Hitting a high note last week with “The Workshop”, NBC’s new series Smash fails to reach the same heights with “The Coup”. Character motivations are of particular interest though with backhanded backstabbing bitchiness claiming centre stage. After the workshop’s moderate success, most of the creatives and cast anxiously await further news. Ivy (Megan Hilty) starts going to the gym to work off her energy, while her ensemble friends encourage a night out at the bowling alley, flexing their vocal chords with an awkward rendition of “Dance to the Music.” Tom (Christian Borle) and Julia’s (Debra Messing) personal lives take another step forward while they await news from Eileen. It seems for now that Julia’s relationship with Michael (Will Chase) has been nipped in the bud, and both will go back to their happy respective lives.
Meanwhile, Derek (Jack Davenport) approaches Karen (Katharine McPhee) to be a part of new song written by external songwriters. Tom and Julia are not aware of this, and Karen is told to keep them out of the loop. Simultaneously, her boyfriend Dev (Raza Jaffrey) is facing similar struggles within his ascension in the public office. Opportunistic, conscionable, career advancement seems to be the strongest theme of the episode, with every character facing a choice that is of moral consequence or a blockade that is of punitive damage.
Though compared to Glee, Smash until now has been a completely different show in terms of its musical style. With original numbers from Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, musical theatre has been brought to the small screen in a much more different capacity than see on other shows before. That pizzazz was hiding in “The Coup” and while the only original musical number was intended to be different, distant and irritable, it pulled this off too well, and instead being rather alienating.
Katharine McPhee and Megan Hilty continue to impress as the two leading starlets battling it out for the spotlight. Debra Messing and Christian Borle also do a fine job as the writing/composing team behind the Marilyn musical, and wonderfully reveal their understandable disgust of the new musical number. Anjelica Huston is still a hoot as Eileen, showing off a more tender side as her daughter (Grace Gummer) arrives in town and makes her realise what is really important in business and in life. Slightly leaning on a diagonal, her physical stance is just one element of the magnetism Huston brings to a performance. Hopefully next week, some of Smash’s former charisma will return.
Smash airs Mondays at 9.30pm and Tuesdays at 7.30pm on W channel. You can read past episode reviews here.
