airali_glo

Smash 1x02 - The Callback





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First aired: 02/13/2012 (10:00PM – 11:00PM)

Ivy (Megan Hilty) and Karen (Katharine McPhee) jump through hoops for the brilliant but temperamental director Derek Wills (Jack Davenport) as they pursue the role of a lifetime. Meanwhile, Julia (Debra Messing) and her husband Frank (Brian d’Arcy James), are frustrated by the red tape of an international adoption process, and Eileen (Anjelica Huston) fights to finance her new musical in the midst of an acrimonious divorce.

Christian Borle, Raza Jaffrey, and Jaime Cepero also star.

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MrღMrsStinsbatskys

Aw, the start of Divy!

airali_glo

Honestly I've never saw real feelings in their start, but I guess it's a shipping pov

Walkerita Sullivan

I loved this episode!!!!! My favourite scene was and it will always be the 20th Century Fox Mambo number, I just adore when Kat dances!!!!!!!! She's so graceful, sexy and classy!! Karen had, in my opinion, a pure and natural talent that doesn't need too much work!

I already said it, I never liked too much Tom, he was totally on Ivy's side!! I know he was her friend but he actually never gave Karen a chance!! Julia instead was really cute with Karen because she noticed that eveything seemed to be on Ivy's side!

And then I loved when Derek was teaching Karen the coreography!!! Cartwills chemistry!!!

airali_glo

I still have to rewatch

I hated that too. I get that he was her friend and loved her, but I hated his being totally blind, like Ivy was the best of the best and it was impossible that anyone could be better than her. Karen there was the only one without any "theatre friend" to cheer on her. In this sense I like S2, because her friend Ana was there.
Julia was so nice with Karen, since the beginning but after all she was more friendly with everyone.

airali_glo

Watched yesterday

Karen and the Mambo are the best part of this episode, just followed by the tension between her and Derek "He's a psychopath, he's messing with my head" She's such a brilliant dancer! And the interpretation of Marilyn in that number!

Eileen saying: "she's a star"

It's weird to watch again this, knowing what will happen later I - of course - wasn't happy the first time I saw Ivy getting the role and I wasn't yesterday neither in the Ovation's "Broadway Bash" that followed this episode on Ovation, the guests said that in real life probably both Karen and Ivy would have been cast as understudies, since there wasn't a "big name".

IVY, ugh. Sleeping with Derek. She didn't miss the chance. Sorry, I never liked this and no one will ever convince me that she did it only because she was attracted to him. Derek probably did it because of that (we'll learn that it wasn't the first time), but Ivy...

Ellis, SO ANNOYING. "My idea". Yeah, right.

s e r e n i t y

God I hate Ellis so much I'm so glad he wasn't in S2 I just wish the show had gotten rid of him even earlier than that

Yeah I really wish that hadn't happened, I ship Derek and Ivy but I think that they both need to do a lot of growing up to actually be good for each other and the fact that their relationship starts out like this will always kind of cast a small shadow on everything else.

airali_glo

He appeared only in Tom's nightmare, 2x11


Yeah. Maybe she was attracted to him or maybe not, but the fact that she agreed to sleep with him during the callbacks, well...it's a little suspicious we'll soon know that Derek was used to that, anyway.

shinebrighterxx

(this post was written while rewatching the ep)


I love Ivy imitating Marilyn, even if it is a little spooky

They seem to be mean to Karen in this episode, I don't like that. We don't really see her dancing when she's learning to show why she's supposedly bad. She seemed good when we do get to see her & when she then does the audition/callback part

Eileen & Jerry our first drink in the face He is really not a nice guy. It makes me wonder what she fell in love with. Love Derek's reaction to the drink throw too - he didn't seem to care or react, just moved on & happily left with her

I love Karen's outfit (the red one) when she's learning parts (the Dimaggio read through) when she's meant to be meeting Dev for dinner

I was just thinking I wonder if a part of the reason Ivy loves Marilyn & seems to relate to her is because she doesn't want to end up like her mother? Interesting contrast how she's saying Marilyn lines about not wanting to be a thing or a sex object only to make herself one by sleeping with Derek. I really wish that didn't happen

Poor Karen not just that she had no one to support her but because Tom goes to Ivy. I love that Julia goes to talk with Karen

I don't mind the choice they made but I would have been happy either way. I am glad that both still get a part in the show to be involved with it

Love Julia's letter to the birth mother

I'm a fan of Carrie Underwood & I remember not being sure on the 'Crazy Dreams' cover when I first watched this ep. I can't help but compare the versions. Hearing it again I feel I like it more this time but still not sure. It does fit the episode/moment for Ivy though

airali_glo

I like live comments


I guess they wanted to highlight the difference with a 10 years ensemble dancer (Ivy). But it's fun, if you think about it now, because in the show we then saw always Karen dancing, never Ivy (I know it was because of Megan, but still).


I bet that wasn't the first time Derek had seen that scene



Same I also like that Derek wanted to help her.



I wonder that too. I guess it's probably true, since they always wanted us to see all those Marilyn-Ivy parallels, even though Leigh wasn't crazy. Think also about what Ivy says to her after the workshop.
Yeah it's not clearly a problem for her, and she didn't even know him well.


I love that too, Julia has always been nice towards Karen, especially because she had no friends there with her. Can you imagine if Ana was there, too? In the ensemble maybe? Ivy would have had a problem


I remember a lot of peopla criticised that storyline, but after all it wasn't that bad. It had a lot of space, that's it...but since Julia's character was supposed only to be a writer, no surprise they added a storyline like that. The other characters had the music stuff AND the personal one.


I don't know the original song, so I liked Ivy's But poor Karen, I wanted to hug her and I was like

shinebrighterxx

I might do it for the rest of the episodes as I'm watching them

That was the other thing I was thinking - we don't actually see a comparison of Ivy dancing. It is Karen who is shown doing the dancing. Silly comparisons to make it seem like Ivy is better & more experienced

Possibly not . He probably thought Jerry deserved it. I also think a part of it was just Derek's 'don't give a damn' attitude. He isn't one to react to something like that, he just goes along with things as if it is perfectly normal to see a woman throw a drink in a man's face. Then again maybe he has had his share of drinks thrown in his face too...

It all seems to make sense & fit together. Leigh may not be crazy but Ivy may have seen her that way or at least at times

Is it just me or does Ivy's parallels with Marilyn overshadow any Karen had?


That's true. I like that & the contrast between her & Tom. Tom will worship Ivy while Julia is willing to be nice to Karen. Yet they are a team. It just seems interesting & nice to me how that is done

It would have been so much better for Karen if Ana was there

I can see where the criticisim comes from, it didn't really fit with the rest of the show. However I like that it showed how someone could try to balance a life in two worlds & it meant she had a storyline just like everyone else. It wasn't all about the theater/writing for her. Plus it would have been boring to just see her go home to a happy family or just see her marriage fall apart. I like the other elements added in. It also doesn't hurt to make people aware of how difficult it is to adopt. Even, at least in Australia, just adoption someone in the same country is difficult & a long process



If you are interested I can see if I can link you to the original version to compare?

airali_glo

Yeah. Obviously I don't blame Megan - she'd wonderful anyway and I'm happy they chose her for Ivy - but I wonder why they didn't cast a Broadway actress who was also a dancer (like they did with Mara Davi on S2), since the character was also a dancer.

That would be nothing for him, he was stabbed by a jelous husband even


Ivy simply felt not enough, for her. I don't think she really thought her mother didn't love her, but surely she thought to be not like her mother wanted her to be.


I noticed that too. Karen's paralllels were more Norma Jeane related, I think, but they never focused on that. Maybe because she was supposed to be "too green"? Kat said that Karen tended to desappear next to stronger personalities and Marilyn definitely was such. But they could have showed more anyway. Derek saw Marilyn in her, he tells her many times. But we didn't have parallels clear as Ivy's.

I would have liked to see more about her similar to Norma Jeane, because Karen, like Norma, wanted to be in this business and worked a lot for it, but always without losing her integrity and dignity. The "sex" thing Derek often told her was similar to Norma Jeane thing. I read two books with Marilyn's words (it's her who tells her story) and she says she never focused on the sex. When she first married she didn't have any ideas about that, even! Like what to do, etc. Men obviously noticed her because of her sex appeal, but it wasn't a thing for her, really. She never did it on purpose, like 'I've to show them I'm sexy'.

They tried to add something like that with Karen, too bad that it wasn't enough. It was all about how Ivy was a sexy diva that could play better Marilyn because of that, but Marilyn wasn't just that. We didn't see a lot of the other side with Karen, I'd have loved to see more about this thanks to Karen.

It's also interesting, anyway, that we saw Karen rehearsing Marilyn moments with her men and always the not so easy/happy moments. Like in this episode, when Marilyn has a difficult moment with Joe. Or some episodes later, when she plays a Marilyn/Miller scene, after the miscarriage. These moments were subtle, because it wasn't easy to parallel with Marilyn (not closely)...but if you think about it, Karen had some difficult moments with Dev. She was the one in a relationship and it's also when she founds out that Dev had cheat on her that Derek says "now you have the heartbreaking".

If only! People could see her as Marilyn also because of the lack of parallels. She had even the less evident ones!


Same. After all she had a life outside theatre, too. Maybe it wasn't the best storyline, but always a thing anyway, those critics...when it wasn't about theatre they were like 'this is a show about theatre and who cares about those not-Broadway stories? We don't care, give us Broadway!'. But when it was all about Broadway they were like 'oh, it's not the reality! Why are they so stupid? Those things never happen/they're different!' so


Yeah, thank you

shinebrighterxx

I agree with what you said about casting a dancer That's exactly what I was thinking . Subtle parallels can be good but they should have made it more clear or not focus more on one having them than the other

What I loved was how both characters had different aspects of Marilyn. Honestly I doubt anyone could ever be her completely again. There will never be another Marilyn. But I do love how Smash's two stars both had different aspects, almost as if they were two halves of a whole & if you put them together you have the perfect Marilyn


You just can't please everyone, they will always criticise something



Carrie's "Crazy Dreams"

airali_glo

I guess only fans of Karen - so those who are interested in her - can notice those. With Ivy you didn't even have to think about it and often I found that annoying, because I felt like they were forcing audience to see how much Marilyn Ivy was.


This



The original song is more "energic", it's nice but I prefer Megan's I love voice/piano ballads and like that it feels more intimate. Ivy in that moment is more reflective, she's happy but I can't see her singing with that spirit

shinebrighterxx

They were or did at least seem to be


So do I normally. I think I'm just too used to the original & love it to appreciate Megan's as much