The good: Debra Messing and Angelica Huston (as the producer, pictured above with Davenport) continued to give the best performances, though Messing had a few too many teary scenes as her domestic drama developed. Huston met a scruffy bartender whom she's sleeping with and who is helping to bankroll her show. The Bombshell show numbers continued to be strong, though the single best number of the season was "A Thousand and One Nights," a Bollywood-style fantasy number performed by McPhee and featuring virtually the entire cast. The music and costumes were fun and the number managed to comment wordlessly but effectively on almost every storyline in the show. After a shaky introduction, Thurman (below with McPhee) did a nice job as the obnoxious star who can't sing and tries to take over the production. And Hilty remained strong, even as she was forced by the script to slip into the soap opera "bad girl" role--though to be fair, her character was given some sympathetic moments.
The bad: Megan Hilty is still clearly the right choice for Marilyn, and the writers and the actor (Davenport) were unsuccessful at making us understand why the director chose McPhee for the starring role. I appreciate McPhee's talents, though they seem limited, but her singing is almost always augmented by Auto-Tune technology to sharpen it up, whereas Hilty's big voice doesn't need gimmickry. It feels like the writers knew the audience would be on Hilty's side, as they make Davenport's decision to use McPhee an unpopular one among the rest of the creative team. Regardless, what should have been a sure-fire feel-good climax as McPhee plays Marilyn fell flat for me (and, according to the blogosphere, many other regular viewers as well).
They didn't seem to know what to do with McPhee's good-hearted boyfriend (Raza Jaffrey) so he had a one-night stand with Hilty, and now comes news that Jaffrey will not return next season. Christian Borle, as Messing's songwriting partner (above in the Bollywood number), comes off well acting-wise, but his personal storylines have been boring and led nowhere. Some of the dancers have been fleshed out a bit, and I hope will continue to add color to future episodes. I'll watch next year, but I'll be looking for more fun, and fewer pre-existing pop songs done Karaoke-style by the stars--I hope they'll use Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, the writers of the Marilyn songs, more. And I'll be waiting for Megan Hilty to get her reward.
4 comments:
So, McPhee's voice is autotuned, and Hilty's isn't? How do you make such a ridiculous statement? Have you ever heard McPhee live? Obviously not. Either they both were autotuned, or both didn't need it.
To me, Ivy was a caricature of Marilyn - a Marilyn impersonator. Watching her, I never once had the feeling that I was watching Marilyn; it was too over the top to be believable. I didn't think I was watching Marilyn when Karen played her either, but I did feel that she had the essence of her.
The show wasn't perfect, but I was entertained, and that was the point. It's drama, not a documentary.
Dear Anonymous,
Yes, it is crystal clear that McPhee's singing voice is frequently Autotuned. I never once heard evidence that Hilty's was. That is hardly a ridiculous statement. One can hear Autotuing at work. Perhaps, because it's used so often on pop radio, you're so used to hearing it, you can't hear it. My point is that McPhee does not have the Broadway-style singing chops that Hilty has.
i've saw McPhee at a concert & she was NOT autotuned! she doesn't need it!
Dear Anonymous,
Do you understand the concept of Autotuning? Though it can be done live, it is mostly done with recorded music, and most of the songs for Smash were pre-recorded. I repeat, McPhee was Autotuned for Smash. For some people, this is not a problem. For me, it was.
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