Review: Smash, S1, E12 – “Publicity”
Air Date: Monday, April 23, 2012, 10/9c on NBC
Rating:
Rebecca (Uma Thurman) is up to her old antics trying to replace songs with scenes, which highly annoys Tom (Christian Borle). And she befriends Karen (Katharine McPhee)—for what purpose I’m not quite sure. Derek (Jack Davenport) tells Karen he sees her as Marilyn in his hallucinations, admitting she should be the one playing the role. Leo (Emory Cohen) runs away, and Eileen’s (Angelica Huston) boyfriend and almost ex-husband come face to face. Such is the entertaining episode known as “Publicity.”
Karen is mesmerized by Rebecca's high profile life
You know the statement “Keep your friends close and your enemies even closer?” I think that’s what Rebecca is doing when she urges Karen to take the stage with the rock band, Cooper. She says she wants to hear her sing but it’s more like she’s assessing her competition. Rebecca should be scared—Karen’s voice is beautiful in her cover of “Run” by Snow Patrol. So I don’t understand why Rebecca volunteers Karen for Tom’s new song, “Secondhand White Baby Grand.” You get the feeling Rebecca truly likes Karen, especially her voice, but I just don’t trust her—not one teeny tiny bit.
A happy family in the Bollywood dream sequence; not so much in real life
So Leo disappears. I guess the stress of his parents’ impending divorce has finally gotten to him, but running away doesn’t solve a thing. I know he’s a teenager but he should know better than to worry his parents with such a stupid stunt. At least Leo’s disappearance isn’t for naught as it brings Frank (Brian d’Arcy James) and Julia (Debra Messing) back together in their shared concern for Leo’s welfare. I still don’t buy Cohen in this role. He comes across as too wishy-washy for my taste, and his character doesn’t ring true. Leo elicits no sympathy from me, nor do I feel any concern for what happens to him.
Karen and Dev are happy singing and dancing to "A Thousand and One Nights"
Although it doesn’t fit in with the serious nature of Smash, perhaps the most fun scene in “Publicity” is the dream sequence that takes place in Karen’s head as Dev (Raza Jaffrey) and Rebecca are arguing about his relationship with Karen over dinner in an Indian restaurant. As Dev begins singing and dancing Bollywood style in “A Thousand and One Nights,” Karen soon takes over and one by one, the relationships between and among all the characters in Smash play out in song. The set designers and wardrobe department should be commended for the bright-colored sets and impressive costumes, but what I liked the most was the singing and dancing. Who knew Jaffrey could move like that!?
Speaking of Rebecca, she gives Karen a lot of expensive clothing she’s gathered over the years from previous movies she’s been in. I wonder if Rebecca’s words, “He might be,” when referring to Dev being a problem, are prophetic. While Dev initially seems to be back to his loving supportive ways, by the end of the episode he realizes Rebecca is manipulating Karen, who is too green to realize what’s going on. Will her interference lead to more problems in their relationship?
Derek lays the law down to Rebecca
Rebecca is getting on everyone’s nerves, especially Derek when he finds her teaching stage manager Linda (Ann Harada) how to make her special smoothies. Eventually, Derek lets his temper fly when he goes off on Rebecca in a spectacular way. All I could think of when his tirade was over was, “Tell us how you really feel, Derek!” Man, it must have felt good to get everything off his chest!
Observations:
How cliché is Jerry's date?
Eileen takes Nick (Thorsten Kaye) to an artsy-fartsy kind of show where they run into her soon-to-be ex-husband Jerry (Michael Christopher) and his date, a stereotypically tall, leggy blonde. How cliché! I loved the banter between Nick and Jerry. It’s like a testosterone shoot-out, with each trying to one up the other. If you ask me, it’s 1-0 in Nick’s favor.
Tom in tears when he tells Sam (Leslie Odom Jr) Julia’s son Leo is missing touches my heart. I adore a man who isn’t afraid to show what he’s feeling. And speaking of Sam, aren’t he and Tom just adorable together?
I am beginning to like Nick more and more with each episode. In a tender and loving scene, he draws Eileen out, making both her and the audience understand why she’s with him.
Eileen: “You’re just so different from Jerry.”
Nick: “Yeah. What was that all about?”
Eileen: “Well, he’s angry that I finally left him and he doesn’t mind letting me know.”
Nick: “No, I mean why’d you love him? That mean streak, it’s not a new thing, is it?”
Eileen: “Well, I guess when you’re young, you see that as strong. You think that strength will protect you. You don’t think it’ll turn against you.”
Nick: “Well, you’re trading up.”
Don’t you just love that they end up in bed with each other?
Other memorable lines:
Tom to Derek: “You’re the director. Why don’t you…what’s the word? Direct!”
***
Derek to Rebecca about the paparazzi: “I want them gone…just call your publicist and get rid of them. And get your ass to my rehearsals on time. And stop messing about with your understudy. In fact, stop messing about with me! This show is going to Broadway, where it’s going to be a blinding hit. I am not about to let some stupid little movie star from Charlie’s parrish stop it, or me!”
**
Much to my chagrin, evil Ivy (Megan Hilty) is back when she uses Ellis (Jaime Cepero) to submarine Karen. Although I’m not fond of the way Ivy maneuvers herself into singing “Secondhand White Baby Grand” at the end of the episode, her performance is mesmerizing. Her voice has such sweet dulcet tones and the innocence of Marilyn comes shining through. But the song could just as easily have been written for Ivy instead of Marilyn when you examine such lyrics as “Something secondhand and broken still can make a pretty sound.”
From the promo at the end of “Publicity,” it looks like Karen turns down Dev’s marriage proposal, Julia wants out if Eileen succeeds in bringing Michael (Will Chase) back, and Randall (Sean Dugan) blocks Ivy from Derek’s apartment because Derek and Rebecca are inside getting ‘cozy’ with each other. I can’t wait!! How about you?
Tune in to Smash, Mondays at 10/9c, only on NBC.
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All photos © 2012 NBC Universal, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Linda
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