airali_glo

Smash 1x01 - Pilot





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First aired: 02/06/2012 (10:00PM – 11:00PM)

The hit-making Broadway writing team of Julia Houston (Debra Messing) and Tom Levitt (Christian Borle) unites with producer Eileen Rand (Anjelica Huston) to create a new musical based on the life of Marilyn Monroe, and seasoned chorus girl Ivy Lynn (Megan Hilty) vies with newcomer Karen Cartwright (Katharine McPhee) for the dream role.

Jack Davenport, Raza Jaffrey, Brian d’Arcy James and Jaime Cepero also star.

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Join us and rewatch Smash episodes every week, starting from Season 1

MrღMrsStinsbatskys

I should rewatch the Pilot it's one of my favorite Pilots ever.

airali_glo

Now that we started this rewatching/commenting it's the best time to do it

I think I'll do it tomorrow or during the weekend, I have already prepared the DVD

MrღMrsStinsbatskys

I will probably watch over the weekend probably Sunday.

airali_glo

Just rewatched the episode! WHAT A SHOW, it had so many hopes, back then! Thinking about it now

Anyway I think I loved Karen since her first scene it was nice to have that glimpse of SOTR, it's Katharine's "evergreen" since Idol. And, by the way, it's a better auditioning song than "Beautiful", I don't think that realistically anyone would bring that for a Broadway audition but here it was probably because of Karen/Marilyn/Norma Jean thing. I liked immediately her freshness, her voice, her following her dreams even if it was difficult.
The scenes with Dev were cute, he was so supportive, then! And do I have to talk about Cartwills? what chemistry! The Happy Birthday scene is epic.

Ivy is still pretty "normal" to me, I think I started to not stand her from the second episode but I didn't like her NGATH rendition, too pretended, with all those sights and facial expressions. The National Pastime was a nono then and it's still now. The choreography is too vulgar, Marilyn with open legs here and there and all those allusive dance steps - Marilyn wasn't like that, that was the idea the people had of her. Fortunately during the seasons they changed this and showed a more real Marilyn, with all her flaws and vulnerability but always being sexy and beautiful.

ELLIS, what an annoying character since the beginning

Derek Wills RULEZ

The adoption story for Julia was not so interesting, but it seems Rebeck wanted it so bad for her (Julia is inspired to Rebeck herself), even if other people had told her it was unnecessary and boring. Maybe this was also to give Julia something else except theatre, to interact with her family

LET ME BE YOUR STAR this song is pure epicness, why they didn't give it an award it's Marilyn, it's Karen and Ivy, it's a dream. It gives me chills everytime I listen to it.


I miss this show so bad

Walkerita Sullivan

I rewatched the pilot (for the 7232767th time) and every single time I feel the same thing I felt the first time!! I feel like I've been a part of something special, different! Not to mention how much I love or better, how much I'm OBSESSED with all the songs!! And then there's my Karen/Kat and I'm in love with her voice!! Anyway the pilot is also full of many Cartwills feels!! My favourite scenes in the episode are: karen's audition and the final one when Karen & Ivy sing Let me be your star for the call back! I love Smash and I miss it so much!!

We just expressed the same thought in the same moment!!!!!

airali_glo

TOTALLY AGREE Smash was something very special and a challenge, for tv. Bring the Broadway world on the screen and with such brilliant numbers and songs. Too bad that people didn't get it and liked more to bash on its flaws.


LMBYS is my favorite scene too

Karen is super cute in every scene, also

Walkerita Sullivan

You know me, I'm really trying to not talk ONLY about Karen because I could never stop!!!!!! I sincerely loved every single scene of Karen, I loved that she was so genuine and dreamy, probably that's why I feel her so close to me! She was pure but not silly, she totally knew how to deal with particular sides of reality (and Derek knows it too ) and she knew how to be strong and determined!

Lutesse

Love the OP, Ilaria! The gifset is perfect, all the most important scenes.

I've nothing to add, but the comments are reminding me how much I loved Season 1 from the first moment.

It's so sad that "fan" snobbery killed something so fine as this show.

I'll keep checking in!

airali_glo

I related to Karen since the first scene She has a naive moment (going to the director's home at 10 PM, really believing that he wanted to WORK ), but her dreamy side is beautiful. She was ready to work hard, too!


Thanks! I looked for some gifsets a lot, even if at the beginning I wanted a picspam...but not everyone on Tumblr made stuff for all episodes. Finally I found this tumblr page that made the same gifset (same style) for all 15 episodes.


I loved it from the trailer, even but the first episode conquered me totally. It had all I loved, so it was perfect for me Yeah, it's so sad what happened to it Everyone just counldn't help to notice and talk about the flaws completely forgetting the good things.

Walkerita Sullivan

Ivy once told Karen that she always gets things easily and I think she was absolutely wrong, Karen was "nobody"'s daughter, all she had was her endless talent and all she got was well deserved because she warked harder than anyone!

airali_glo

Probably Ivy didn't like the fact that Karen was new and had been considered for a big role, while she (Ivy) had struggled for years. The fact that Ivy had a Tony winner mother didn't help her, anyway, if after ten years she never had a role.

I don't say that Ivy wasn't talented or that she didn't deserve a role with all her experience, it's just that I couldn't accept the fact that she was so mean towards Karen, no matter how "justified" she could be. In the pilot this doesn't show, yet...but I think this was the reason why I didn't like Ivy in S1 (but as I said I loved Karen first and immediately because I could identify with her). The behaviour towards Karen didn't make me like Ivy even if she was more "relatable", with all her flaws and struggle to show her talent (you know, usually flawed characters that have a struggle are the ones the audience likes most).

I already said that, except for few moments, we never had a big look on Karen's training and struggle to get a role: she surely had less experience than Ivy (that had also a different background), but often it seemed that Karen was just a nice girl who auditioned for fun and that she was part of Bombshell because she looked pretty and had a nice voice, while Ivy instead was the huge, terrific, ten years worthy performer that people kept ignoring even after ten years, choosing cute girls like Karen.


I forgot to say: Tom's reaction to Derek was awesome: HE'S A TERRIBLE HUMAN BEING if only we knew more about their past. We'll know in S2 that they basically know each other since their youth (Tom remembers a young Derek that was even worst than Jimmy )

s e r e n i t y

I love the pilot so much, it's probably one of my most favorite pilots ever.
I'm not a big fan of Never Give All the Heart tbh, it just feels like a very ~normal ballad to me but Let Me Be Your Star I knew from the second I heard that song that this show was going to be so special to me .

It's weird talking about just the pilot because my feelings towards the characters changed SO MUCH by the time I made it to the show's finale. I basically did a 180 but Ill just limit it to the pilot for now

There was a scene in S2 where Karen tells Kyle (or Jimmy? I don't remember) about how she had to have dance lessons and singing lessons and acting lessons and how nothing comes easy and I so WISH we had seen this. We saw Ivy constantly audition, we saw her train, we had a glimpse into the fact that she has been trying and failing for 10 years but with Karen we never really got that. It just feels like she had some god given talent that was just discovered and while that worked in S1 it didn't really work for me in S2 (ok ok I'll stick to the pilot )

s e r e n i t y

I love the pilot so much, it's probably one of my most favorite pilots ever.
I'm not a big fan of Never Give All the Heart tbh, it just feels like a very ~normal ballad to me but Let Me Be Your Star I knew from the second I heard that song that this show was going to be so special to me .

It's weird talking about just the pilot because my feelings towards the characters changed SO MUCH by the time I made it to the show's finale. I basically did a 180 but Ill just limit it to the pilot for now

There was a scene in S2 where Karen tells Kyle (or Jimmy? I don't remember) about how she had to have dance lessons and singing lessons and acting lessons and how nothing comes easy and I so WISH we had seen this. We saw Ivy constantly audition, we saw her train, we had a glimpse into the fact that she has been trying and failing for 10 years but with Karen we never really got that. It just feels like she had some god given talent that was just discovered and while that worked in S1 it didn't really work for me in S2 (ok ok I'll stick to the pilot )

airali_glo

LMBYS NGATH by Karen is way better than Ivy's, to me


So I guess you liked Karen but eventually Ivy became your favorite, am I right?


I agree I get that Karen surely had less experience than Ivy, but the contrast between the two of them would have been clear even with showing a little more Karen's training. She was struggling to get a role like Ivy, after all. Like EVERYONE, there. Ivy was looking for someone to notice her talent just like Karen, with the difference that she was doing that for more time.

I kept liking her in S2 too, for reasons I can't explain here