Smash: Let's be Bad

The title of this episode could describe the way I feel this show is going. It's just getting bad. It's starting to go the way of Glee for me, which I watch mainly for the musical numbers not for the story, and most of the musical numbers in Smash aren't that great. I liked the Marilyn musical number, but that's because it was a musical theatre number, not a cover.

I had such high hopes for Smash because it was about something I care about: the theatre. I really wanted to see the process of creating a Broadway musical, but it's just turning into a soap opera set in the New York theatre community. It's about who's sleeping with whom and who's eventually going to sleep with whom. If I want to watch a soap opera I'll just start recording Days of our Lives again (and I haven't done that for over 20 years).

I was disappointed how Michael, who seems to have a happy marriage and a child, is so quick to want to resume his affair with Julia, who is also married. Yes, Julia resisted at first, but now that she let him kiss her (on the street in front of her Brownstone), we can see where it's leading. And so can her son, who saw them from his bedroom window. I haven't mentioned it before, but it makes me even more annoyed because the actors, Debra Messing and Will Chase did have an affair during the filming of the show and ended up leaving their spouses for each other.

There aren't many characters that I like much anymore. Well, maybe Eileen. But who knows, maybe next week we'll learn something about her that makes us not like her. Of course we're still supposed to like Karen, but I don't want to like her because Ivy's treating her like crap, or because her boyfriend is ignoring her as he tries to get to the top in his career. I don't want to feel sorry for her every week.

Maybe if the episodes were more episodic than serial it could be better. Give us a plot line that has some kind of ending by the end of the episode. Every episode doesn't have to include every character.

Derek is always asking Julia for a script. I agree with him. She just needs to finish it already, even a draft. Even if it's not good yet, she can rewrite. How do you write a good musical with songs that aren't held together with a script? Yes, it's a workshop, but you have to workshop the whole show, not just a bunch of musical numbers.

Thank you for reading my rant about Smash.

The sad thing is, I'll probably still watch it - for the musical numbers; those have drawn me in.