SummarySongwriters Julia Houston (Debra Messing) and Tom Levitt (Christian Borle) create a musical about Marilyn Monroe and must decide whether the veteran Broadway actress Ivy Lynn (Megan Hilty) or newcomer Karen Cartwright (Katharine McPhee) should play the blonde legend.
SummarySongwriters Julia Houston (Debra Messing) and Tom Levitt (Christian Borle) create a musical about Marilyn Monroe and must decide whether the veteran Broadway actress Ivy Lynn (Megan Hilty) or newcomer Karen Cartwright (Katharine McPhee) should play the blonde legend.
Smash got the memo from viewers. I don’t think they read all of it, necessarily, but at least they got it, and they’ve changed just enough to raise the series from a C+ to a B. So: progress.
If what you want from Smash is what the pilot promised--a consistent, network-TV equivalent of mainstream Broadway--season 2 takes the first steps toward being that. The story feels better focused and, with help now from new cast member Jennifer Hudson, the show’s musical moments can deliver the passion and concentrated dream-power the scripts haven’t.
While it's easy to forget the show's shortcomings whenever McPhee or Hilty belt out one of Bombshell's stellar original songs or Jimmy croons a heartfelt power ballad, that's ultimately not enough to absolve the series from failing to let its most tenable narrative take center stage.
Cast changes and additions (a la Jennifer Hudson's new diva) can't obscure a skein whose soapy doings drown out its tunes, and where even the music often comes across as flat.