This blog is driving me crazy and I'm taking a break. I'll probably be back to work more on it.
The latest episode of "Smash" was "The Movie Star". I've a couple of thoughts about the latest episode and the series in general. Like Rebecca Duvall I have a lot of thoughts how to make this show better. First, when the story follow the cast of "Bombshell's" personal lives, the show quickly runs out of steam. Seriously why is Leo still getting screen time? Who cares whether Julia and Frank's marriage survives? Thankfully the story about Julia and Frank adopting seems to have gone away. Why do we have to watch Nick and Eileen get together? Again that's boring and is also an unbelievable relationship. Not as unbelievable as anyone wanting to be with Ellis though.
Secondly, for this show to continue to improve it needs to trim several peripheral characters. Again the less we know about the character's personal lives the better. That's unless both characters are directly involved with the Monroe play "Bombshell". Even then I still don't care about Tom's commitment issues. Characters that need to be excised include Frank, Leo, Michael, Dev, RJ and Colin. What can replace those characters? How about more Karen and more songs. It seemed this episode "The Movie Star" was mocking itself with the running gag about a musical actually having songs. By my count this episode only had two songs. I can live without the dancing, but please bring on more singing. I'd like to see at least 4 or 5 songs each episode.
I'm also not a big Ivy Lynn fan. Her whole drug regimen story line was Grade A boredom.
Why do shows have jerk characters? Many shows I love have an annoying or jerk character. Why is that needed to drive the action? Three shows that I love all have an extremely annoying character. In "Smash", it's Ellis, in "Mad Men" it's Pete Campbell and in "The Good Wife" it's Jackie. Can't shows survive without these characters? Why are these annoying characters so important? I do realize that the annoying characters have driven story in the past several episodes. But why can't a more charming character do that?
Yesterday I listened to a hilarious podcast on Grantland.com. It was Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald talking about great TV shows like "Mad Men". But they also spent 10 minutes
Anyway from what Ryan and Greenwald discussed it sounds like I've missed nothing at all. Plots that I thought couldn't have gotten worse seemed to actually have. The momentum of the crappy Season 1 finale continues on to season 2. One of Grantland's commenters said something like "Veena Sud already said this show won't reveal the killer until episode 12, that's like 8 more hours with these people". Yes, that does sound horrifying. They mocked the return of Jasper and Sterling, two characters we haven't thought about in months. Also Richmond and Jamie are having an affair now? Really? What the hell? They also mocked Belko's suicide by cop and Stan's mob ties. All are unbelievably stupid ideas and deserve mocking.
Why am I suggesting this show be killed? I wrote about the jerk character a couple of paragraphs above. "The Killing" has several annoying characters, in fact nearly everyone is annoying. I don't care about any of the characters. There are also bizarre and unnecessary story lines as in the paragraph directly above. Also the fact this show tells the same story over and over again. It also tells the story incredibly slowly. It feels like Rosie was killed years ago, not days ago. All good reasons to kill this show.
Other things qualifying this show for the death penalty include unnecessary characters. For instance, Sterling and Jasper. Why has Sud chosen to have those students come back? I doubt they have anything to do with the killing of Rosie, they are just more red herrings. The Richmond for Mayor campaign has never been interesting. Does this show cut it's losses though, no it keeps on stretching Richmond for Mayor out beyond belief. (Give the show credit for realism, that's what a real election feels like.) Also if Sud wanted us to care about the Larsens, why did she make them so boring?
This show was suppose to be a three prong attack. The idea that the race for mayor, the killing of Rosie and the Larson family dynamics were suppose to make this show exciting. That leaves Rosie's death as the most exciting thing about this show. When that story line wears us out, then what is left? Nothing. We are now at that point with this show. AMC please kill "The Killing" and just tell us who killed Rosie. But again if I didn't find out it wouldn't matter.
It seems the only way "The Killing" tells it's stories is by intentionally misleading the viewer. How many false clues have we seen so far? How many more will be seen. How many suspected killers of Rosie will there be? Will everyone in Seattle be a suspect at one point? I predict Rosie's killer will be completely a surprise and not in a good way. It will be someone that has only been involved in the show on the periphery. For instance someone like Linden's ex. Once the big reveal is unveiled Sud will try to explain why it was such a great idea, but it will ring hollow. One of the things I hate the most about Sud is that she actually had the chutzpah to compare this show to "Mad Men". "Mad Men" is already an all-time classic. Meanwhile "The Killing" will be quickly forgotten once it's mercifully killed.
"The Killing" remains the little show that couldn't. This show needs to be exterminated with extreme predujice asap. Veena Sud is clearly in over her head as a show runner. She continues to show how little she knows.
According to wikipedia.org the show had 1.8 million viewers through the first 3 episodes. By the fourth episode, "Ogi Jun", that number had fallen to 1.65 million viewers. I expect that number to continue to drop throughout the season. Then it will have a brief resurgence when the show finally reveals who killed Rosie. Although at this point I'm wondering why anyone cares anymore. I'm expecting AMC to have announced by that point there won't be a third season by then.
Please AMC just kill "The Killing".
For a limited time you can listen to Jack White's new CD "Blunderbuss" for free on iTunes. I listened to it this morning and I was less than inspired. Also on iTunes you can download the new song from Soundgarden, it's from the new "Avengers" movie. The title of the song is "Live To Rise":
Wow "Live To Rise" is an incredibly boring song, isn't it. Soundgarden should have left this song unreleased.
Speaking of Soundgarden (isn't that the coolest band name ever?) I have been listening a lot to their CD "Live on I-5" on Spotify. I was never able to see them in concert back in the day, but they sound like they were a pretty dynamic live band. I love hearing classics like "Outshined", "Rusty Cage" and "Spoonman" again. This is "Rusty Cage":
I'm still not understanding all the love for "Someone I Used To Know". What I think that song was trying to be was something like this:
I have been haunted by the above song, it's just such an amazing song. Their performance is simply amazing.
Other great songs:
Rooney's "Daisy Duke":
The Proclaimers "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)":
Lisa Lisa and the Cult Jam "All Cried Out":
Gene Loves Jezebal "Jealous":
Melinda Doolittle's "I'm A Woman":
Boom Crash Opera's "Onion Skin":
Toni Basil's "Mickey":
themusicaddict
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