Wonderful. The strongest offering from this show yet. Smash is really growing into it’s own identity now as I can fully picture how the show is going to function week to week.
Lots of great dynamics were in play during this hour. First off, I’m really loving Ivy & Derek’s twisted relationship. He’s really horrible to her particularly during rehearsals but she’s not so mentally stable herself so it’s quite the perfect fit. There’s something strangely endearing about two messed up individuals each other and finding love(?) in the strangest of places.
Moving on to Karen, she finally got to move past the whole goody two shoes act as I quite enjoyed her flirtatious drunken dialogue with the press secretary. Her jealousy of her boyfriend’s colleague on the other hand is a bit forced so I really hope the writers don’t go there.
Elsewhere, I have to say I am surprisingly loving Debra Messing in Smash. While I never really liked her before, she’s so completely charming and likeable here particularly as her passion with Michael reignites.
And to top it all off, this episode had the most brilliant musical showcases yet. I adored Katharine McPhee’s insanely hot/sensual performance of “It’s A Man’s World”. It further proved just how much she deserves to be a fully-fledged star and hopefully Smash will be the vehicle for her to do so. Moreover, Micheal’s “A Song For You” was the perfect emotionally-charged ending although I could have done without the forced shot of Julia’s son watching the kiss.
Nevertheless, this was undeniably the strongest effort yet from a show that’s truly evolving in surprisingly fantastic ways.
Nad Rating
A-