You know what America is craving right now, post-recession and during a harrowing election? That's right: a very self-important drama about New York City gays, Fosse impersonators and their ladies who all love Broadway musicals and like to be mildly catty! That's why NBC is going big guns on its mid-season spectacular, "Smash," which premieres a week from today. It's supposed to redeem their fall season. Ahem. Not even kidding, about the plot: "Former 'American Idol' contestant Katharine McPhee stars as struggling actress Karen Carpenter, competing for the leading role in a new musical based on the life of Marilyn Monroe."
Talk about doing it wrong. If only they'd named her Marilyn Monroe, and the musical was based on Karen Carpenter.
Good news: while reviews of the show have been embargoed, even though they've circulated DVDs to the New York City elite media, which is, not incidentally, made up of gays and single women who like being catty, any recent boarder of an American Airlines flight has gotten to see the first episode! I caught it Friday night, and boy is it... well it's... "expensive" seems accurate. (If you're not flying, you can even watch it on Netflix.)
Maybe it'll be great? Debra Messing (who actually is given a husband and a family in the show—talk about ways to alienate your single lady demo) and her best gay (presumably; gayness telegraphed by his "chatty hands") are back in the game with a brassy producer (the getting-divorced character played by an extremely taut Anjelica Huston) with a Big Musical! But they must Make Sacrifices to play the Broadway Game as they begin to cast their Marilyn, working with an Evil Scheming Fosse-alike. What Marilyn will win? Will it be the sassy unfamous one with the bosoms? Or will it be the newcomer with the heart of gold, who wears a dress literally adorned with cherries to her call-back?
Tune in for the second episode to find out which over-produced musical song rendition will win! Or don't bother. Because it's not actually campy: "The show slogs through one grave, brow-knitting plotline after another," is how one brave soul put it.
To be fair, I could go for this show, but the way they treat the music is so dreadful. The songs are Broadway-good (not really a compliment in my book but here we are) but they don't let anyone sing; everything is so relentlessly over-studio'd and done up Real Big, what's the point? The current TV audience is used to "American Idol"; we're not afraid to hear people actually sing, but we're being really quite protected here. The music here is more like being trapped in an elevator with Celine Dion's backing tracks blaring at you. That takes away half the fun, and then what are you left with?
They advertise this on Pandora every 30 seconds while I'm listening to music similar to Robyn (shut up).
One of the Very Dramatic and Pregnant with Meaning lines they choose to highlight in the ad is somebody (the American Idol girl?) saying, very seriously: "Sometimes... dreams are hard."
@flossy It seems that the directed ads are at least kinda close there. All I get from playing Robyn vids on youtube are ads for some ultimate fighting video game.
I can't believe they called Katharine McPhee's character Karen Carpenter, the catty comments will write themselves every time she sings.
@LondonLee To be fair she DOES look like a hollowed-out Barbie doll.
@LondonLee The character's name is actually Karen Cartwright, not Carpenter.
That said, she is pretty skinny, so Choire's mistake is understandable.
Wait, you're not a member of the New York City Media Elite yet?
I watched this over the weekend and it seemed like an HBO series which had had all the nudity cut out.
@Pop Socket - I didn't watch this at all, but that is also what my weekend seemed like.
Unpopular opinion, but I watched it on Hulu and kind of liked it? The songs are Broadway-good because they are...meant to be Broadway songs. A little overproduced at times, yes, but no more so than almost any Glee or American Idol number (or, really, any Broadway show in the Wicked vein).
Such a homophobic, misogynistic and xenophobic review. it's like playing Bigot Bingo. the only thing missing is racism. Oh but i'm sure you'll have plenty of those too in the following articles to come i'm sure. from the very first otherism of "the gays" and "fosse" and catty women" should have told me to STOP READING.
@Sophia Nichol@facebook newtojezebel seems to have found The Awl.
@Sophia Nichol@facebook By utilizing so many -phobics and -istics, aren't you also practicing otherism?
I downloaded for free on iTunes (along with the new Tim Kring series 'Touch', which: UGH) and also felt it was not half bad. I used to LOVE Glee before it just became a braindead jukebox, and this gave me the same tingly feelings. I will allow that I continue to despise Katharine McPhee and if anything destroys this queer-baiting animated corpse of a show for me, it will surely be her.
In fairness, that cherry dress is a knock off of one Marilyn Monroe wore in "The Misfits". Google "marilyn monroe cherry dress".
No mention that Megan Hilty, who stars in this came to fame by being one of the finest Glindas that Wicked ever had? Talk about knowing your audience.
The absolute best part is CTV's promos for it, which darkly intone "There can only be one" (or maybe "There can be only one"? Can't remember the exact word order). I turned to my partner the first time I heard it and said, then there better be swords and a beheading, or I'm not watching it.