Smash: "The Bells and Whistles" & "The Parents"
Wednesday, April 3, 2013 at 9:00AM I'm short on time and Smash is trying to burn off its episodes given that two will air this very week. But we've got two to catch up on as well so let's rush through like we're running out of breath on a big note.
Ivy is back to being Marilyn in "Bombshell"
2.8 "The Bells and Whistles"
In this episode Derek gets too fancy with Hit List which needs to be a pared down show. He learns his lesson dropping the LED screens and choreographing a human-only dumb number "I Heard Your Voice in a Dream" in which dancers block Jimmy from reaching Karen. In one of Smash's most unintentional self-defining moments, Karen is placed on a pedestal (literally) and merely stands there looking pretty with arm outstretched. That's what she's good for. The camera treats it like she's pulling equal weight while Jimmy solos and dancers dance effortfully underneath her.
The biggest surprise of the episode is Anna's "If I Were a Boy", an impromptu bar number meant to get her the "diva" part in Hit List. The number is capped with an absolutely endearing moment where she drops her divadom and returns to geeky chorus girl as soon as her back is turned to the men she's trying to impress. I've previously had no use for this character but she totally worked that scene. Well done.
Meanwhile Ivy is back to Bombshell and the show SUDDENLY remembers with "(Let's Start) Tomorrow Tonight" that it's about Broadway Musicals and Broadway Musicals can be fun. Bonus points for letting B♡BBY (Wesley Taylor) & Jessica (Savannah Wise) flank Sam as the three MVPs of the chorus... (though it's weird that they dumped Dennis, the only other chorus boy with lines in most episodes to be dumped from Season 1)
Gay Gay Gay: Last week on Musical Chairs I thought about writing about Season 2's weird unspoken insistence that Smash is not a gay show at all by effectively eliminating the gayness from the narrative. Sam got the boot, Tom didn't even flirt with anyone, and Kyle seemed largely asexual. So it was kind of a surprise to see the gays get some action this episode. Even if the action was very short-lived and in Tom & Sam's case immediately snatched back like the worst kind of cocktease. Anyway... if you shouted "it's still about musicals and musicals are gay!" than you're not helping. Musicals were once beloved by all sexual persuasions and it's stupid that they aren't anymore. The end.
Grade: B
This episode is titled all wrong. If you're talking about bells and whistles to distract you from the show's slow death, you're talking Bernadette f'in Peters who returned in...
2.9 "The Parents"
...the title of which refers to two of them, though not a couple. The first is Father of Karen (supporting actor of ubiquity ) who disapproves of her quitting "Bombshell" especially when he realizes it was over that asshole Jimmy whot he show attempts to stir up sympathy for by revealing that he's in way deep over a drug debt and is willing to steal from arts patrons to pay it off? How is this supposed to stir up my sympathy exactly? HATE HIM. And each and every episode the show adds another brick in the tower of that hatred. Clearly none of the writers have ever watched any movies or televisions and then absorbed what leading men are supposed to invoke in audiences (even if they're anti-heroes). The second and most important parent is Mother of Ivy (Bernadette Peters returning as Broadway legend Leigh Conroy). Lee is not a thinly veiled version of Bernadette herself despite the multiple Tonys and the Gypsy wig in "Hang the Moon" since Peters is not a monster mom, having no children apart but for the furry kind for whom she is an awesome mom.
Best bit that wasn't "Hang the Moon": B♡BBY getting as impatient as television audiences with a lame toothless scene between Leigh & Ivy. 'This is boring. Where are my catfights?'
I don't have much to say about this episode but for the fact that it was curious funny / typical to see an anti-gravity number (shades of Jane Krakowski's Nine triumph without the wit) from a show within the show (Hit List) that just last episode swore off "Bells & Whistles" of any sort. Oh, Smash! You can't help yourself with the wishywashy. In the episode this episode was all about "Hang the Moon" and the chance to hear Bernadette sing a new song. And for that alone I want to give it an A. But only singular Bernadette earns that so we'll go with a B-. The show is so much better than it was at the beginning of Season 2 but still worse than Season 1 and also why the hell did we waste a month on Jennifer Hudson again? Her storylines only delayed the clear direction they decided on for Season 2.
Bernadette Peters, Reviews, Smash, TV, musicals
Reader Comments (20)
With the Times editor now a fan, Hit List will steal Bombshell's thunder. It will be a BIG HIT and immediately transfer to B'way. Then we'll have multiple rivalries as the artists of both shows are pitted against each other for awards. Julia vs. Kyle for best book. Jimmy vs. Tom for best score. Tom vs. Derek for best drecktion. Ivy vs. Karen, of course. Maybe even Ivy vs. Leigh for best supporting. Who will win?! Who gives a damn.
I thought the last 2 episodes have been a BIG improvement, you kind of wish we got the season started from this point a '6 months later' situation. And please more Bernadette Peters!
The saddest part is that everything is FINALLY falling into place, and the show will get cancelled. Sigh.
Why is Julia wearing two different pairs of designer eyeglasses within five minutes in the rehearsal studio? It's the little things...
Karen's dad (the "supporting actor of ubiquity") is played by Dylan Baker FYI.
The only thing worth something in this episode was Bernie singing "Hang the Moon." Gorgeous. Hopefully this will be nominated in original song at the Emmys. That's all this show deserves at this point. And Joshua Bergasse's great choreography.
i dunno where you go the idea they were explictly doubling up but my episode of "Musical Chairs' was recorded on march 19th and "The Parents" on April 2nd according to my dvr
Ivy belting out Let Me Be Your Star while being back as Marilyn made everything right for just a few moments.
Plus, Let's Start Tomorrow Tonight might be one of my favorite moments of the season. All the Bombshell crew together, singing, laughing, Ivy smiling and DANCE BREAK. Great song too. What made it even better? No one from Hit List in sight. Honestly, everything to do with Bombshell is ten times more interesting than Hit List. All the terrible people (minus Derek) and storylines have to do with Hit List.
and Hang the Moon. *sigh* Beautifully sung and staged. Plus, it seemed like it was sung live because both of the voices were different than the studio version. My only problem was that there really could've been more build-up to it. That song is about Marilyn and Gladys looking back and wishing that they could've had a better relationship which very closely mirrors the sentiment between Ivy and Leigh (good job with the songwriters and show writers with that one). I just would've liked there to have been more of a journey to that sequence rather than that one scene where they (delightfully) brought up dirty laundry and granted Bobby's catfight wish.
Gladys: If our lives were a movie, then i'd cut away all the moments where i wasn't there.
Marilyn: Scenes that are happy are all that will stay...the rest will dissolve into air.
So lovely.
You know what I miss? Julia's active hatred of Ellis. I always used to find that hilarious.
But i don't who deserves a painful slow death more. Ellis or Jimmy. What is it with this series and creating characters who you wish nothing but the worst for?
Only two more originals from Bombshell left to be done and i'm really looking forward to The Right Regrets since i love the lyrics.
KILL JIMMY, make it interesting for Musical's Sake. I've had enough of the tormented artist.
@ epic: Another episode of Smash (with Liza with a Z) airs this Saturday to get viewers used the the new timeslot of death.
@ verbocityeric: If it comes down to Ivy vs Karen for a Tony and Karen wins, i'm setting something on fire.
derreck,
prepare yourself. the final episode is titled "the tonys" (acording to imdb at least), and this is "smash" where karen is the biggest star ever, so...
Jennifer Hudson was a diva with whom they* weren't impressed and didn't write her back in the second act.
*Nobody was.
These two episodes were such a huge, marked improvement over everything else this season that I actually let out little cheers when they ended. Yes, Jimmy is still insufferable (I was mad at Karen for kicking him out when her Dad got there, since he was finally acting nice and bearable for once!), and I hold out no hope whatsoever that he will change, but everything else is working pretty well for me. The Hit List number at the benefit was completely ridiculous (and I speak as someone whose job it was to actually plan a Gala benefit for an Off Broadway theater company), and completely ripped of Nine and P!nk's recent performances, but it was nice to see Smash get back to its crazy-WTF roots. Oh and the whole drama about Tom wanting to be everybody's best friend and giving Sam that song then taking it away? THAT is how you do drama on this show. THAT is the show you should be, Smash.
Oh, and Bernadette Peters is a goddess and everything about her scenes in this most recent episode (ESPECIALLY "Hang The Moon") was perfect. The End.
I hated that Derreck bailed out Jimmy. I wanted him hauled off to the Big House, and there maybe he could practice the Jailhouse Tango with Ellis. Debra looked gorgeous in this episode. I will miss her character the most.
Since Ivy and Karen's parallel stories seem to have them both overshadowed by a flashier co-star, perhaps the Tonys episode will have Ivy and Ana competing for Lead, and Karen and Mama Leigh competing for Supporting.
I still hold out hope that Sam will take over Jimmy's part after Jimmy dies. I was hoping that he'd get hit by a bus in the middle of a self-righteous screaming fight with Karen, but now it looks like he'll just OD from his dealer's "gift". Maybe in the middle of opening night?
@ marcelo, i know in the Smash universe, Karen will be the youngest person ever to get an EGOT but she can get her Tony at another time. Probably when she stars in a new musical from Andrew Lloyd Webber.
It would rectify all the Karen worship and the attempted character assassination of Ivy in season one if Ivy ends up with that Tony. I seriously need that to happen. I'll be more than furious if Karen blands her way up there instead.
But knowing Smash, i can see them nominated beside each other and right before the winner's name is called, BAM, screen goes to black.
I hope I wasn't the only one that was hoping the drug dealer would kick the crap out of Jimmy.
I like Ana and the new blonde boy toy of the gay Jimmy character (can't be bothered to look up his name).
That Tony is going to Veronica Moore (Jennifer Hudson) in the revival of The Wiz that she will end up doing despite her earlier decision not to.
I'd be happy if the entire remainder of the season was Ivy and Leigh. I have listened to 'Hang the Moon' a gazillion times on the CD and was sure I would not shed a tear during the actual episode, but....NO. It was wonderful and broke my heart, and was everything this show should have been but has not been all along. Segue to Karen standing up there looking stupid and waving her vapid self about was hilarious. And how 'bout when she sang 'Broadway Here I Come' with absolutely the WRONG emotion on her face. It is a tragic, sad song, and there she was again doing the 'Look at pretty Katharine McPhee sing so pretty like a pretty Perfect Princess'....WTF? Has she been paying any attention to Hit List or what it is actually about....(doubtful, considering she always appears to be on the verge of a fatal Xanax overdose) but she should never sing any song that anyone else on the show has ever sung before (like 'Wolf' last season and this song....about despair down so well by Jimmy) because it just points out how obviously inferior she is to the talent on this show. I also loved that after she sang only her Dad applauded, a big comedown from the constant 'KAREN IS AWESOME' adoration of everyone who fell under her magic spell in Season 1. Even Wilson is able to sit quietly and not hack up a hairball the size of Uranus (it grows with every post that I add here) during the last two episodes. But if Karen wins the Tony.....will mail the entire gooey mess to the Powers That Be who fucked up this show so badly.
"I Heard Your Voice in a Dream" was such a great song. I was so bummed when Jack's Mannequin called it quits, but now that Andrew McMahon has moved on to do cool things like write songs for Smash, and "I Heard Your Voice in a Dream" was a great contribution. Hope he keeps on writing more for this show