It seems like it’s an actual show made for actual television, as opposed to a repetitive saga you act out with your Barbies when the babysitter is ignoring you (although, if anyone wants to make that a TV show, you know where to reach me; but I’m warning you, we’ll have to pitch it to cable because there will be a lot of nudity). Smash, like the classics of musical theater it both apes and pleads ignorance of, has always dealt in character archetypes: the wide-eyed ingénue, the slutty second lead, the wolfish authority figure, the devious climber. Under Safran’s direction, these tropes feel more knowing, more skillfully deployed. Some of them even make jokes that are supposed to be funny.I was generally underwhelmed, as was Noel Murray, but I like this universe too much to give up on it. Maybe Derek will catch up to the early 1990s and learn about sexual harassment. Maybe Leo will find his sister during his neverending college tour. Maybe "Brooklyn" is as magical as it seems. Maybe they'll stop with all the awed reaction shots which try to convince us that what we're seeing is awesome, when it's not. Maybe they'll give J-Hud a plot, and maybe, just maybe, they'll recognize that the audience wants Megan Hilty, not Katherine McPhee or Debra Messing, to be the star of this show.
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
IT'S TIME TO RETIRE THE SCARVES: NYMag's Rachel Shukert, on Smash's return:
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