Alright peeps, we’re less than a half hour away from the big two-hour season premiere of Smash. This is the official discussion post. Look for my recap to come either middle of the night or tomorrow morning.
Are we excited? I sure hope so, because we’ve only had to wait for what…a bazillion years?! Anyway, let the discussion/judging begin!
Update: Recap below
Alright ladies and gents! The time has finally come: the second season premiere of the show we all love to hate. What are your expectations? NBC has made it very clear this season is in no way like the first, desperately begging new viewers to give the show a shot. I’m not so sure their strategy will work. I’m not saying the show won’t be better, but I don’t see it becoming a “smash” anytime soon. Certain people will be attracted to a show like this, and if they stuck around through the roller coaster that was last season, they should be back for more cray cray adventures. So let’s get started, shall we? Dim the lights, it’s curtain call, people!
*Presses play*
We get started with a close up of Karen’s face. She’s all decked out as Marilyn, singing a new song called “Moving On” on Bombshell’s closing night in Boston. (God, Katharine Mcphee is gorgeous!) Throughout the performance they cut to scenes of where Karen and Ivy now stand in their lives since Bombshell’s opening night. For some reason, Ivy assumes Karen would now be over the fact that she totally banged Karen’s boyfriend and tries to share a cab with her. No way sister! Karen gives the “guuurl, you can’t seriously be trying to get in this car with me right now” look and closes the door in blondie’s face. So we’ve established these two haven’t kissed and made up yet. Then we see Ivy walk into her same little studio apartment—depressingly I might add. This chick seems pretty suicidal, and we’re only about a minute into this. Oh but wait—what’s this? She’s throwing all her prescriptions in the garbage. YAY! Say goodbye to the crazy pills, people! No more loopy, unnecessary dream sequences or drugged up stage performances. Time to see where Karen’s living. Ooo, she’s got a new, nice place and a new roommate nice enough to hang a welcome banner (really?). Nice roommate hands Karen a note from her boyfriend Dev, and she ain’t havin’ it. She crumples that shit up and throws it away without even reading a sentence. So…I guess that was Dev’s official send off? Goodbye hot Indian man with the hot accent! We’ll always remember y…okay, who am I kidding? No one will remember, but it was fun while it lasted. Anyway, the musical number—which I am loving, I might add—continues to build until Karen gives her official send off.
Now we move back into the good ol’ rehearsal space we all know and love. Derek congratulates the cast, and Eileen informs them she intends to find a Broadway theater for them within the week—although some of them may be let go, depending on creative changes to the show that have yet to be made. (Ivy, meet the target on your back.) Eileen pulls Karen to the side and invites her to perform a song at a press event she is having. Upon Karen’s acceptance, Eileen closes the scene by saying, “I hope you’re ready—it all starts now.” And we cut to the simple, yet dramatic opening I love so much.
Back in Eileen’s office, the creative team is having a meeting. Let me summarize: Michael Swift is out (Julia’s secret lover), Julia refuses to read the reviews, and Derek is still a dick as he tells Julia the only problem the critics have are with Julia’s script without actually saying it. Oh, and the critics loooove Karen.
Meanwhile, Karen and Derek attend a show starring Tony-winning performer Veronica Moore (AKA: Jennifer Hudson). She performs (or should I say slays) a gospel-infused number titled “Mama Makes Three.” Afterwards she meets Karen backstage and advises her to “always protect the work.” She says someone is always waiting to take you down. Wow—a little intense there Veronica.
We see a quick convo between besties Tom and Julia where he once again tries to hint that Julia’s writing sorta sucks. And Julia mentions that her and Frank are working on their marriage. They’re “trying.” Sorry, but we all know Frank’s character has been cut, so I don’t see things working out, Julia. *sad face*
Now Eileen meets up with evil ex husband and has a totally triumphant moment where she assures him he’ll have no part in Bombshell’s big move to Broadway and that she’s already secured one of the most well-known theaters. We think she’s victorious until she walks away and evil ex husband sends off an evil text from his evil Blackberry: “It’s time to move forward with the plan.” The evil response: “DONE!” Uh oh ladies and gents—someone cue the “dun duun duuuuun” dramatic music.
Ivy and Julia have a little girl chat at the rehearsal for the big press event. Julia gives it to Ivy straight: “If you don’t really apologize to Karen for whatever happened between the two of you, I don’t know if you’ll be moving on with the show.”
Wow, things are moving fast. We move to the scene where Karen finally bumps into her new love interest for the season, Jimmy. He’s a waiter—a waiter with an attitude. But Derek interrupts and tells Karen he got her concerned text. They discuss Ivy, and Karen reminds Derek that she was told to “protect the work.” She thinks Ivy might be affecting that. “Say the word, and I will let her go,” Derek confidently responds. And without a real response from Karen, he concludes, “Consider it done.” Uh oh Ivy. You best pull something outta your sleeve real quick or your ass will be singing for change on the streets of New York. Your agent won’t even respond to you these days.
Cue the cute scene between Tom and Sam. Just like last season, these two still have some great chemistry. Sam is even turning down a big role in The Book of Mormon to stay in the city with Tom. Awww, precious. But Sam still insists that Tom tell Julia her writing is leaving something to be desired…hold the phone! They spot Julia’s husband Frank kissing some woman as he helps her into a cab. Oh no. Looks like Karma might be the ultimate bitch here, Julia.
And now we move onto the cocktail party from hell. What was supposed to be a night of music and celebration turns into drama like no other. First of all, Frank is pissed that the whole production team knows about the marital problems between him and Julia. Then Sam is pressuring Tom to tell Julia about Frank’s secret woman. Oh, and don’t forget movie star Rebecca Duvall has released a statement saying that the real reason she left the production of Bombshell is because she was sexually harassed by the director, Derek. And to top it all off, Eileen receives a last-minute phone call basically confirming Bombshell won’t be awarded a spot in the famous Broadway theater she had been promised. Yeah…s**t is hitting the fan. Oh wait, I spoke too soon. Things are getting worse. Julia confronts Frank about his lady friend, and he officially loses it, screaming at her and making a huge scene in front of all the journalists. Not cool, Frank—not cool. Oh, and did I mention Karen and Derek totally have the hots for each other and almost have somewhat of a “moment.” After watching Karen and Veronica sing an awesome duet of “On Broadway,” Derek confesses to Karen, “I feel better. How’d you do that?” “I’m your muse, it’s what we do,” Karen so boldly explains. Then, just as a kiss is about to happen, Ivy walks in and sees. She storms out, only to have Derek chase her down and let her know that she is being fired from Bombshell. Wow Derek, talk about beating a dead horse. Ivy will rise above though, because remember: she’s starting a new life without the crazy pills and being a good person and all that crap. She gives her true heartfelt apology to Karen, and you can see Karen feels like a real beotch for getting her fired. None of this matters though, because we move to the ending scene of this disasterous party. Everyone begins confronting Eileen over different issues when she confesses someone (evil ex husband with evil texting Blackberry) has tipped off the government about the illegal funds she has been using to fund the show. As of now, Bombshell is officially under investigation, and production will be shut down.
Great party, right?! Who wants tequila shots?!
Karen and Derek now meet up to discuss the disaster that has become Bombshell, and Karen still doesn’t understand what went wrong. Derek is being rude Derek though and offering no sympathy. He wishes Karen well and is on his way.
Now we move on to two others trying to deal with the big fallout: Tom and Julia. Julia has been staying at his place since her husband went all cray cray, and now that her marriage is essentially over, Tom has the awesome suggestion that the two of them move into his place. “It will be just like a sitcom,” he says, making a great Will & Grace reference. And that’s that–they will now officially be roomies. I’m excited about this for some reason. Maybe because it takes all the ridiculousness that is Julia’s family drama completely out of the show.
For a brief scene, we watch Ivy audition for the chorus of another show. She sings a song I easily recognize, but don’t know the title or artist at the moment and am WAY to lazy to pull out the Google machine for. While she sings, we get a montage of all the characters dealing with the loss of the show in their own ways. Karen has decided to turn to the drink. She is visiting the bar with the Jimmy character we saw earlier in the episode. Maybe Karen was actually interested in this hottie bartender? He is seriously lacking people skills though, asking her to leave because they are closing. Karen does end up leaving, but returns after awhile because she forgot her phone. From here, she runs into bartender Jimmy in the back playing the piano and belting out an original song he wrote with the one of the other bartenders. (He’s not important enough yet for me to remember his name.) Anyway, Karen is infatuated with him and his voice, so she calls Derek and has him listen to Jimmy singing his song, “Broadway Here I Come.”
After a few days of Karen trying to reach Jimmy, she meets him outside of his work and tries to get through to him, but he’s a little bit of a jerkface and says they are going to make it on their own. Him and other bartender friend don’t need anyone’s help with the show they’re writing.
As stupid as Jimmy seems, he and bartender friend might be in a better position than the Bombshell peeps at this point. After all, Derek’s sexual harassment claims start racking up, and he is dropped from directing The Wiz. And word on the street is that Julia has turned into a hot mess since her fallout with Frank. Speaking of Julia–she is being stupid. Eileen has arranged for the creative team to attend this big shin dig and is trying to save the show, but Julia refuses to attend because she’s being all mopey and sad. Tom agrees to cover for her. That is until he runs into an old friend questioning him about all the issues with Bombshell. Tom immediately caves and says that both him and Julia will not only be at the event, but that they will be giving a speech. Good luck with that one Tommy boy.
Now something completely ridiculous happens. Derek is at the bar drinking his sorrows away when he decides to hit on a random woman. Random woman’s boyfriend is not down with this and pushes him to the ground, causing Derek to have somewhat of a daydream/musical breakout of all the whores he’s slept with singing to him. It’s super cheesey and awkward and unneccasary. I thought we were done with this stuff, Smash!
Meanwhile, Tom is dealing with a depressed Julia back at their place. Yet, he finally tells her that they are supposed to attend this big event because they’ve been asked to speak. This sparks some life into Julia, FINALLY. She seems ready to go. But once they arrive, Julia heads straight to the woman running the event and makes a fool of herself. She wasn’t aware Tom was lying to her, but eventually figures it out by embarrassing herself in front of this woman. Tom finally comes clean with Julia and confesses that everybody is telling him to ditch her and find a new writing partner. “I don’t want a new writing partner. I just want my old one back,” he says. It was super dramatic, and a bit of a threat from Tom.
Quick scene of Derek continuing his night of drunkenness by showing up on Ivy’s front steps asking if he really is the monster everyone is making him out to be. This leads to him eventually trying to hook up with Ivy. Thankfully, the new and improved Ivy denies this. Good girl!
Next, we head to the party Karen was invited to by bartender/songwriting partner of Jimmy. She meets up with Jimmy, and they start getting some serious flirting going on. Soon, Karen goes for what she really came to the party for by breaking out into a rendition of Jimmy’s song “Caught in the Storm.” He lets her get half way through before storming out and calling his writing partner (AKA: bartender friend) a son of a bitch. Ugh…this Jimmy is really starting to rub me the wrong way.
Then, back from commercial break, Jimmy continues to be a stubborn douche bag and tells Karen, “Stay out of this princess!” *rolls eyes* Then they lead into some huge, overdramatic, and stupid conversation that causes Karen to storm off with her friends.
Karen must of gotten pretty preoccupied with her friends from then on, because we go back to the big press event where Eileen decides they need to go out with a bang–even if they’ve been banned for the night. They want to have Karen perform a number from Bombshell, but unfortunately it goes straight to voicemail. (Grrr… this makes me angry. I don’t know why I can’t help but root for Karen over Ivy, even when I realize Ivy might be more talented.) So of course, they call on Ivy to come perform a number titled “Coming to Broadway.” And let me tell you, Ivy (AKA: Megan Hilty) knocks this outta the park. Seriously, I loved this scene. If I was in the room, a standing ovation would’ve been a must from me.
Moving on, we find out from Eileen’s conversation with evil ex that they can finally resume work on Bombshell, but unfortunately, only with evil ex’s financial help. But still…this is good news for the show, people.
Let’s cut to the scene where Julia makes “apology muffins” for Tom. She seems like she’s finally out of her funk and ready to help the show get going. Then we’re met with Tom’s amazing line: “It’s time to retire the scarves.” Wow, the producers were really listening to the critiques of season one.
We end with bartender Jimmy showing up at Karen’s apartment with “everything he’s ever recorded so far.” He’s only doing it for Kyle. (We finally have a name for friendly bartender!)
Oh wait, I was wrong. What we really end with is Ivy coming to comfort Derek after his drunken night on her doorstep. She is all happy, but is turned away by Derek, because he is rehearsing with Karen. It makes for a super awkward situation where Karen, once again, brings the b***h side out to inform Ivy she needs to get the eff outta there.
And that’s the end. Wow…I’m tired after this recap peeps. I’ve given you a straight-up recap, but I think I’ll give more of my analysis next week. Sound off in the comments!
