While NBC is clearly the bottom of the Big Four barrel, ABC has been nipping at their heels for some time now. Last season seemed to be a turn in the tide though with the successes of Once Upon a Time, Revenge, Happy Endings, Scandal, etc. As such, they don't have as many shows coming this fall, but they have a hell of a lot slated for midseason (a bridge which will be crossed at a later date).
In a season where there have been hardly any surprise pick-ups or unjust cancellations, ABC is right in the middle, once again. The only real note of interest is that Cougar Town was cancelled by ABC, only to be picked up by TBS, which should prove a much better fit. That said, looking at the horror that is ABC's new comedy slate, they should have held onto Cougar Town with both hands and a foot. In terms of scheduling, the biggest news is that Revenge is moving to Sundays. I think that's a better fit in terms of tone, but in terms of being opposite The Good Wife, I'm less than thrilled.
Here's the full fall schedule:
MONDAY 8/7c Dancing With the Stars/The Bachelor (in January) 10 pm Castle
TUESDAY 8 pm DWTS Results 9 Happy Endings 9:30 pm Don’t Trust the B—– In Apartment 23 10 pm Private Practice
In January 8 pm HOW TO LIVE WITH YOUR PARENTS FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE 8:30 THE FAMILY TOOLS
WEDNESDAY 8 pm The Middle 8:30 pm Suburgatory 9 pm Modern Family 9:30 THE NEIGHBORS 10 pm NASHVILLE
FRIDAY 8 pm Shark Tank 9 pm Primetime: What Would You Do? 10 pm 20/20
In November 8 pm Last Man Standing 8:30 pm MALIBU COUNTRY 9 pm Shark Tank 10 pm Primetime: What Would You Do?
SUNDAY 8 pm Once Upon a Time 9 pm Revenge 10 pm 666 PARK AVENUE
NOT RETURNING NEXT SEASON:Charlie’s Angels, TBS-bound Cougar Town, Extreme
Makeover: Home Edition, GCB, Man Up, Missing, Pan Am, The River and Work It
THE NEIGHBORS
My Take: Oh my holy god, are you effing
kidding me?! Wow. Just wow.
This looks like a really bad idea for a family-friendly Disney
made-for-TV movie that somehow got turned into a comedy on ABC. I… have no words. Seriously, how on earth is this going to be
an ongoing series? The 2 minute trailer
was painful on its own. I’m sure ABC is
banking on Modern Family to buoy the show’s ratings (as they’ve banked on for
every other comedy to have debuted in the last 3 years), but I don’t think
there’s anything that can save this. If
I had to actually assess the show (and it pains me to do so), I’d say the cast
is charmless and the conceit is oppressive.
There is no possible way to have any real heart or story arc in a show
that revolves around a family that moved into a neighborhood full of aliens. The gags employed in the 2 minute trailer
will undoubtedly be employed every few minutes during every single episode
because there’s really nothing else there.
I can’t believe this got picked up and I really can’t believe ABC is
wasting the plum post-Modern Family slot on this. I’m almost morbidly curious here. Surely there was something ABC saw in this, right? Potential-O-Meter: About 10 points south of “If I had to watch
this show on a regular basis, I’d shoot myself”.
NASHVILLE My Take: For as off-putting and
unappealing as country music and Hayden Panettiere are, this actually looks
like a pretty solid production with a good base conceit and a great cast
(cheerleader notwithstanding). I adore Connie Britton and I have a feeling
she could carry just about any show, even if its basic concept doesn’t really
speak to me. It’s a serial, to be sure,
so that wins it some points, but again… Hayden Panettiere… [insert cold shudder] To be fair, she’s playing an utterly
loathsome character, so it shouldn’t be too hard to translate my hatred into
even more hatred. My main concern is
that the show will want me to love her at some point and I’m just not sure I
can do that. For the better part of
Heroes, I was more than happy with letting the world explode or melt or
whatever it was going to do if it meant that we could stop saving the effing cheerleader.
Anyhow, aside from some conceptual aspects that don’t really get me
salivating, it looks like it could be an excellent drama. Again, Connie Britton can pretty much do no
wrong and I’m excited to see her back on TV, doing something other than giving
birth to a demon. In my heart of hearts,
I’m hoping the approach of this show will be a lot like The Good Wife in terms
of focus. Connie is the star and the
rest of the actors are peripheral.
Should they try to skew younger and make Hayden more central, I might
just have to tune out. Given that it
will be premiering after the abomination that is The Neighbors, I suspect I
won’t be the only one. That’s a nasty
timeslot and I think the show will suffer for it. Potential-O-Meter: 6.5
LAST RESORT
My Take: When the trailer began, I was
fully expecting a “we’re the best of the best and we take no prisoners” blah,
blah, blah, but it actually turned in a direction I didn’t expect (a fairly
ridiculous direction, to be sure, but still different). It really sounds a bit more like a summer movie
than a series at this point, but it really depends on where they take it. If the show focuses on the reasons behind the
attempted sinking of the submarine, looks at the people and the politics that
make such decisions, etc, I think this could be more grounded and interesting
than the Michael Bay overtones would suggest.
If nothing else, it’s not very often you run across a show about the
crew of a submarine, so at least it’s something off the beaten path (although
it seems they’ll be creating a new society on an island, or something, so who
the hell knows). The cast is entirely
too young and pretty to be believable as nuclear submarine anythings, really,
but so it goes in Hollywood. The cast
and production look pretty solid, even if the story is up for grabs. It all had a not-so-vague resemblance to The
Rock, but that’s all part and parcel of the whole action show gig. All in all,
I think this one could go either way.
I’m not exactly chomping at the bit, but if the writers really focus on
the drama and politics of their situation rather than the promise of explosions
and gun play, this could be a viable contender (or total guilty pleasure). Potential-O-Meter: 5.5
MALIBU COUNTRY
My Take: Okay, seriously, what the hell
is ABC thinking with their new comedies this season?! Good lord, this looks painful. I never watched Reba for a number of reasons,
and now they seem to have taken all those reasons, multiplied them by 37 and
made a new sitcom out of them. Ugh. Well, I guarantee that this piece of shit
isn’t my cup of tea, but I can see where any number of people might enjoy
it. It’s being paired with Last Man
Standing, which is also horrendous, so odds are they’ll share a fair bit of the
same kinds of viewers. It’s a sub-par
family sitcom with a painfully abused laugh track that will probably pair
splendidly with a show like Last Man Standing.
The only point of interest in the trailer was the nearly unrecognizable
Sara Rue, for whom blondness and weight loss seem to be in direct
correlation. At the end of the day, this
looks like a low-budget, poorly produced steaming pile of cliché that I’ll be
avoiding at all costs. Surely there were
better comedy pilots out there. Surely. Potential-O-Meter: The theoretical temperature at which entropy reaches its minimum value.
666 PARK AVENUE
My Take: I honestly have no idea what
this show is actually about. At the same
time, I think it easily has the most potential of any of ABC’s fall
offerings. My sensibilities tend more
toward supernatural than horror, but it looks like this show might have a nice
blend. The trailer doesn’t really tell
me much about what to really expect on an episode to episode basis, but I think
they’ve left a lot of room for the show to explore and a great basis for their
own mythology. The “haunted
house/mansion/hotel” is a mainstay of fiction that doesn’t generally appeal to
me much, but 666 Park Avenue has a great look to it and a captivating visual
language. I’m not really sure what I’ll
be getting myself into with this one, but I’m pretty intrigued to give it a
shot. Depending on the narrative
approach and main focus of the show, it could be a fine or illogical pairing
for Revenge, which has been moved to Sundays (aka the day it should have been
on all along), but only time will tell.
Even though I have pretty much nothing to go on but a few vague notions,
my interest is piqued. Potential-O-Meter: 7.5
There you have it, kiddies. It's a pretty mixed bag for ABC. I don't know who is in charge of their comedy development department, but sweet Jesus, they need to be fired immediately. The dramas have some potential, but that's about it. I'm guessing both comedies will come and go quickly, which might be why they have so much in store for midseason. Fearing the worst.
Lord help me, I'm going to try to include embedded videos for the new show trailers. Given that Blogger has decided to plumb the depths of craptacularity just in time for Upfront season, I'm not holding my breath here. Come onnnn, HTML editor! You can do it!
Again, not a lot of surprises this year in terms of pick-ups and cancellations. The only shows there were even kind of up in the air were Alcatraz (which I thought might get a Friday night reprieve, paired with Fringe) and The Finder, whose ratings were bad, but whose association with Bones might have given it an edge. At the end of the day, I figured both would be cancelled, and I was right. I thought Touch would get the axe as well, truth be told, but it's been pushed to Friday, so it's only a matter of time.
Here's the schedule for fall:
MONDAY
8/7c Bones
9 pm THE MOB DOCTOR
TUESDAY
8 pm Raising Hope
8:30 pm BEN AND KATE
9 pm New Girl
9:30 pm THE MINDY PROJECT
WEDNESDAY
8 The X Factor
THURSDAY
8 pm The X Factor (Results Show)
9 pm Glee
FRIDAY
8 pm Touch
9 pm Fringe
SUNDAY
8 pm The Simpsons
8:30 pm Bob’s Burgers
9 pm Family Guy
9:30 pm American Dad
NOT RETURNING NEXT SEASON: Alcatraz, Allen Gregory, Breaking In, The Finder, I Hate My Teenage Daughter, Napoleon Dynamite and Terra Nova.
Scheduling notes: Glee has moved to Thursday, as a result of its ever-decreasing ratings, methinks. Tuesday night is now all comedy (hoping to replicate their success on Sundays, no doubt), with the new shows peppered in between consistent performers. Say what you will about Fox, their scheduling strategies make a lot more sense than most networks. That said, I think Touch is going to die on Fridays right along Fringe's final season.
Here are the new pilots for next season (fingers crossed that this actually works) and a corresponding Potential-O-Meter score regarding how excited I am about it, how well I think it will do, how much longevity I think it has, etc. (0 being that cross-dressing CBS comedy from last season, 10 being Justified or The Good Wife):
THE MOB DOCTOR
My
Take: You know, at first blush (i.e. the
first 20 seconds of the trailer), I was ready to write this off as your typical
“I’m a doctor with a bizarre/special/unique/quirky attribute who can save
people better than anyone else” kinda show, but as the trailer went on, I actually
became somewhat intrigued. I assumed it
would be your standard medical procedural (yawn), but it actually looks to be
far more serialized than that and with much higher stakes. To boot, said stakes are pretty
unconventional. Mobsters in general aren’t
my cup of tea (which I literally just wrote “cup o tea” and almost left it that
way), but the show seems to have integrated them in a more creative way than
usual. I can’t say I’m over the moon for
this one or that I think it has much chance of longevity, but serials get my
full attention and are granted the most leeway.
I like Jordana Spiro well enough and think she could anchor the show
adequately. I loathe Michael Rappaport,
however, so hopefully he’s a more minor player.
At the very least, he doesn’t appear to be a potential love interest for
Spiro, so that wins the show about a million points. Were they to head in that direction, I’d be heading in the opposite direction.
Potential-O-Meter: 5.5
BEN & KATE
My Take: Aside from the innate prejudice
I have about couples named Ben and Kate (there are a truly disturbing number
out there, it seems), this show looks pleasant.
Not uproariously funny or anything, but pleasant enough. In terms of comedies out there, it does err
on the side of “train wreck guy, high strung girl”, but it seems to have more
heart about it. I can’t say I see where
a long term storyline could develop here, but the show seems charming enough
that I’m willing to see what they can do.
There’s something appealing about a brother and sister banding together
for the greater good and forming an unconventional family for that little
girl. In a world with a hell of a lot of
deadbeat dads, I find this angle pretty damn charming, even if I’ll need to see
more before judging longevity potential.
So long as the show doesn’t bank on “he’s an idiot” too much, they could
really make this work. From the trailer
alone, it looks like they’ll definitely need to flesh out the supporting cast though. A little girl and an eccentric friend just
aren’t going to do it.
Potential-O-Meter: 6
THE MINDY PROJECT
My Take: I like Mindy Kaling quite a
lot, but I’m not sure I can handle yet another “she’s a disaster looking for
love in all the wrong places” comedy. To
be fair, I think Mindy can pull off such a show better than most, but the
conceit wore thin about 800 iterations ago.
I’m really torn. The cast looks
great, the writing team can’t be beat, but seriously, the concept is a total
turn off. If her love woes weren’t cliché
enough, she’s also a doctor. I did not
see that coming. My mind is blown. Ugh.
The trailer had some funny moments, but it had just as many
eye-rollingly hackneyed moments as well.
I’ll certainly give it a shot, but I’m definitely on the fence with this
one. I would really have loved to have seen
Mindy at the helm of something really fresh and original, but instead, she’s
pretty much just playing herself playing every girl I’ve seen in every irritating
romantic comedy for the past 20 years.
Not exactly in my wheelhouse…
That said, it’s being paired with New Girl and has enough of an Office
pedigree that I think it will do really well.
Potential-O-Meter: 5
THE FOLLOWING (midseason)
My Take: Maybe I’ve seen too much TV,
maybe I’ve seen too many episodes of Criminal Minds, or maybe I’ve just grown
weary of crime shows in general, but in spite of some interesting ideas, a
great cast, and the fact that it’s not a story-of-the-week procedural, I just
can’t seem to get excited about this one.
It all just seems too familiar to really grab me. Seriously, this is like every third episode
of Criminal Minds plus a healthy dollop of cinematic psychological
thriller. Objectively, it actually looks
really good. Not the most original show
I’ve ever seen, but it certainly raises the bar well above its genre
competitors. Kevin Bacon seems well
suited to the role and James Purefoy is always great. I’m not sure I can handle yet another show
where all I can think is, “Oh, for hell’s sakes, Winona,” but I’ll certainly
try. The dynamic between Bacon and
Winona (aka Natalie Zea) could be interesting… or totally ridiculous… but it’s enough to have me
intrigued. Odds are this won’t bring a
whole lot of new facets to an old routine, but in general, I enjoy the old
routine well enough to give this one a shot.
Again, it’s a serial (no pun intended), so even if it’s less than
unique, I’ll give it some slack.
Potential-O-Meter: 6
THE GOODWIN GAMES (midseason)
My Take: Well, I’ll be damned, I’m
intrigued. Even in spite of the Becky
Newton of it all. Seriously, had I not
recently grown to dislike her immensely and shake my head disapprovingly at her
acting ability, I think I’d be even more interested in the show than I already
am. Having watched as much TV as I have,
I’m a total sucker for a unique concept, and this one comes pretty damn
close. Sure it borrows themes and
elements of other shows, but all together, it looks like a charming take on the
“kids coming back together as adults” motif (although to be honest, it’s a
motif I always really enjoy, so even if it were half as promising, I’d still be
interested). It might just be my love of
that episode of Friends where they play Ross’ trivia game about each other in
order to win the apartment, but hey, I’ll take it. It also kind of has a Royal Tennenbaums-y
feel to it that I totally dig. I can see
where this could make a series and not just a great pilot, which is always a
plus. All in all, aside from Becky
Newton, I’m actually quite looking forward to this one. Which, of course, automatically means it’s
being held till midseason. Boo.
Potential-O-Meter: 7
Well, there you have it, folks. Nothing totally disastrous, but nothing I'm salivating over either. Fox is playing is pretty safe this season. I hate safe.
And good lord, Blogger. This job should not be this hard! I really hope all that worked above, but I seriously doubt it... UGH!!!
Whoa, blogger is different! Hopefully better... If not, my apologies. Geez, how long has it been since I blogged that I didn't know about this till now? Oh, well. On with the show. UPDATE: Oh my holy hell, it is SO MUCH WORSE! Just when I thought that wasn't possible!!! Yeah, that picture above? Hard as hell to move around without screwing up all your text. If it moves at all. Kudos, Blogger. Way to suck. Yeah, I'm gonna be looking for a new program to use in the very near future, because if pictures are this hard, embedding videos is going to be a blast...
As per usual with NBC over the past 5-10 years, they have
more an insane number of new pilots.
Why, you ask? Because the network
is underwater and they cancel nearly everything they pick up. Seriously, when a fantasy show in the Friday
night death slot is the highlight and biggest success of last season’s pilot
ventures, you’re truly, truly in trouble.
Here’s the breakdown of pick-ups and cancelleds (only the scripted
shows, naturally).
PICKED-UP FOR NEXT SEASON:30 Rock
(final season), Community (wahoo! 13 episode initial order), Grimm (yay!), Law
& Order: SVU, The Office, Parenthood, Parks & Recreation, Smash (will
be held till midseason), Up All Night, and Whitney.
CANCELLED: Are You There Chelsea?,
Awake, Bent, Best Friends Forever, Chuck, Free Agents, Harry’s Law, The Playboy
Club, Prime Suspect, and The Firm.
Along with the largely unsurprising pick-up and cancellation news, some
scheduling changes should be noted.
Biggest change? Community has
been moved to Fridays. This, in and of
itself, wouldn’t be a death sentence (if ever a show could survive on a Friday,
it’s a show with a niche audience), and quite frankly, not being up against The
Big Bang Theory anymore can only be good news, but that it will now follow
Whitney is a big problem. Whitney’s ratings
are bad, and the fans aren’t going to follow it to Friday. I think Community’s base certainly will, but
no casual viewer is going to watching Whitney and then stick around. It’s a terrible lead-in and Community is
going to suffer for it. Ugh. Other than that, here’s how things are
stacking up.
The entries in ALL CAPS are new shows for fall.
The times are all Eastern Time Zone because I was too lazy to adjust for
the time zone I actually live in.
NBC FALL 2012 SCHEDULE
MONDAY
8/7c The Voice
10 pm REVOLUTION
TUESDAY
8 pm The Voice
9 pm GO ON
9:30 pm THE NEW NORMAL
10 pm Parenthood
WEDNESDAY
8 pm ANIMAL PRACTICE
8:30 pm GUYS WITH KIDS
9 pm Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
10 pm CHICAGO FIRE
THURSDAY
8 pm 30 Rock
8:30 pm Up All Night
9 pm The Office
9:30 pm Parks and Recreation
10 pm Rock Center with Brian Williams
SUNDAY (Post-football/Winter 2013)
8 pm Fashion Star
9 pm The Celebrity Apprentice
10 pm DO NO HARM
I’ll be posting clips and trailers of the new shows with my knee-jerk reactions
in the coming weeks, but for now, that’s what we’re in for. Having watched the trailers already, I can
tell you that there are some absolute disasters coming down the pike, but also
a couple of possible contenders.
(Bear with me, I actually watched this pilot over a week ago... The finer points might not have stayed in my brain. You know, like people's names and whatnot. Little stuff.)
This is going to be the short short version of my usual reviews. I'm trying to get back to blogging in a more active way, but life keeps preventing me from doing so.
Scandal stars Kerry Washington as a professional "fixer" who takes PR nightmares and makes them go away. She and her team are kind of the crew from Burn Notice, only instead of disarming bombs and getting rid of neighborhood drug dealers, she keeps compromising information out of the press and shuts up whistleblowers. This is a Shonda Rhimes production and aside from a lack of medical acumen, is exactly what you'd expect from Shonda.
Washington plays Olivia Pope, the best of the best, blah blah blah, who doesn't take guff from anyone and dishes it out with zeal. Again, not exactly blazing a new trail here. She's a former aide to the president and apparently used to be involved with him romantically as well. This is one of the many predictable elements of the pilot, but it also bears the most potential for the ongoing series. Having been spurned by her former lover, the most powerful man in the country, she has an axe to grind. This is where the ongoing story arc comes together. Aside from this, I suspect most of the show will be case-of-the-week type stuff which has never been of much interest to me in general.
The basic concept has some real potential even though the pilot itself was pretty bad. From minute one, the show is so hell bent on telling the viewer what complete badasses these people are that it forgets to give them much substance. Furthermore, if a character is actually cool, I don't need to be told. Raylan Givens is as cool as they come. The show didn't need to tell me that, they showed me that. Scandal simply tells the viewer what he or she is supposed to think about these people then hits them over the heads with it for 42 minutes. Yeah, yeah, I get it already! Telling me someone is cool pretty much automatically means I think they aren't which means that Scandal has a lot of work to do. The dialogue was so oppressive and clunky in this regard that is was actually laughable. Even after such a barrage and an A-plot to further convince me, I'm still not buying it. The cast is fine and all, and Desmond from Lost is particularly nice to have around (best part of the show, brother), but I'm still not convinced. I don't believe that Washington really is Olivia Pope. She didn't do a completely horrendous job and in general, she's a fine actress, I just don't think this was the right part for her. At least not from what I've seen so far. I don't know. I can see where she could convince me more over time, much like Mary from In Plain Sight did, but after just the pilot, not only do I not like her character, I don't believe in her character.
The supporting cast didn't get much chance to shine in the pilot and were mostly cookie cutter stereotypes that all such TV teams are required to have. We have the socially awkward computer genius, the attractive investigator, the no-holds-barred prickish alpha male, the charming, disarming womanizer, and the mousy new girl who's learning the ropes. Ugh. Speaking of mousy new girl, I realize it's not just Shonda who does this, but when a show so blatantly has a "I'm the new person who will act as the viewer's window into this world" it drives me absolutely crazy. For a writer, it's just a cheap, easy way to dump plot exposition with as little effort as possible. "I know, we'll just have a new person show up who needs everything explained to them a million times! Genius, I say!" Lazy, I say. I am more than happy to pick things up as I go along. I don't need it all explained from minute one, especially with a concept that is as seemingly obvious and straight-forward as this one. The supporting cast all did a decent enough job, I suppose, but honestly there wasn't much to judge. Desmond had the most prominent role and was by far the most likable character on the show, even if he is embodying yet another cliche. The characters are as basic as their inter-dynamics are and although there's certainly room to grow and adapt, the pilot alone didn't leave me desperate for more.
Oddly, the most promising aspect of the show and the most off-putting was Olivia Pope's relationship with the president, played by Tony Goldwyn. On the plus-side, establishing a universe for the show where the characters have such high-level connections opens some interesting doors and ups the stakes considerably. That said, if the writers don't tread lightly, they could easily write themselves into a hell of a corner. Hopefully though, they'll interlace high-level drama with the more story-of-the-week type elements and find a nice balance. While Tony Goldwyn does a very nice job as the president (and Jeff Perry does an even better job as the president's aide), some of his interactions with Olivia elicited an eye roll and a sigh. When they are talking in the oval office (or the like) and he backs her up into the corner, all her former bravado (that I was already having a hard time buying) melts away and she becomes this weak, simpering shell of a woman. Ugh. It was disappointing to say the least and only served to undercut her character in the most hackneyed way possible. It always seems to be the case with female characters. Oh, they can be effective and ballsy in one aspect of their lives, but they have to balance that with a vulnerable, pathetic side as well. I can appreciate that they were trying to give her some depth and layers, but for me and my brother, it just pissed us off. To go from a fiesty bulldog in your professional life to a scared, weak, almost submissive, doe-eyed idiot in your love life isn't depth. It's insult. Seriously, my brother was like, "Please tell me they're kidding." They were not. To the show's/character's credit, she managed to get away from the big strong man before completely compromising her position, but it was already teetering before she started breathily asking (not telling) him, "Please don't..." She seemed to get some backbone back toward the end, but the damage had already been done. When it comes to men, she's impressionable and weak-willed. The scenes from the coming episodes helped bolster my perceptions of her strength and character going forward, but here and now, I'm unimpressed. My brother and I spent pretty much the entire episode wishing that Gina Torres (Zoe from Firefly) were playing the lead role. Gina Torres is a badass. Gina Torres could put Ukranian mobsters in their place in a way I could believe. When it got to the scene with the president, I was like, "Oh man alive, now I really wish Zoe were playing this role. I'd love to see how she'd handle this (i.e. verbal evisceration or a knee to the groin)." To which my brother responded, "Zoe never would have been in this situation." Hear, hear. Kerry Washington is a lovely woman, and a fine actress, but this is just doesn't seem like the role for her (so far).
In terms of the story-of-the-week A-plot, it was predictable to say the least. In fact, at times it was so so obvious that we didn't think they would actually do it, but they did. There were no twists or turns or surprises that hadn't been telegraphed loud and clear at least a dozen times prior. The dialogue was fairly painful and clunky, but I'm hoping that's a product of the newness of the show. Maybe they'll settle in as the series continues? Here's hoping. Based on the potential of the concept, I'll give it another episode or two. There are a lot of shows out there that had terrible pilots and turned into excellent shows. The Vampire Diaries and In Plain Sight, in particular, come to mind. Can Scandal follow their lead? I'm skeptical, but willing to try.
I didn't hate this pilot, but I certainly didn't love it. My brother actively hated it. It has gotten to the point now that whenever a mediocre show comes on, he can't stop himself from saying, "You know, compared to Scandal, this is looking pretty good." I didn't hate it that much, but admittedly, I played Bejeweled during the really painful parts. Which... might mean I actually did hate it as much as he did...
On a final note, my brother and I happened to be discussing the lack of minority representation on TV prior to watching this pilot and while we very much appreciated that they cast an African-American woman as the lead, the cast as a whole is surprisingly white. We got to talking about it because we were noting the number of great characters on TV who are of Indian descent and it underscored to us how woefully underrepresented African-Americans are. What strikes me as odd is that Scandal, which is produced by Shonda Rhimes, an African-American woman who has frequently spoken out on this issue, has nearly as few minority characters as shows produced by a bunch of white guys (i.e. the vast majority of shows out there). Seriously, Scandal has two African-American characters. And that's it. The entire rest of the cast is white, which means the race ratio is nearly 3 to 1 whites to non-whites. Actually, make that whites to African-Americans. From what I recall, there were no other races included either. Now, I'm not saying that just because Shonda is African-American the whole cast should be as well, but I guess I would just expect a non-white writer to be more attuned to the problem and more devoted to representing faces of color on television, like she has with her other shows. Maybe it was a decision based on the politics of DC? Maybe it just kind of happened that way during casting? Whatever the reasons, I applaud Shonda for including casting an African-American as the basis for the show, but I would have liked to have seen (and expected) a bit more diversity throughout the cast.
Anyhow, it was disappointing pilot, but a promising idea. Here's hoping it settles in as the series continues. It has decent bones, and a promising concept, now it just needs to learn how to use them. If they can keep it more on the serialized side of format, I'm willing to forgive quite a lot. If they turn it into more of a procedural, I doubt I'll stick around for long.
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.
I'll stop bitching about my multifarious reasons for being so lax with this blog and just get the point. Long story short, apathy is metastatic.
Moving on.
The networks won't make final decisions about which shows will survive and which shows have been crushed under the weight of timeslot competition, incompetent management, and network tomfoolery until the middle of May, but here's how things are shaking down so far. I'm starting with NBC because it's far and away the saddest and sorriest among the big four. It's like eating all the tasteless, cardboardy, multigrainy cereal bits so you can save the marshmallows till last. NBC is in trouble, folks. We all hoped that the removal of Jeff Zucker would revitalize the network, but it's going to be an uphill battle. Having ousted Zucker and his reign of terror, NBC is now comprised largely of Showtime vets who are trying to invigorate the NBC as they had Showtime. Good luck with that. This is network TV and the outlandish, envelope-pushing programming that made Showtime a major player simply has no chance on any of the big four, least of all a network that's already in trouble. Network TV simply imposes too many limits and restrictions to allow for much creativity and programming is suffering as a result. Unique, out of the box thinking is actively punished on network TV and until the new brass at NBC cast off other notions, I think NBC is going to continue to struggle. (Frankly, any network that would shelve my darling Community is going to get a stern talking to from me, but that doesn't mean I'm entirely biased.) Couple that with the fact that the network has pretty much nothing in the way of a strong lead-in for new blood and you've got a recipe for disaster. Er, more disaster. Case in point, of all of NBC's fall pilots, only a vanishingly small number will survive.
Henceforth, on with the cardboardy disappointments...
Wait, quick note: I usually categorize by "how screwed are they?", but this year I'm just going to go alphabetically. These predictions are based on my own system of gauging ratings, network expectations, and a keen, truly absurd understanding of how TV works. I'm not infallible, by any stretch, but most of my predictions are spot on. That said, I've been shocked before and I'll be shocked again. Take these with a grain of salt and if you'd rather wait till May to get definitive answers, hats off to you.
The obvious ones won't get much rhapsodizing, but the tougher calls will require some explanation...
30 Rock Safe: Will certainly be renewed for next season. Even if the actual quality of the show has been slipping for the past couple of seasons, it's one of NBC's few safe bets.
Are You There Chelsea? Why no, no she isn't. This one's a goner. Even by NBC's pitifully low standards, she doesn't stand a chance. Basically: Dead.
Awake Fairly Dead: This one is a little too early to call definitively (they've only had two eps to date), but I don't think it's long for this world. Or the other one. It had a good pilot and an intriguing concept, but it would have been better suited to a mini-series or a movie. I've enjoyed the first two episodes, but don't think it will last. Two eps in and the ratings are in a downward slope that I don't see stopping in time to save the show. I'll be really surprised if it lives. UPDATE: The numbers just came back for episode 3 and they held rock solid with episode 2. Granted there was less competition last night than usual, but that's still impressive. I'm upgrading their condition to: Tough Call.
The Biggest Loser Safe: Oh, it'll be back all right. And, given what other gems NBC has to work with, I suspect you'll have to endure a solid 17 minutes of beeping and two commercial breaks before the weight is revealed. All to the shocked horror of those who have slow-motioned us into the break.
Celebrity Apprentice Safe: See above with The Biggest Loser, substitute "beeping" with "bad hair and incompetence." It'll be back for sure. Sadly, sadly.
Chuck Dead: Finally sloughs off this mortal coil. The series ended back in January after surviving for two seasons too long. God, how I used to love that show. Sad to see what it turned into. Cancellation was the only humane thing to do.
Community Safe: This might be the fan girl talking, but I'm betting Community will be back for season 4. It's ratings are pretty bad, even for NBC, but I think the network may have realized that that has more to do with the timeslot than anything else. They plopped 30 Rock into that time period and it struggled hardcore as well. The hiatus put us all on edge, but the fact that they never stopped production speaks volumes. At the end of the day, the show is about 1 season away from hitting the golden 100 episodes and I think NBC will let them get there. Once a show hits 100 episodes (usually), it can be sold into syndication. That's a cash prize that NBC won't pass up. The value of selling it into syndication will more than make up for producing one more season of the show. Henceforth, I'm cautious, but optimistic. I may be going out on a bit of a limb, but I'm putting this one in the safe column. Six seasons and a movie! (Community returns this Thursday, March 15th, to much applause.)
Free Agents Long Dead: This sucker barely made it three episodes before biting the dust. Yet another feather in NBC's cap.
Grimm Safe: I'm as shocked as you are. As the season began, never did I think a supernatural genre show slated for the Friday night death slot would be one of the very, very few success stories for the network. Given its genre and time period, the show is doing extremely well. Hell, for NBC, its ratings are pretty decent for any time period. To boot, it's actually quite a good show. It's not often that the A-plots keep me entertained, but Grimm does a very nice job. The ongoing story could be a lot stronger and more present, but all in all, it's a solid story-of-the-week kind of show. In all honesty, when it comes to the recent fairy tale trend, I daresay Grimm does a better job than Once Upon a Time. The fact that I quite enjoy Grimm but can barely bring myself to watch Once anymore really says it all. I'll be surprised if it doesn't come back.
Harry's Law Tough Call: Here's the conundrum. Ratings-wise, this show is an absolute disaster. That said, it was a disaster last year and NBC kept it. All I can think is that NBC likes having a show that gets nominated for something, anything, and wants to hold onto it. I guess the fact that it doesn't actually deserve to get nominated for anything never crossed their minds when handing out pink slips. In my heart of hearts, I think it will be canceled (it's doing even worse in its new time period than its last), but NBC might not have anything else to fall back on. Final prediction: canceled.
Law & Order: SVU Safe: Network TV never met a crime procedural it didn't like and NBC is no exception. I'm sure this will be back. Again. For what I have to assume is season 38.
The Office Safe: In spite of the fact that it stopped being consistently funny (or even occasionally funny) several seasons ago, its ratings are among NBC's best. The Office isn't going anywhere, even if the majority of the regular cast is jumping ship as soon as possible.
Parenthood Pretty Safe: The ratings aren't good, but I think this one will be back for next year. They had a truncated season this year to accommodate a new slate of pilots and because, well, NBC struggles, but I'm confident it'll get renewed. Said new pilots have pretty much fizzled so far, so even though Parenthood's ratings aren't great, they're consistently pretty decent. For a network in complete and total turbulence, moderate, but consistent is more than they can hope for most of the time. The season finale was written so that it could serve as a series finale, but I don't think it needed to. Way to hedge your bets though.
Parks & Recreation Safe: This show gets used and abused by the network, but it's a quality show with decent ratings (again, by NBC standards). It'll be back.
The Playboy Club Long Dead: Yet another glittering jewel in NBC's crown, this half-baked farce was on a network with no balls whatsoever... which is kind of a liability when your show is ostensibly about sex.
Prime Suspect Dead: On another network, in another time, I think this show could have done well. Perhaps on CBS, paired with one of their heavy-hitter crime procedurals, Prime Suspect could have made a real go of it. As is, on NBC, paired with... god, I can't even remember what it was paired with, but I recall it made no sense, it didn't stand a chance. It was actually a pretty good little show and I'm sad to see it end so quickly and ignominiously. Maybe it was the hat's fault... (I liked the hat, but I'm in the distinct minority here.)
Smash Pretty Safe: Most websites will tell you that it's too early to tell or that it's a tough call, but I think it'll make it. We are legitimately only six episodes in, and the numbers aren't as high as NBC would like, but they're still higher than just about any other show on the network. More importantly, the number seem to have leveled off in the 2.5ish range, and for NBC, I'd say that's more than good enough to grant renewal. Time will tell, but if it stays within a couple of points of that key demo rating, it'll be back.
The Firm Dead: It may not be official, but this one's a goner. It premiered to some of the lowest numbers any of the big four have ever seen for a primetime drama and it only went down from there. I'd be positively shocked if this got renewed. From where I'm sitting, it's already dead.
Up All Night Safe: It's one of their better-performing shows and it's a half-hour sitcom. Barring some sort of ratings disaster, it should be just fine. The fact that they ordered extra episodes this season also bodes well for next season.
The Voice SAFE: This is far and away NBC's best performer on any night, in any time period, in any genre. It's really the only show keeping the network afloat, so it will definitely be back, and, if NBC can find a way, will be even longer than it is now.
Whitney Fairly Dead: I can see where some genius at NBC might think keeping this show is a good idea, but I doubt it. Its ratings have been in free-fall since the pilot and the critical backlash doesn't help. It might eek out a renewal, but I'm putting my prediction safely in the canceled camp.
That's all she wrote, folks. From where I'm sitting, the only shows new shows that will live to see a second are Smash and Grimm. Grimm indeed...
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 Chicagodid (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.
