at its best when it takes thematic elements from Marilyn and the musical and applies them to the ongoing narrative. Much the way Buffy took the theme of "high school is hell" and made it a literal part of their actual lives, Smash succeeds when it ties the elements together. Well, usually. Ivy's new dependence on various drugs sort of parallels Marilyn's decent into addiction, but the show isn't willing to go all the way with it. Rather than taking that theme, slowly and subtly chronicling Ivy's path to addiction and desperation, Smash comes across as an afterschool special. Again, much like Glee, it wants to send a message, but rather than letting events speak for themselves, it just tells you how you should feel. It's about as subtle as a punch in the throat. When the show premiered, I thought I was in for a well-woven tale of parallel lives, both current and past, doomed to repeat the past as they look toward the future. That's not what I got...

6) Ellis
That is all.

7) The non-musical musical numbers are a problem. A fairly embarrassing problem.
"Wow. Okay, so that just happened..." That's the phrase that springs to mind every time on of their painfully over-produced, unnatural, illogical non-musical based musical numbers crop up. Again, much more like Glee than any show should ever aspire to be ever. The pilot episode raised my hopes that they'd be able to integrate the musical numbers in an organic way that helped move the story, much like a real musical would. In the pilot, when Ivy and Karen are getting ready for their second auditions and they sing "Let Me Be Your Star", it totally worked. Meaningful, well-sung, and integrated into the storyline seamlessly. That has not been the trend ever since. Now we get awkward songs being sung in Times Square for no apparent or logical reason, a ukelele solo from Julia's husband that should never have seen the light of day, a painfully painful love song by Michael Swift to Julia while waiting for a cab (speaking of the show telling me what to think, when Julia tells Tom about this, he says, "That must have been amazing."--nope), and my personal favorite, the bowling alley. Oh sweet Jesus, that actually happened. If they were going to do that, they should have at least have the common decency to have them sing, "We're Gonna Score Tonight" from the hilariously bad Grease 2 (see below for a clip). Good lord, that would have been less embarrassing... and would have made more sense to the story... Let that sink in for a minute. It should not be this hard to incorporate songs into this kind of a show! Man alive, seriously? What's worse is the over-production. Much like Glee, I can see where they're trying to sell iTunes here and feel like they have to produce a single-worthy version, but I've got news for you, show. The live version would be better. The cast has more than enough vocal talent to sing live. LET THEM SING LIVE. The musical numbers for the musical itself are excellent. If they could translate even part of that to the non-musical musical numbers, the show would be in much better shape. (On a related note, how fabulous was Tom as the fill-in Daryl Zanuck? Love him. Unfortunately heavy-handed love triangle and all.)

The glory of Grease 2:



Sigh. Again, I don't think there's no hope for Smash, but they need to get their act together sooner than later if they want to save such a promising concept before it's too late. I'm hopeful that they overhaul the show over the summer and come back strong. I don't know who the new writing team will be, but if they have even a working knowledge of how television works and how story is structured, it can only get better from here.

I'm going to hang in there till season 2. Based on the last few episodes, it will not be easy, but I think it's a concept that strong enough to hold out hope for. Fingers crossed.

TV Review: Smash

In short, I'm in love.

I watched the pilot for Smash (free on iTunes), NBC's latest attempt at dragging the network out of the gutter, and I have to admit, it's also their greatest attempt. While past Hail Mary passes have died ignominious deaths at the hands of the network that was, Smash is far and away their best effort and has the best chance of subverting my expectations for the network.

I should start off with a full disclosure of biases. The premise for this show is pretty much tailor-made for me and my artistic sensibilities. I'm a sucker for serialized dramas, musicals, dance, Broadway, and Jack Davenport. Honestly, it could have been half as good and I'd still be giddy with anticipation for more and clutching my pearls that NBC will blow it. Again. Unhealthy love of musicals aside, I've never been a fan of Marilyn Monroe or her brainless cupie doll routine, at all, so in my own particular brand of flamboyant mathematics, I think my biases may have cancelled each other out. As such, prepare yourselves for a completely unprejudiced and unconflicted review. Huzahh!

A lot of television viewers and critics have been quick with the snap judgments about Smash, assuming it was NBC's attempt at a Glee-style hit, but rest assured, rather than a derivative knock-off of a show that has spun into a full disaster, Smash is everything Glee wishes it could be, but isn't. Rather than setting up a faulty framework whereby actors can sing a million song covers that are vaguely adjacent to whatever contrived moment it happening on air, Smash embraces the ages-old theatrical conceit of a show within a show and makes it sparkle. Yeah, yeah, they're both shows with songs and... no, actually, that's about where the comparisons stop. Watching Smash didn't at all feel like watching some iteration of Glee, and if you've watched Glee over the past two seasons, you know there's no possible way that isn't a compliment.

Smash tells the story of the making of a musical about the life of Marilyn Monroe, using the songs within the musical that is being writing as the primary songs for the show. It forges a compelling blend between the real world and the stage adaptation in much the way the film adaptation of Chicago did (I kinda want to say that Rob Marshall is involved with this show somehow, but don't quote me on that), shifting from reality to fantasy from breath to breath. Other songs elucidate character moments and plot developments as well, but it all blends together nicely and doesn't feel like, "Awh hell, it's been 7 minutes, we have to put another song in no matter how much it doesn't fit." The musical numbers were all completely organic to the story and felt like, well... like I was watching a good musical. For those of you out there who've seen good ones and bad ones, you know what I mean. In the best musicals, the songs simply flow through the narrative like all other storytelling elements. In a bad musical, well, you can feel the number coming from a mile away and can't believe you have to sit through an entire song about postage stamps. It helps that Smash has a hell of a pedigree going into it, not only with an amazing cast of onscreen talent, but actual Broadway writers and choreographers working behind the scenes. These people know how to put on a show and I know how to sit on the edge of my seat clapping my hands together and grinning.

Katharine McPhee stars as Karen Cartwright, budding ingenue and corn-fed Iowan who dreams of making it on Broadway. With her primary credit being "former American Idol contestant," I was understandably concerned about her ability to carry a series. Her acting resume is pretty slim, but at the end of the day, she did a really lovely job, allowing her inexperience to make her performance better, not worse. McPhee is green and unpolished, but so is the character she plays. The very quality that makes her an appealing and refreshing choice as Marilyn makes her an appealing actress overall. Every slightly awkward moment comes off as genuine and disarming. I wouldn't say that every second was a home run, but I found that I connected with her character instantly and found myself rooting for her from the get-go.

By intentional contrast, Karen's rival in the race for the lead is a Broadway veteran named Ivy, and is played by Megan Hilty. Maybe it's humanity's knee-jerk sympathy for the underdog, but neither I, nor the producers of the show within the show were as drawn to her as they are to Karen. She actually did a very nice job embodying Marilyn and she's a force to be reckoned with onstage, but there was something forced and almost disingenuous about her portrayal. Whether this is chalked up to the actress, the character design, or both, is anyone's guess, but it made for a noteworthy juxtaposition. I assume she'll grow on my over time, but as is, one of my very few quibbles with the show was that McPhee's character is so obviously the star of the show (although after talking to Annie, it seems some people were more divided than I). Maybe it's just me, but I can't imagine any universe in which she doesn't get the lead role. It appears that the bulk of the first season will focus on the contest for the role of Marilyn, so unless they flesh out Ivy in more substantial ways, I think the winner is a bit of a foregone conclusion. I think the reason I struggled with Ivy is that she went whole-hog with the Betty Boop Marilyn persona that I've long despised. McPhee's character gave Marilyn an actual personality, a heart, a brain, (da noive?) and my attention. She made her more than the dingbat, and that instantly wins her a lot of points.

The two leads do a very nice job, but it's the rest of the cast that really brings it together and creates the world of the show. The cast is replete with heavy-hitters like Angelica Huston, Debra Messing, and of course, my darling Jack Davenport who steals the show. Okay, I may be a bit biased, as mentioned above, but I think most viewers will find his prickly, sexy, brilliant director Derek Wills as delightful as I do. There are truly no serious weak links in the cast at all and I found myself believing the characters instantly and investing in them. To see the contrast between the two young women, pursuing their dreams in the face of parental opposition or apathy and the profession veterans who've seen a million girls just like them feels authentic and meaningful. We theatre buffs have seen this conceit before, to be sure, but there's a reason writers keep tapping that well. It's utterly compelling and unbearably brutal to watch. I've seen it a dozen times and yet I get sucked in every single time.

Indeed, the few weaker points to the pilot were some of the more staid story elements. While the performances made some of the more predictable plot points work, they were predictable nonetheless. As the season progresses, I'm hopeful the writers will play with expectations and take more narrative chances, but even if they don't, it all still works. More surprises would simply be icing on the cake. In terms of the smaller story elements, there were a few moments where the writers were clearly aiming for heart and depth, but slid into schmaltz instead. I'm not overly concerned here. Once the show really finds its feet, I'm confident these more heavy-handed beats will dissipate as the characters become fully formed. I realize that Ellis' monologue about his love of the theatre and Ivy's would-be heartbreaking phonecall to her apathetic mother were important character points, but this early on, they fell a bit flat. Those were the two primary instances in the pilot that didn't ring true for me and felt forced. The fact that these two moments came from the two characters I connected to the least is no coincidence, methinks.

Minor quibbles aside, the show really worked. The chemistry between all the actors made even the weaker beats worth ignoring. In particular, McPhee and Davenport sizzle onscreen. This is, of course, intentional, and it's a good thing it worked because the show would be far less without it. The story of an aspiring starlet facing the prospect of having to sleep with the director to get the gig is well-worn and familiar, but again, the actors make it feel fresh. Jack Davenport can do no wrong, really. His real strong-suit is the subtlety he brings to the story in the smaller moments. The look on his face and glint in his eye when McPhee performs for the first time had me sold on him as a character and on her as the lead. How that will all shake out in the long run, especially in light of the entirely too revelatory "this season on Smash" highlight reel, will be interesting to watch, even if not completely surprising. That said, the fact that Tom, one of the writers of the musical, and Derek, the director, hate each other (or at least feel a certain rivalry) will make the whole process twistier and murkier in all the best ways. Does Tom want Ivy for the lead because he thinks she's best for the part or because it's clear that Derek favors Karen? Will his loyalties to Ivy win out? Will Derek's bravado overpower him? When push comes to shove, who carries more weight in the decision? I kinda can't wait to find out.

All in all, this was an easy show for me to enjoy. My threshold for musicals is pretty low in general, but even if I weren't such a fan of the genre, I think there would be a lot to love about Smash. Was it perfect? No. Did I care that it wasn't perfect? No. The glitzy production numbers (I've watched the baseball number about half a dozen times now), Broadway caliber singing and dancing (was that Alex Wong I spied in the rehearsal for said baseball number? why yes, I think it was), fine acting, and wonderful cast were enough for me to casually ignore the flaws. Most musicals have issues, let's be honest, but if I can walk away with a smile on my face and a song stuck in my head, I really can't complain. In the end, I find that I'm more excited about this show than I have been about any other pilot this year. Whether or not it'll sink or swim is anyone's guess, but in terms of network TV in general, NBC might just sink or swim right along with it.

No pressure or anything.

The fact that it's on NBC is actually quite the double-edged sword in terms of it's prospects. On the one hand, NBC has hardly a feather in its cap these days and hasn't launched a huge hit since The Office. When there aren't any solid lead-ins to help with new start-ups, it's much more difficult to find traction with viewers. On the other hand, NBC's standards for "good ratings" have gotten so low that shows have to be complete, total, and utter flops to get cancelled. What this means for Smash is yet to be seen, but the good news is that I think it will do at least well enough that NBC will keep it around for a while. They can't really afford for it to flop... In my heart of hearts though, I think it will do well, NBC notwithstanding.

Pilot Grade: A-

NBC Pilots 2011: Volume 3 (midseason dramas)

A few strange trends emerged with the network announcements of fall shows (vintage-y, fairy tales, comedies that seem hell-bent on convincing the world that men are complete morons), but none was more disconcerting than the midseason slate. For some unknown reason, the major networks seem to be holding all their most promising new shows until the dead of winter. Seriously, before I had sized up exactly what the schedules would look like for fall, and had only seen a pile of trailers, there were a number of shows I was rather intrigued by and, I daresay, excited about. Only then did I realize that the vast majority of them wouldn't have the luxury of a big, splashy, fall premiere, but would instead start filling the schedule whenever a spot opened up. On the one hand, I guess it makes sense to replace fall failures with something more promising, but more than anything, I think this sets these shows up for failure. Once in a while a midseason replacement makes a splash and hits big (Grey's Anatomy is the main one coming to mind), but in general, it's a rough go. After the winter break hiatus, even established shows tend to struggle a bit to get viewers back into the swing of things, let alone a brand new show.

Well, whatever the reason may be, I find myself a hell of a lot more excited about the midseason than the fall, which I'm pretty confident has never happened before. I guess it'll be nice to see some quality come mid winter rather than the second-tier cast-offs (as per usual), but call me crazy, I don't want to wait that long!

Alas, here are NBC's midseason dramas (well, most of them--there will be an adaptation of John Grisham's The Firm as well, but it has yet to even be cast, so there's not much to tell):

SMASH

Description: Stars Debra Messing (Will & Grace), Katharine McPhee (American Idol), Anjelica Huston (Medium), Jack Davenport (Captain Norrington), and others. Steven Spielberg is somehow behind this and Grammy and Tony winners Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (Hairspray) will write original songs for the show.



First Impressions: You see what I mean about all the good stuff being held till midseason? Yeah, I'm extremely excited for this one. I've never gravitated toward Marilyn Monroe as a cultural icon the way many people do, but that's decidedly beside the point. I've seen this billed as a "grown up Glee" but I don't think that's it at all. To me, this looks like a tremendous story about putting on a Broadway show, which, I don't know if you've met me, but that pretty much is my wheelhouse. This isn't a show about a bunch of people singing for increasingly plot-irrelevant reasons. This is a concept about Broadway, and on Broadway, you get singing. Besides, after this season of Glee, putting anything in the same boat is kind of an insult. Moving on, the cast and creative team are pretty amazing. I'm not an American Idol fan, so my knowledge of Katharine McPhee is limited, but she seems to be holding her own in the trailer. I always have a bit of a problem with people choosing a Christina Aguilera song for their auditions though, because let's face it, good luck with that, but she pulled it off. To boot, I think she actually looks really good as the Norma Jean end of the Marilyn spectrum. The blond they have vying for the role as well doesn't look like Monroe at all, save for the hair. The fact that things like this are already on my mind means that I'm already invested in this show more than probably any other new pilot. Indeed, watching most of the trailers for these news shows a second time has seemed like a chore in most cases, but not here. I was as enthralled in the second go-round as the first. I love Jack Davenport (who looks really great as the director), Angelica Houston is a legend, and I have no positive or negative feelings toward Debra Messing in this role (and when it comes to Debra Messing, feeling neutral generally equals a win). In terms of concept, the only way this show could appeal to me more is if they were making a musical about a different person, but I realize that it kind of has to be Marilyn. In terms of old Hollywood screen legends, however, I'm more of a Barbara Stanwyck, Marlene Dietrich, Mae West kind of girl, but they don't have quite the same cultural zing that Marilyn does. The show appears to have just about everything I could ask for in a drama and more. Even the more familiar ground they'll be covering has me intrigued. The director-ingenue dynamic has been done and done and done, but McPhee and Davenport looked great together and I'm excited to see that explored (especially with her seemingly perfect boyfriend(?) in tow). Knowing how common it is to have to sleep with the director to get the part, I'm eager to see how they handle it. In case I've been far too subtle, I'm super-stoked for this one and kinda sorta pissed that I have to wait till midseason. Presumably, they're holding it till then so they can pair it with The Voice, but given the sinking ratings lately, I'm not sure that will be doing Smash any favors.


AWAKE

Description: Stars Jason Isaacs (Brotherhood), Laura Allen (Terriers), Cherry Jones (24), Steve Harris (The Practice), and Michaela McManus (The Vampire Diaries). The project comes from Kyle Killen, creator of Fox's short-lived Lone Star and 24's Howard Gordon.



First Impressions: I have to tip my hat to the big four for continuing to take chances with high-concept shows, even in spite of the rash of recent failures (The Event, FlashForward, The Nine, etc). I am not a casual TV viewer, so the extra effort needed for a show like this is most enjoyable to me, but often comes as a turnoff to other viewers. Networks seem to be searching for the next Lost, but so far have come up short. Awake isn't the same kind of "high concept" as those cited previously, however, so I think it has a better chance of surviving the network mill. At its core, it's a cop show (and likely a fair bit procedural--hopefully not entirely though), albeit with a sort of Inception-y vibe to it. Indeed, with him tackling different cases in each of his lives, I'm thinking NBC said to itself, "Two procedurals for the price of one?! I'll take it!" The concept raises some very interesting questions about identity and reality. At the end of the day, our entire existence is founded in our perceptions and our memories, so who's to say what is and is not reality? The show posits the theory that his mind has constructed an elaborate coping mechanism following a tragedy and asks the audience to consider what is and is not mental illness. This coping mechanism, by most accounts, means that he has officially gone insane, but by his personal measure, it's the only thing holding him together. Indeed, the stakes are so high in both of his realities that he can't really risk believing that one is real and the other isn't. What if he chooses wrong? What if both realities actually exist (from the trailer alone, it's hard to determine a supernatural element, but the overlaps in his two realities suggest that at least in his mind, some warping is occurring). It reminds me of that episode of Buffy where she's in a coma in one reality and is fighting monsters in the other. At one point, Buffy decides that she really is a woman in a coma and that all the fantastical things that have happened for the past few years were a dream and that all the dangers she and her friends are currently facing don't actually exist. She endeavors to ignore her dream reality, but on the chance that she's wrong, on the chance that it isn't all a dream, she engages and slays the demons like she has for the past few years. All in all, it simply isn't worth the risk of being wrong. I have a hopeful feeling that Awake will explore the mysteries of identity and reality in an intriguing way and that the more procedural elements will be kept to a minimum. The cast is excellent (seeing Laura Allen gives me pangs of grief for Terriers, but it's lovely to see her back on the air) and the creative team seems spot on (I loved what little I got to see of Lone Star and I'm excited to see Kyle Killen's talents in a project that will hopefully last). I'm a bit concerned that, like Lone Star, this concept may have been better suited to a movie or mini-series and I'm also afraid that the tone of the show may turn off network viewers. Where a somber exploration of grief, mental illness, and fabricated realities would work wonderfully on AMC, I'm not sure how sturdy a foothold it will find on NBC. Whatever the show's fate, I'm certainly intrigued and am looking forward to this midseason offering quite a bit more than most of the fall slate.