Then we got Season 2. I was looking forward to this, filled with the same excitement as when I saw trailers for Les Miserables and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. I was pumped. What should have been as exciting as seeing The Lord of the Rings turned into a disaster. I couldn't believe it! Everything that was wrong with the first season was magnified by 10! But the show is not beyond redemption. Here are some ways that Smash can be like the first time the viewers heard "Let Me Be Your Star" or "Lexington and 52nd Street."
1. Cut the covers
Aside from a few covers like "Rumor Has It" or "Over the Rainbow," so many seemed out of place and just killed the show's pacing ("Shake it Out..."). I understand that sometimes covers are used similarly to songs in a musical, but with a songwriting team of three now, there's no excuse for one original song an episode! It really does seem like Glee on Broadway now, and that's really a shame. What set Smash apart in the first place was that, like a musical, it featured fresh and new songs to the audience all the time. And it's killing the show's ratings and reviews.
2. Lose the Lip-Synching
This really wasn't a big problem for the most part in Season One, but it's really getting on my nerves this time around. With actors and singers as talented as Jennifer Hudson, Katherine McPhee, and Megan Hilty, why should they have to fake it every time? Maybe I'm just spoiled by Les Miserables, but if this is a show about musicals, let's make it like a musical. Live and raw, which made Les Mis a hit and Hedwig and the Angry Inch a cult classic. Lip-Synching is hurting the realism of the show, because neither Jennifer Hudson not Katherine McPhee do it rather well, and in fast-paced choreography numbers, the lip-synching is painfully off. For the most part, these are Broadway actors and actresses, so they are familiar with fast-paced dancing and singing... at the same time. Why let them do it easy? It ain't working. So far, Megan Hilty is the only performer doing a realistic job, which makes us at home wonder, "How did she NOT get the role of Marilyn Monroe in the first place??" Oh, producers, you fail to amuse me.
3. Give Katherine McPhee some better direction. And acting lessons
Katherine McPhee wasn't half-bad in the first season. In fact, she was natural in her role. She was new to acting, like her character was, just chasing her dreams. And even if she wasn't superb in her acting skills to start, she made up for it with her naivety. Now in Season Two, she NEEDS to shape up. Her character is in the big leagues, so make your acting the same way. At this point, Kirsten Stewart has competition for best blank expression for an hour. McPhee's face in the latest episode hardly changes. Not to mention that her acting in the last episode is no better than a middle-school diva's behavior when she can't get Bieber VIP tickets. I actually did my impression of McPhee's acting in front of a friend. She was shocked... not because I did it comically, but because it just wasn't that good to be on TV. You're in the big leagues now, kid. Show it, and watch more Patti Lupone and less Twilight.
4. Send in better writers, and lose the clowns
It's a shame Theresa Redbeck left the show for good, because she penned some of the best episodes of the first season. Now the show uses one of the worst sins of writing: They "tell, not show." And when they do show, well... that's a different story for a different time. Whenever McPhee's character meets a "famous" actor or actress in the show, her automatic response is: "I loved you in X, Y, and Z. You've been such an inspiration. It's so good to meet you." We've probably heard her say that about fifteen times during the show's run. I know TV isn't supposed to be as exceptional as cinema, but with The Walking Dead and Breaking Bad killing it on AMC, one has to wonder, "Does NBC stand a chance anymore?" With more focus on the development team of Bombshell this season, I think that we're in for good TV, but it's still not up to the par set in the pilot episode.
5. Spend less time on the new musicals, and stick with Bombshell
Spielberg's goal was to focus on a new musical's development each season, and it's starting to be seen. However, what sounded good as a concept isn't translating well on screen. This season, we continue to follow the development of Bombshell and its endless legal troubles, as well as a Broadway baby branching out to more racy material, as well as the launch of two upcoming Broadway writers trying to get their feet wet in show business with their musical The Hit List which is supposed to be hailed as "the next Rent" (although from the plot description in their pitch in episode 3, it sounds more like "Generic: The Musical"). And the Bombshell director is going to helm all of these. In the span of sixteen episodes. If my thinking is right, then this will be the most cluttered, messy, underdeveloped season in television history. One does not simply have so many plotlines in one season at once. In Season One, everything flowed naturally even with all the behind-the-scenes drama. This time, the creators are trying to meld behind-the-scenes drama into all three projects. And we only have 13 episodes left!! With the underwhelming introduction of The Hit List, I don't see any reason for them to continue with it. McPhee's character should have left that bar in the first place and got her phone in the morning. I hear the Jennifer Hudson will be a guest star solely for her episode arc, so I expect for her to resolve her plotline within the next three episodes. Although the introduction of The Hit List sounds much too unneeded to try to focus on that instead of Bombshell. If Jeremy Jordan left the oh-so-wonderful Newsies to be in Smash, that might have been one of the least impressive moves of his career if Smash doesn't start flying up again anytime soon.
Now the show's just coming back, but it's not starting out with a bang right now. It's improving, but the ratings aren't looking promising. Maybe we will never see how Bombshell turns out. If NBC doesn't get the Smash development team up and running again, then like the musical in it, Smash might just bomb.
