Don’t forget to check out Smash, it looks like Rebecca is going to succumb to her peanut allergy. Is she poisoned? (Ellis perhaps) or does she pull a Piven and does it to herself because she knows she is going to suck and wants to spare the embarrassment. What about the fallout from Dev and Ivy’s one night stand.
A crisis hits Rebecca Duvall (Uma Thurman) as “Bombshell” is set to face its first audience; Frank is forced to adjust to Michael’s return; Dev tries to reconcile with Karen.
Zoe feels responsible for not noticing warning signs as a friend faces a health crisis; Lavon encourages Wade to open up his own bar; Lemon tries to get her relationship with George back on track.
We are moving into May sweeps and season finale time of year. Get ready for lots of new episodes and cliffhangers.
House set us up last week for an emotional series finale when Wilson announced he had cancer. The House Wilson relationship is a bromance for the ages. Wilson can’t die.
When the team treats a 6-year-old with multiple health issues, they must collaborate with her mother (Jessica Collins), who is also a doctor; Wilson and House go on vacation.
When a corpse is discovered in the woods, the team considers two families involved in a nearly century-long feud; Brennan is apprehensive when her father (Ryan O’Neal) offers to baby-sit for her daughter.
Ivy worries as Derek grows closer to Rebecca (Uma Thurman); Karen has to choose between Dev and the show; Ellen and Julia fight over Michael’s possible return; Sam brings Tom to a family dinner.
Wade must swallow his pride when he asks Zoe to be his partner in a competition; Rose lands a date; Lemon and George discuss their relationship issues with the Rev. Mayfair.
Smash gives us the first full episode with Uma Thurman and judging by the previews she is a nightmare. NBC has some sneak peak clips up on their site . Derek makes a play to get Ivy’s job back. BTW there is a big old rumor floating around the net that Jack Davenport (Derek) and Megan Hilty (Ivy) are having an affair. He is married so its quite the scandal.
Castle has a mini Firefly reunion tonight, Adam Baldwin is guest starring.
The arrival of a movie star (Uma Thurman) turns “Bombshell” upside-down; Ivy and Karen try to overcome their history and unite against their new rival; Tom and Sam’s romance heats up
A corpse that has been dyed blue is found in a landfill; when Bones feels uncomfortable in her post-baby body, Booth tries to boost her self-confidence.
Castle takes on Detective Ethan Slaughter (Adam Baldwin) as his partner when tension between himself and Beckett rises, and he sees a new side to police work that puts him in danger.
Rebecca Duvall (Uma Thurman) “the star” didn’t show up until the last five minuets of the episode which was fine by me. Last night’s episode proved, what we all know is going to happen. Our rag-tag troupe is best when left alone, we don’t need no stinkin’ stars.
Tom (Christian Borle) owned the episode last night, no surprise here, he was nominated for a Tony for his role in Legally Blonde: The Musical and has appeared on Broadway numerous times. Between his musical number and banter with Sam ( his future BF) Christian was pitch perfect, more Tom please.
Ivy, fresh from being fired from Heaven on Earth and Bombshell (formerly Marilyn) is plotting her way back in. She meets the gang for drinks, congratulating Karen on being named Rebecca’s understudy by buying her sunglasses like the ones Marilyn wore in Niagara. She even advises Derek to be nice to Karen, telling him that the directors that got the best performances out of Marilyn were the ones who babyed her. This leads Derek to some weird hallucination, I am not sure where it came from, but Kat McPhee’s Marilyn was spot on during that sequence.
As usual Eileen is trying to raise the money, now that she has Rebecca she has the investor’s, but they have some crazy demands and it totally bums Eileen out. She heads out to her dive bar, has a Martini and tells her bartender boytoy whats up. He offers her money, but its not enough so she hooks him up with some rocker dude who has a ton of cash and doesn’t care about losing it. She fires the old investors, but not Ellis. If I was Anjelica Houston I would tell the producers that is is not believable that her character would have fired him three episodes ago.
Other random happenings, Julia tries to reconcile with her X, she makes her son a grilled cheese sandwich to make amends for ruining his life. I hope that was Jarlsberg from Dean and De Luca and not some Kraft singles processed cheese in that sandwich. Tom and Julia celebrate ten years of working together by going to see a performance of their first big hit, Three on a Match. Debra Messing is the weakest link on this show, her character is the worst. Hopefully this will all change now that Theresa Rebeck is gone, apparently the character was based on her life.
Dev hits Derek for visiting Karen, and then he asks Karen if she would quit the show to go with him if he got a job in another city. We all know Karen picks the show, so say good-bye to Dev. Too bad because he is damn hot with his shirt off. How much longer do we think Derek and Ivy will be together if Karen is single?
Fun fact, did you know that Jack Davenport (Derek) and Debra Messing (Julia) starred in The Wedding Date. Wonder if she got him the job on Smash.
Rebecca finally shows up, and based on the previews it isn’t going to go well at all. She has never done Broadway, and is completely wrong for the part so all heck is going to break loose.
Uma Thurman arrives on Smash tonight as “the star” who is going to save Marilyn. Karen is picked to be her understudy. Poor Ivy she can’t catch a break.
Zoe feels conflicted about seeing her father, who is coming to Bluebell to operate on George’s father; Lemon decides to befriend Zoe so she won’t tell George about her affair; the Rammer Jammer’s owner hosts a cocktail contest.
When an extreme couponer’s remains are found on the side of a road, the investigation leads the team to the supermarket where she shopped; Brennan adjusts to being at work and away from her baby; Cam is unhappy with her daughter’s choice of suitors.
The jokes write themselves folks, really that title. This show is hell on earth.
Everyone is still dealing with the aftermath of the workshop. Ivy and Karen are auditioning, Julia’s marriage is imploding, Tom is dating a republican and Ellis is being Ellis, still plotting.
In the most ridiculous plot point ever, the show is getting Ivy hooked on pills, mmmm didn’t Marilyn have a problem with pills. I swear to god if this season ends with a shot of Ivy passed out naked in her bed and empty pill bottles next to her I am going to break up with this show once and for all.
And in the second most ridiculous plot point of the evening, Karen’s orange juice commercial. What the heck is going on with this show, what does it want to be when it grows up. A show about launching a Broadway musical or a show about the random lives of people who happen to work in and around a broadway musical.
Eileen, Tom, Julia and Derek meet to review a list of possible “stars” for the show, of course Ellis is there (ugh). They fight, and scoff, but Eileen forges on, she thinks a star and a new title will fix everything, she sends Tom and Julia off to make a new one. Derek wants a finished script before he does anymore work, he will then give notes and in a year the show may be ready. Eileen goes director shopping. We all know Derek isn’t going anywhere, lame tension.
Julia’s husband figures out from a piece of sheet music that she had an affair, he is pretty good. He confronts Michael, actually he punches Michael, (thank god someone did). Frank moves out. If I was Debra Messing I would quit this mess, first the lame adoption storyline, now the affair.
Ellis, who we thought was gay, then all of a sudden has a girlfriend has sex with the Rebecca Halls manager (a man) in an attempt to land her for Marilyn. Talk about going above and beyond for your job.
Ok so it wasn’t all bad, I kind of liked Derek and Ivy together, I was kind of surprised they were still together. The other bit of fun was Ivy’s drug/drunk tumble on stage. Of course Karen is there to witness it, when Ivy comes out of the theatre they go at it, screaming at each other, hurling insults, its great.
The next scene with them drinking, dancing and singing in Times Square is absolutely ridiculous. Its only saved because Ivy says. “we’re not best friends now”, which means the bitch fest will continue. Ellis makes his move he and asks Eileen for a co-producing credit simply because he got Rebecca Hall to consider Marilyn, Eileen puts him in his place, again. How many times is she going to smack him down before she fires him.
In the end they get a title “Bombshell” oh god, and the cheesefest continues.
Why is Smash one cliché after another, here are just a few from last night
morning of the workshop music montage
Ivy’s mother is the stage mother from hell singing the theme song from a musical about the ultimate stage mother from hell
Ellis is Eve Harrington
Eileen’s never ending issues with the production, you would have thought someone mentioned the name of that Scottish play
Karen passes up her big meeting with the record producer to perform in the workshop (yeah right)
Ivy’s pill addiction continues
As the title suggests last night’s episode was the big workshop to get the investors. Once of the many problems facing our little acting troupe is the heat in the building is blasting because the boiler is broken. Now call me crazy, but why didn’t they use some of the fans they used to blow up Marilyn’s skirt in the workshop to cool off the audience.
As it turns out no one wants to invest in “Marilyn”, quelle surprise. The team, Tom, Julia, Eileen and Derek regroup to discuss what to do. Derek thinks it was Ivy. Tom thinks it was Michael, Julia agrees and Michael is fired. Eileen suggest they need to hire a “star”, if you have read the press, than you know Uma Thurman has been seen on set, I think she is the big name they bring in. Poor Ivy, I feel so bad for her, couple that with Karen getting the shot with the big record producer, I don’t know if she will go over the edge, but the stage is set.
Karen records a demo for “Mr. Raskin”, the record producer she was referred to after the Bar Mitzvah. I couldn’t decide if the guy who recorded the demo was just a sound engineer or Mr. Raskin. Anyway she sings a cover of Colbie Caillait’s “Brighter Than The Sun”, the engineer/Raskin is blown away. I thought she was the same Katherine McPhee complete with weird arm gestures we see every time she sings. Didn’t Simon Cowell beat that out of her on Idol.
Speaking of Simon, Smash’s very own Simon Cowell, Derek is still trying to get Karen in the lead. He is such a snake and I love it. But, he is a little clueless, he doesn’t pick up on the Julia/Michael thing at all. Which seems very out of character, sloppy writing.
Ivy’s (Megan Hilty) mother a Tony award winning actress name Leigh Conroy comes to town for the workshop, she is played by realife Tony award winning actress Bernadette Peters, and oh man is she good. Granted the character is pure stock, all smiles and charm in public but behind closed doors, she humiliates and insults Ivy constantly. Driving Ivy to take sleeping pills. To make matter’s worse when she attends rehearsal with Ivy she is asked to sing by the cast and she does, of course.
She tries to make things up to her at the end, but you just know she will be back to beat her up so more, that is what an abuser does.
What I found most interesting about the scene was Derek’s reaction, he watched Ivy the whole time, knowing how this performance by her mother was killing her. After he told Ivy how great she is doing with Marilyn. I thought for a moment he was being a human, but then I realized he knew he had to say something to make her feel better to preserve his precious workshop. He is a crafty one.
Julia and Michael continued their affair, until Julia calls it off. After Michael’s wife and kid show up at rehearsal, apparently the guilt she feels over her own son knowing is nothing compared to the guilt she feels when she sees Michael’s son. Good thing the adoption got quashed. In another insult to working woman every where, Julia is so distraught she has to go home. The workshop is tomorrow its crunch time, but she has to go home and cry. Suck it up, you made your bed now lie in it, the show must go on.
As I mentioned up post, Michael is fired, that isn’t going to come back to bite her at all. No not at all. Ellis saw them together and told Eileen. What is up with Ellis when did he become Eileen’s BFF, I am only putting up with this nonsense because I hope he gets his in the end.
Eileen’s bartender came to the rescue with a plumber when the heat in the rehearsal space needed fixing. Is it me or is he going to turn out to have a bunch of money to invest. I bet he is more than a bartender.
Next week Derek takes matters into his own hands in the aptly titled “The Coup”
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