Much like Jake's preview post, I was actually intrigued by NBC's Smash. After watching the pilot, it's obvious that the show has two main
problems. The first is that Katherine McPhee is fully clothed throughout.[1]
The second is that it’s a show about singing.
The first problem won’t (and shouldn’t) actually be
solved. McPhee is gorgeous in
sweats or a dress and anything in between. It’s nice to see a fresh face on TV – although Kiefer
Sutherland can be recycled at will and I’ll watch – and it’s even nicer to see
one of these American Idol contestants prove they are something beyond a voice.
The second problem, however, is part of a pathology. Shows based around people singing seem
to have taken over the world.
I’ve never seen a High
School Musical, nor will I.
I’ve seen parts of Glee and
wished I hadn’t. I even watched an
entire season of American Idol. (Go Ruben! Wait, what?)
Now, with X-Factor and The Voice and Sing For Your Supper Or I’ll Kill Your Mother[2]
we’ve gone on overload. Why? Because there is a sinister yet
brilliant way these types of shows fulfill our desires as an audience.
Singing is a talent much more than it is a skill. I have an unbelievable control over
three notes, that’s it. Hell, I do
a better job parodying songs as Cartman than I do actually singing. I have a limited range and I know
it. There is a definite
physiological component that combines with inherent talent to produce a great
voice. This is not to say that
there’s not much skill to being a great singer, there is. But for every delusional girl that
breaks out into song at a bar or watching Glee
and gives a completely underwhelming performance, there hides somewhere in that
crowd someone who can hit some impressive notes that never had training nor a
desire to sing crappy showtunes.
This doesn’t happen with writing or playing the piano.
And that, in essence, is the key to the survival and rampant
growth of shows like American Idol. If you buy into the
came-from-nowhere-all-they-ever-wanted-to-do-is-sing-covers-of-shitty-songs
back-story of every contestant you watch, because you’re an everyman, and you
could certainly hit (closer to) every note of Mariah Carey’s “Fantasy” than that girl could. The sinister thing is
that we are actually pretty good judges of talent as a population when it comes
to singing. Because we can all do
it to some degree, we know, inherently, what is good and what is bad. And that dichotomy keeps shit like The Voice on the air. More problematic is Glee, which is High School Musical in weekly episodic format. Sure, the glee clubs of the world have been alienated endlessly, but cliques are cliques. Being in a clique that gets picked on is an integral part of high school, right up there with getting your first terrible minimum-wage job. When Glee attempts to teach us lessons (I’m trying not to laugh just as hard as you) it fails miserably because the show isn’t about being different and celebrating that, it’s about being accepted and popular. If they wanted to be “different” the glee club would actually sing good music, not Rihanna’s mind-numbingly repetitive “We Found Love”. The fact that the best character on a show attempting to destroy stereotypes and celebrate diversity is Jane Lynch’s hyper-stereotypical Sue Sylvester is an irony that is difficult to see through success and piles of money.
Smash is none of
these things. It’s not a procedural
like Blue Bloods, it’s not remotely
as imaginative as Fringe, and it’s
not a cliffhanger-per-week like a 24 or
Prison Break. What it is is good fucking
television. Much in the vein of The Wire or Breaking Bad[3], Smash appears to be a visual narrative. Its characters are complex; they put
you in both empathetic and hostile situations in the span of a 46-minute
episode. The music is Broadway…but
bearable. In fact, one of the
biggest numbers in the pilot is used (effectively!) for a montage. As long as NBC has the sense to
keep the music as an integral part of the show’s narrative development and
prevents it from becoming the vehicle (X
Factor) or the money shot (every crappy Glee
number) Smash will be just that.
[1] When that
first marriage doesn’t work out, Katherine, I’ll be right here waiting. Unless Emma Watson gets to me first.
[2] Okay maybe
that show isn’t real. But don’t
tell me you didn’t just picture Jack Bauer threatening to kill an old lady
unless some unkempt dude rolls out a real badass version of “Born In the
U.S.A.”.
[3] I will
murder the first person who comments “Pete said Smash was as good as Breaking
Bad!!!” Your inability to read
makes my black heart hurt. And you
better believe I’ll know how to find you.
You’ll be the asshole belting out a testicle-popping off-key rendition
of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” at 1:45 on Saturday morning in some frat
bar.
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