Smash!

So I watched the first airing of the new show Smash on NBC last week. I loved it! As a person who doesn't follow glee or even like glee, this show rocks! It has an old school charm, mixed with the entertainment industry of today in 2012. The show is about two friends who write musicals that come up with the ingenious idea to create a musical based on Marilyn Monroe thanks to the help of an assistant. The show that they are writing includes scenes from all of the old Monroe films so of coarse I am attracted to it, I love the rawness and honesty that she delivered to America while she was still alive and acting. Her story alone has had me intrigued since I was in middle school. The show is getting great reviews and I will continue to follow it...even if my boyfriend does leave the room when I turn it on! :)
Here is an excerpt from an article written by Jeff Leins:

"It's Like Glee, With Talent!!"

111.3 million people watched Super Bowl XLVI yesterday, a new U.S. record for the most-watched television program. Which means most of you saw how NBC shamelessly seized every opportunity to plug the season premiere of “The Voice.” So you probably saw the countless commercials for the debut of “Smash,” today on the newly prestigious “Super Monday” after. Whatever that means. “Hangover Day” may have been more appropriate. Believe it or not, a fraction of those people were not annoyed by “Smash” ads being smashed into their eyes during a precious sports event. This review is for them. Forget “Glee.” FOX managed to repackage “American Idol” as a teen dramedy for a few seasons, and sap a franchise worth of movies, tours, holiday CDs, and more from it by stirring up controversy, counting down the top 40, and hosting celebrity burn-outs. (Ricky Martin, really?) But that dream is dying, especially once adults get a look at NBC’s “Smash,” where more-talented characters are passionate about a little more than sectionals. If the pilot is any indication, “Smash” is to “Glee” what NBC’s “The West Wing” is to “Saved by the Bell.” But enough about that show, lest I awaken Ryan Murphy. “Smash” centers on the creation of a Broadway musical, from inception to production, and each aspect of this “terrible business” is represented, from writing to directing to starring. First and foremost, “Smash” wants to be A Star is Born for the modern era. “Stars aren’t born, they’re made.” Says it right there on all those promotional posters. It achieves that goal, for what it’s worth, featuring one bright-eyed young singer in particular. One “made” mildly famous by somehow becoming only the runner-up on “American Idol” in 2006. Katharine McPhee, who is apparently stunning visually and vocally, for the uninitiated. Wow. She’s also a surprisingly strong actor and dancer (which I somehow missed in Shark Night 3D), and capable of playing both vulnerable and sexy as new voice Karen Cartwright. She sells the backstage jitters and a rivalry with a blonde bombshell named Ivy Lynn (Broadway actress Megan Hilty), even though they share the same dream their parents don’t believe in. Debra Messing and Christian Borle work well together as Julia and Tom, a veteran writing team that exchanges snappy banter a little like Messing’s “Will and Grace.” Julia is a stand-in for creator and Pulitzer-nominated playwright Theresa Rebeck, which explains why the series follows the drama to Julia’s home life with her frustrated husband and teen son. In the midst of a brainstorming frenzy, Julia and Tom yearn for something new. It seems Broadway faces the same rehashes and remakes as Hollywood. But, despite the yearning, the session ironically begets the bright idea to do another saintly portrayal of the beautiful, broken Marilyn Monroe. The characters, and by extension Rebeck, acknowledge there’s a Monroe movie (Oscar-nominated now), a statue, even an iPad app, but they are dually lured by the promise of “a baseball number” that, admittedly, looks impressive in rehearsal.