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.