Okay, I confess, watching Smash qualifies as a Guilty Pleasure. Smash tells the story of how a potential Broadway play is developed. The play is a musical called Bombshell which presents the life of Marilyn Monroe. The first season focused on the competition of Katharine McPhee and Megan Hilty for the starring role of Marilyn. There is plenty of drama in the subplots. Producer Anjelica Huston constantly struggles to find money to fund the show. My favorite character is talented director Jack Davenport who is both brilliant and a womanizer. My least favorite character is the lyricist played by Debra Messing. Whether it’s the character or Messing herself, the constant high-maintenance of her problems becomes annoying. This second season features Jennifer Hudson in a major role. You could make an argument that Smash is Glee for adults. I enjoy much of the music in this series. I’m hoping my support will encourage other music based TV programs. GRADE: B
Well, new one on me (don’t know if it;s on here in the UK), but “Glee for adults’ does sound like fun! Thanks George.
SMASH, SEASON ONE is available on DVD and Netflix, Sergio. Worth a look and a listen!
Less annoying than GLEE, but even McPhee hasn’t been enough to get me to watch it much.
Todd, the writing on SMASH could benefit with an upgrade. I love Katherine McPhee and the songs she sings so I’ll keep watching.
These types of shows(I include Glee) hold no appeal to me. But then i have my own guilty pleasures that most folks likely would find really absurd.
I like musicals, Randy, but it is a nearly dead artform in the 21st Century. That closest to a TV musical right now is SMASH. And it is a pale imitation, but better than nothing at all.
I was sorry they thought they needed to add Hudson, I assume just for the star power of her name, to the cast. I watched the first couple f episodes, then missed several and was then too far behind to pick it back up. That seems to happen to me a lot, but it’s okay, more reading time.
We ended up DVRing most of the first season of SMASH, Rick. Then we binged and watched three or four episodes a night. The addition of Jennifer Hudson does add some Star Power to the program.
I’m darned if I’m gonna pay Comcast an extra $15/mo for a DVR…
Time-Warner doesn’t give you an option, Rick.
I think George would agree with me that these days a DVR is a necessity. It’s annoying now having one down here, even for six weeks. Not just for recording programs we’d otherwise miss, but to pause and rewind if necessary.
I did set it up to record a lot of the stuff we are missing because they conflict with something else we’re watching or the show started while we were gone. Let’s hope it works. Last year I didn’t do it and missed JUSTIFIED and for whatever reason FX didn’t rerun it until the new season was about to start.
Jeff, I totally agree with you on the DVR. We record 90% of what we want to watch and then zip through the commercials. An “hour” program suddenly shrinks to 40 minutes.
‘not’ having one down here
I couldn’t live without a DVR. I love not having to watch commercials, which now take 20 minutes out of every 60.
I watched this for a while but like Nashville, which I also tried, too sudsy for the pleasure derived from the music. I think they need to get the kind of writers who write for cable to try one of these.
You’re right about SMASH being a soap opera, Patti. There’s a trade-off between all the drama and the music.
Sorry, George but the second season has been a ratings bomb and Smash will be lucky to last the season. Enjoy it while you can.
One of the problems with TV series musicals it is difficult to maintain quality original music on a weekly basis and using standards can be expensive.
Michael, you’re right about the SMASH rankings: abysmal. I’m just hoping SMASH leads to something better.