Smash

Smash

Series Premiere

By: Carlos Uribe

Smash is a show about theater!

The theater is a great source of drama. There's a lot of hope, cynicism, backstabbing, and behind-the-scenes drama. It makes sense that there would be a great drama about theater, and Smash plans to be that drama. This is a show about a group of people who are putting on a play about Marilyn Monroe. Whenever the show concentrates on the politics of theater, it's a show with potential. There's two issues that do trouble this show significantly. The first issue is that it's also a musical. This is an issue because the only songs I actually enjoyed being performed were the songs written specifically for the show. It was the songs written for the Monroe musical by the characters of the show. The other songs, the ones that existed beyond the show, simply weren't presented in a very interesting manner. It was also very painful, for me at least, to see that ending musical montage. I like Broadway musicals and even the classic Hollywood musicals but I don't like television musicals that much. There is a reason why it has taken so long for a successful musical drama, Glee, to air on TV. It's simply doesn't work well for a weekly dramatic series.

The second issue this show faces is that it focused way too much time on the personal lives of the characters. This is a theater drama which means I want to see the drama that is in putting up a musical. I do not want to see the home lives of the characters. I could care less about the families. This wouldn't be such a big problem if the show had focused on putting on the Monroe musical with the family drama in the background. The problem is that the family drama was just as prominent as the theater drama. This led to some scenes that simply were very dull and annoying. A small complaint was that Huston's character was introduced suddenly half-way through the pilot. I wouldn't mind this hiccup so much but with the two big issues this show faces it simply stood out more than it should have. If this show is to improve it needs to cut down on the family drama and to deliver only original music. This show will be held down otherwise.

One problem this show doesn't face is that it's main characters are strong. Karen is a good protagonist since she is, like most viewers, being introduced into this world. It makes sense to discover the theater world with her eyes. Tom and Julia, the two writers of the Monroe musical, were also well fleshed out and made good, strong impressions. There's no way this show would cast Anjelica Houston to give her the small role she had in the pilot. She'll probably become more important as the show goes along. She played her role well, but it was probably the weakest of the main characters. While I felt like I knew Karen and the two writers, I didn't feel like I knew Eileen as a person. I'm not entirely sure if Derek Wills, the director, was supposed to be a main character or a supporting one but he was good for the little time he has. While the main characters were solid, the supporting characters were very weak. This was a pilot so it's not that surprising but they do need some serious development.

There is the character of Ivy. She's the rival of Karen and has worked her whole life to get the chance that Monroe would offer her. She's the most developed of the side characters. There is also Dev, the boyfriend of Karen. He is so utterly dull and his entire function in the pilot was to support Karen. He literally is not a character beyond “supportive.” Ellis is the assistant to Tom but he loves musicals and not much else. Frank is Julia's husband but he merely functions as a weak obstacle to her. He doesn't want her to do the drama but he seems to have little will to actually do anything stop stop her. He's not well developed.

Smash is very uneven just like it's tone. The parts that are good show a lot of promise. The other parts seriously hold this show down from at least being enjoyable. This could very well turn out to be one of the best shows on TV. This could just as easily turn out to be a gigantic mess that completely falls apart. At this point, I simply can't recommend this show.