Smash Death Watch — Now on Life Support

I just speed through New Guy’s songs. Is this because I am one of those olds they keep talking about who won’t appreciate them? Or is it that these songs are kind of boring? Also was that the same Gummer-girl on The Good Wife or a different one? And why don’t I like either of them? Is it them? Or does their presence remind me that there’s nepotism everywhere and life is unfair? Or are they both just a little too affected and actressy?

Of course nothing made sense because it never does. Once again we were told a whole bunch of stuff that we never knew before. Suddenly, Marilyn’s mother is vitally important to Julia. Is this a character played by an actor whom we’ve never seen? Does she have a number we’ve never heard? Again we are being asked to care about something being cut, but we have no way of knowing other than Julia’s whining about it, why we should.

When will the idiots writing this ever learn?

It’s not that hard. There was a scene in Slings and Arrows where they were putting on a musical, and the director was an idiot, and we saw how terrible it was. We watched the writer sitting in rehearsal, helpless, and the cast look confused, and finally the business director of the company, who was really a frustrated musical theater geek, stood up to the director and came up with a flow chart that put the numbers in a different order and saved the show, and we (the audience at home) wanted to stand up and applaud because it was a giant step forward for the character, and it was going to save the show.

We got to see that. It made sense. Than again, that show was written by people who were actually involved in theater, and they were mostly from Toronto not Hollywood.

Good on them for at least figuring out a way to get Ivy back into Bombshell, bad on them for not giving her anything to sing this week. I suppose this also means that Terry is gone, and we won’t see Sean Hayes any more. That was a waste.

Does anyone believe Karen would just give up and quit? Wasn’t part of the point of last season to watch her become tougher and more “star” like, to admit to her own ambition? Didn’t she just demand Derrick fire Ivy? And really how is it that Ivy even still talks to Derrick? What is up with that?

Has anyone noticed that all three shows seem to be operating in parallel universes with different measurements of time — in the amount of time since Derrick has been gone from Bombshell, Tom is still getting his sea-legs BUT Liaisons opened and closed on Broadway, and Hit List has rewritten its book?

Are you thinking that when Ivy is all happy because the train-wreck show she’s in is going to close, and she walks out smiling, feeling free and happy, it was really Megan Hilty smiling because she can’t wait for this to all be over and she knows there won’t be another season?