Posted by Dustin on 05.28.2013 at 2:46 pm

So I was really worried I was going to hate the finally of “Smash,” but for the most part I didn’t. There were some things that definitely annoyed me, but over all I liked it and felt satisfied with the ending.

Probably the thing that irked me the most was the new-Diva got nominated for a Tony, and won. Really was she the Diva all that long that they’d slight Anna? Derrick tried to do right by Anna by getting her a role in a touring show. In the end she decided to take it and not destroy his career, she was sure he’d do that on his own one day.

Derek did do the right thing and told the truth to a newspaper reporter about what he did to Anna. This was after he realized both Karen and Ivy were pretty much disgusted with him. Okay I had some issues here with the story he told. I thought he only promised this gal the under-study role, not the full role. She blackmailed him to get the full role. So why not expose her blackmail as well? I mean ruin her career too! But no, she gets away with it and a Tony award? Though I guess now everyone at least knows she slept her way to it and her career is probably tarnished.

Ivy found out she was pregnant and wavered about telling Derek, especially after learning what he did to Anna. In the end she did tell him, and it seems they would likely be together. Ivy also told her mom she was thinking of taking time off, not that she was pregnant though, and her mother said that would basically be like committing career suicide. I think this is ultimately why they let Ivy win the Tony over Karen. I was miffed initially, but they basically set it up that Ivy was probably bowing out for awhile, and now it would be Karen’s time to shine. Eileen gave Karen a little cheer-up speech saying as much to her.

I loved that Karen and the others screwed the Diva out of her performance on the Tonys, and that Karen and Ivy closed the show together . . . literally the show . . . the Tonys and “Smash.”

Bombshell pretty much swept the awards, which I guess was right since the show was initially about the making of Bombshell. Hit List however won for writing, which is the only award that seemed to matter in the end for them.

Karen learned the truth about Jimmy’s hidden past. He left a girl to OD, never knowing what happened to her. She lived, but he turned himself in and was basically off to jail for about a year. Julia and her soon to be ex seemed to come to an amicable divorce after she was truthful with him about everything. She met Michael Swift long before she married him, and basically he was always apart of their marriage and she knows that wasn’t fair to him. In the end Julia went to see Michael and give him a letter she initially wrote to her husband. I guess we are to assume they ended up together. Finally Tom met an actor (Scotty from Brothers and Sisters) who claimed he was straight, but wasn’t. We got hints that they would end up together, someday . . . maybe? Eileen meanwhile ended up back with the bartender, who just got out of prison after Jerry ratted him out thanks to Ellis.

Oh yeah, I had forgotten about Ellis. Add that to the few things that were a disappointment. I would have liked to see him come back, just to get squashed somehow. Maybe a marquis could have fallen on him. That would have been a better ending I think.

Posted by Dustin on 05.05.2013 at 3:26 pm

So last week’s “Smash” ended with Kyle getting hit by a car after dropping all of Jimmy’s stuff at his brother’s. I thought he’d end up in the hospital, it would bring everyone together . . . NOPE! They just went and killed Kyle off. I totally wasn’t expecting that at all. It brought both the cast of “Bombshell” and “Hit List” together, even if only for a little while.

My guess is that this may be what Jimmy needs to clean his act up. We learned that Karen didn’t sleep with Derek after all, she loves Jimmy so she couldn’t do it. Meanwhile Ivy finally let Derek go, because she realized he would always have a “Karen” in his life.

They also made strides in redeeming Tom’s character, who was becoming a major arse in the way he was treating Julia. He wanted to dissolve their partnership, which she felt was some kind of declaration of war. However he later explained it was for her benefit, as this way she’d be free to do Gatsby without him owning 50% of the company. I was glad they stopped making Tom into another Derek, one of them is enough.

Eileen, Ivy and the crew of “Bombshell” felt they would for sure bring some Tonys home, especially with Eileen’s shady publicist making sure that “Hit List” wouldn’t make it to Broadway anytime soon. However they forgot one little nemesis who is still around . . . At the end of the show Eileen learned Jerry was putting the money up to that “Hit List” to Broadway!

It’s sad, just when the show was finally getting good again, it’s too little too late. It’s pretty much destined to be canceled with no third season unless there is some insane miracle that occurs.

Posted by Dustin on 04.21.2013 at 6:56 pm

So first up is the big news that “Glee” has been renewed not for one, but two more seasons. Wow! Hopefully the shows writers have a plan that will not just be “The Rachel Berry Show” for two years.

There are only three episodes this season, and as they have yet to make it to regionals, I don’t see them getting to Nationals unless there is some miracle. Ryan Murphy has been noted as saying the end of this season will be different from others. I’m wondering if maybe they’ll draw this group of kids final year, and thus nationals, out into next season? That’s the only thing I can see them doing, unless they end up losing Regionals. That would be shocking too I guess.

“Smash” on the other hand is likely done after this season. The poor ratings and it being banished to Saturday has done it in. I hope we therefore get some kind of proper ending to it all.

Karen and Ivy not only reversed roles in “Bombshell,” but attitudes as well over the past few shows. Ivy has become the star of “Bombshell” and actually quite likable. Meanwhile Karen seems to have gotten a little too full of herself when Derek and company decided to give her friend Anna a bigger role in the show. Karen thought Derek was doing it because she rejected him. Honestly I do think part of him was, and with Julia coming in to help with the story I wondered if she to took her issues with Karen leaving out on Karen by making her part smaller and her friend’s bigger. Derek claimed it was all his doing what was best for the show, but then he took her main song away and gave it to the Diva character. At that point I did feel bad for Karen, even if she was acting like a diva herself.

We finally learned about Jimmy’s past. The drug dealer he’s involved with is his older brother Adam, who saved them both from a bad home life. However Adam turned to drug dealing and pulled Jimmy into the business and drugs too. Jimmy’s partner/roommate Kyle is who saved him from drugs and his brother.

After being rejected by Karen, Derek moved onto Ivy for a few nights, but now has found a new muse to entertain him. What a jerk! I couldn’t pinpoint who the new girl is. At first I thought it was Anna, but her hair is too long.

Finally Tom and Julia are on the outs. Tom got an offer to direct a new play, but Julia thought they would be moving on to do another project together. When “Bombshell” didn’t get rave reviews, he thought he might not get the offer anymore, and resigned to do the project with Julia. She however didn’t want to be his backup plan and decided to move on with her own project! She also seemed to be moving on with her friend from school, Scott, who is producing “Hit List.” Boo to Tom for letting power go to his head and becoming another Derek basically. Especially after how he propositioned Jimmy’s friend and partner Kyle! Yick!

Posted by Dustin on 03.31.2013 at 6:01 pm

So I was really shocked to find I actually liked this week’s episode of “Smash.” I’ve gotten to the point where I somewhat have lost interest in the show. Not only did I like it, I even felt I could tolerate that other musical going on in the show. Actually I found I liked it better than “Bombshell” because Tom became such drivel as a director.

In a nutshell, this week’s episode centered on Tom and Derek both facing directing problems. Derek was getting resistance from Jimmy with the too flashy and too Broadway changes he wanted to make to “Hit List.” Meanwhile Tom was being a pushover, letting his actors walk all over him and trying to make changes to bring his old boyfriend Neil back to the show.

Ivy has unfortunately gone to being a tolerable character who I even felt bad for again, back to being the star of “Bombshell” and a full fledged diva. It didn’t take her long to get back there. I was a bit disappointed by that. What she doesn’t know is that to get good press, Eileen has convinced Ivy’s mom to come out of retirement and take a part in the show. Oh boy, I can’t wait to see Bernadette Peters back and outshining Ivy! She will fume. By the end of the show Tom did at least find some balls and take control back. Neil is pissed as he’s out of the show, and feels Tom wronged him. In a way Tom did, but I think Neil also used Tom at the same time to try and get back in.

Meanwhile over at “Hit List,” Derek had to learn to let go, of his insane control issues as well as let go of Karen. Karen and Jimmy finally got together in this episode, but I wouldn’t count Derek out of the picture just yet. Though I’m wondering if Derek will end up with Julia? Or will Julia end up with the producer of “Hit List” that she has a checkered past with and screwed over?

Posted by Dustin on 03.23.2013 at 12:08 pm

So first up “Glee” was simply fantastic this week, even with Will being gone AGAIN. The lesson of the week was to embrace one’s “guilty pleasures.” Because of this the music was infectious as hell (Wham, Spice Girls), the performances were great, and the Abba finale was A-MAZ-ING! I even felt I was able to tolerate some of the newer kids added to the club. The whole Chris Brown backlash storyline with Jacob was really well done, and I loved his performance of Bobby Brown instead. I think it might be the only thing he’s done all season that I liked actually. Also Sam told Blaine he knew he liked him, and he was okay with that. He kinda knew this was just Blaine acting out after Kurt, and you could see they’d be moving past it all.

I also, shockingly, liked the NY storyline this week. Well what little there was. Brody and Rachel are done, for now, as Santana finally told her the truth about Brody. With Brody moving out, Santana got to move back in . . . probably at first because they just needed money. However they all became besties again. I wish they told us where Finn went after he decked Brody at the end of last week. The “here’s what you missed last week” into said he went to NY to become a teacher.

“Smash” I just wasn’t so in love with, and it’s becoming very predictable. Eileen tried to prove what Jerry did to steal the musical away from her, and even exposed his lies to their daughter to get some payback. Derek gave Tom his blessing to take over “Bombshell” and even use his numbers and choreography. Derek then went to work with Karen, who quit, on her new musical with the still boring wonder-twins. Derek could sense the one liked Karen, so he made veiled threats for him to back off as he gets very focused on his stars when he directs and it would be bad to break his focus. Meanwhile Ivy’s musical is closing, despite her best efforts to try and save it, so we know she’ll go back to “Bombshell.” At least it looks like we’ll only be down to two musicals now . . .

Posted by Dustin on 03.15.2013 at 8:03 pm

I’ve really been trying to like “Smash” this season. While it started off strong, I feel it’s now making the exact same mistakes “Glee” has and my interest is waining . . .

First, let’s bring in some new characters to complicate things! I really can’t stand Karen’s new love interest and his business partner. They really do nothing for me, and neither does their storyline. Which is another issue I have with “Glee,” way too many things going on. There is the struggles over Bombshell, Karen’s new side play, Ivy’s side play. It’s too much! They need to bring it back to Bombshell.

I had hoped with the way things went the last two episodes that this is just what would happen. However Eileen and her ex are fighting over producer control, with Eileen learning that her ex employed Ellis to get the dirt on her to steal the show. They reverted to an older version of the script after Julia wrote a brilliant new one. Derek quit as director, and Tom is stepping up. Meanwhile Karen was told she can’t be in her side show because of her contract, but disobeyed orders and did it anyways.

I just don’t know where this is going to lead. The show has also been bumped to Saturday, but NBC says it will air all 17 episodes of the season. A 3rd season is unlikely at this point . . .

I’m sensing that Karen with choose the new show after Derek stepped up to direct it and they now have an interested producer (Jessie L. Martin). This will lead Tom to giving Ivy back the role of Marilyn.

Posted by Dustin on 02.20.2013 at 7:54 pm

Man I sure am having some issues with the shows I tend to watch as of late. They aren’t holding my attention like they use to, and it makes me miss shows like “Desperate Housewives” and “Brothers and Sisters.” A bunch of shows are returning in March, so hopefully they will be a little more exciting.

90120
Shane’s sister and Silver’s surrogate continues to be sketchy. As it turns out she can sing and made sure Dixon heard her singing . . . Something tells me a big ole baby bump will get in the way of her singing career.

Liam had to testify against Ashley the cop and went bonkers, leading his other cop friend to suggest he may have PTSD. Zzzzzzz

Noami ended up tracking down her and Annie’s shared half brother, who is a chef, and they are opening a restaurant together. She’ll be the face end of it, he’ll do the cooking. I had actually completely forgot about their half-brother! It took me a while to remember the whole storyline actually.

Castle and Body of Proof
Both “Castle” and “Body of Proof” ended up doing storylines where the main characters daughters got abducted. Odd! On “Castle” they’ve finally been returning to the senator who is responsible for Becket’s mother’s death. I can only hope “BOP” will bring back the mystery of Megan’s father’s suicide as well. I will say I was not a fan of Peter’s death, the ousting of all the cops and bringing in Mark Valley as her new partner and love interest. What happened to the hunky gardner? Oh yeah he’s on a new TNT show . . .

Pretty Little Liars
This week’s episode and the strange “killing” and disappearance of Detective Wilkins by Hannah’s mom was definitely great. Where did his body go? Is he really dead, or is he on the A team?

Ezra returned and made it known to Aria he wants her in his life. Aria didn’t tell him about getting a little too close to his brother, and Ezra’s mother showed back up and Ezra finally stood up to her and put her in her place. Eh, wasn’t all that thrilled with this part of the show.

Spencer finally broke down at the very end and told Aria that she knew one person who was helping Mona out . . . It looks like she’s finally going to tell the others about Toby, unless there is a huge twist coming. Spencer’s sister Melissa was back too, and we learned once again that Melissa may have had a motive to kill Alison. The night she died Melissa was on a rampage to get a tape she had. The tape we’ve seen bits and pieces of over the year.

Smash
I’m not sure where “Smash” is going this season. I liked the first hour, since then it seems to be floundering. Money troubles have tied it up, suddenly they want the whole book re-written, Ivy is acting in a play and Karen is pulling Derrick into her new potential love interest’s emerging-still-being-written musical.

Julia is going head to head with the guy that was hired to help her rewrite “Bombshell’s” book. She hates him, he pushes her buttons, the countdown is on until they sleep together. Recycle plot #48! Meanwhile after Tom coached Ivy to a new job, she suggested he go into directing. I can now see him and Derrick sparing over who will direct Bombshell.

Dallas
Most of this week’s “Dallas” was about Anne’s day in court for shooting Ryland. He and his mother framed the hell out of her, and it wasn’t looking good. Their daughter Emma overheard Anne and Ryland arguing in the hospital, so she now has some kind of a clue as to what kind of man her dad is. My guess is she’s always known, she’s just been so brainwashed. Christopher pleaded with her to get on the stand and tell the truth for Anne, but she didn’t. When Anne was found guilty, she ran out of the court room. My guess is she’ll find evidence to help Anne out. There has to be cameras in that big ole mansion of theirs, Ryland definitely seems like a paranoid guy to me. If they can get a video of what he said to her, they may be able to prove it was a crime of passion and she reacted to what he told her. I mean hey it’s Texas, doesn’t everyone carry a gun in their purse down there?

John Ross is continuing to undermine Elena in order to get her to default on her loan to his mom so he can snag her shares. However JR continues to learn of John Ross’ betrayals with Cliff and Rebecca. Don’t mess with JR son! Sadly we are coming up on the episode where JR will be shot, and this time he won’t be coming back.

Posted by Dustin on 02.17.2013 at 3:01 pm

These are the spoilers for the next two episodes of NBC’s “Smash” . . .

February 19th 10pm – The Dramaturg

Partnerships are tested as Eileen (Anjelica Huston) asks Tom (Christian Borle) and Julia (Debra Messing) to contend with an unwelcome new collaborator, while Jimmy (Jeremy Jordan) and Kyle (Andy Mientus) prepare to present their work for the first time. Derek (Jack Davenport) attempts to get Ronnie (guest star Jennifer Hudson) back on his side. Ivy (Megan Hilty) finds it hard to move on, but help from an old friend might take her one step closer to her dream. Katharine McPhee also stars. Jennifer Hudson and Daniel Sunjata guest star.

February 26th 10pm The Song
Derek (Jack Davenport) calls in help for a special event, but Jimmy’s (Jeremy Jordan) pride might get in the way of a huge opportunity Karen (Katharine McPhee) orchestrates for him and Kyle (Andy Mientus). Peter (guest star Daniel Sunjata) challenges Julia’s (Debra Messing) pride as they continue to work together. Meanwhile, Ronnie (guest star Jennifer Hudson) struggles to assert her independence from a powerful mother (guest star Sheryl Lee Ralph), as Eileen (Anjelica Huston) finds herself at a moral crossroads with huge ramifications for “Bombshell.” Christian Borle and Megan Hilty also star. Jennifer Hudson, Sheryl Lee Ralph and Daniel Sunjata guest star.

Posted by Dustin on 02.05.2013 at 2:23 pm

“Smash” returns tonight with a two hour premier. The first hour has been on demand, and I watched it a week or so ago. I really enjoyed it and the new direction the show has taken. I hope it does well and continues to stick around, as I’m interested in seeing where things go.

I don’t want to spoil too much, but we all know from talk last year that the scheming Ellis is gone and the show is writing out Julia’s husband and it looks like Tom’s new love interest. The later two do appear in the first episode, Ellis thankfully does not.

Below is the official release for the premier, though it seems to really only cover the first hour.

ON BROADWAY / THE FALLOUT – February 5th 9pm
Back from a successful run in Boston, Eileen (Anjelica Huston), Julia (Debra Messing) and Tom (Christian Borle) are blindsided by both personal and professional obstacles as they seek to take “Bombshell” to Broadway. Karen (Katharine McPhee) consults her new mentor, Broadway star Veronica “Ronnie” Moore (guest star Jennifer Hudson), as she finds herself on the brink of fame, but her success may come at cost to Ivy (Megan Hilty). A new talent (Jeremy Jordan) is discovered in an unexpected place. Meanwhile, Derek (Jack Davenport) copes with a damaging accusation. Leslie Odom, Jr., Andy Mientus and Krysta Rodriguez also star. Jennifer Hudson, Harvey Fierstein, Thorsten Kaye, and Brian d’Arcy James guest star.

Posted by Dustin on 05.27.2012 at 5:51 pm

Yes, this is old news, but I never did a real post on it. “Smash,” which returns to NBC next January as a mid-season show once again, is cleaning house.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Dex (Raza Jaffrey) and Ellis (Jaime Cepero) are out! There has been talk they may show up for an episode or two in order to officially see them off.

Now comes the news that Julia’s husband, played by Brian d’Arcy James and Julia’s lover-on-the-side Will Swift (Will Chase) are also out.

This might make things difficult as it appeared Julia might be pregnant in the finale episode this season.

Also out is the original creator of the show Theresa Rebeck, whose position as show runner is being taken over by Josh Safran (of “Gossip Girl” fame). Theresa Rebeck is said to stay on as the executive producer though.