Smash - Season 2 Episode 6 - Recap and Review - The Fringe

Recap and review of Smash - Season 2 Episode 6 - The Fringe:

Here's the thing. I love Smash. Always have, probably always will. But we all know NBC is going to cancel it at the end of the season, so why must showrunner Joshua Safran insist on crafting a season-long narrative that produces episodes as clunky and ineffective as tonight's "The Fringe"? The episode somewhat continues last week's theme of whether it's worth it to be part of a Broadway project if you have to sacrifice your artistic integrity to do so, but where last week's episode was relatively insightful in its approach, "The Fringe" takes the idea to an extreme, by having Jerry (Michael Cristofer), with Eileen (Anjelica Huston) as his unwitting accomplice, change everything about Bombshell; a show in which we've spent roughly twenty-two episodes building an investment. And the changes are brought about for increasingly insipid reasons. Look, I get that Jerry being a total pill about every aspect of Bombshell's production is the point: he's the villain. But by pushing it as hard as they have, Safran and co. have essentially created another Ellis, a villain that doesn't inspire an audience-building lust for retribution, so much as he inspires audiences to just change the channel altogether. While the reimagining of what is more or less the best song in the show ("Never Give All the Heart") is portrayed as a brilliant new take on a stale old ballad, I actually found myself hating it. Much of the heart of the number was completely absent, presenting a Bombshell that is increasingly unrecognizable as the weeks go on. There's a strange sort of irony to this, of course. By portraying Bombshell as a sinking ship from which everyone is apparently bailing, either temporarily or permanently, the series creates an eerie parallel to how audiences have reacted to the series since season two premiered. I'll always love Smash, but I don't think "The Fringe" is an episode that's going to win any new converts.

Credit: Will Hart/NBC

Most of "The Fringe" focuses on the dual struggles to both preserve the spirit of Bombshell and to get The Hit List off the ground. Julia (Debra Messing) is at her wits' end when Jerry declares he wants to cut "Never Give All the Heart" in order to make room for "Public Relations," a choice that pours salt into the wound of Eileen having chosen the Tom/Jerry-backed version of the script, as opposed to her own alleged masterpiece draft. She's so miffed by Jerry's constant changes, and Eileen's puzzling support of the ex-husband she so fervently claims to hate, that she's tempted to quit the show altogether and go to London with Peter (Daniel Sunjata) to help him co-write a new show. Tom (Christian Borle) chastises Julia for wanting to quit simply because she didn't get her way, but for once, I found myself actually agreeing with one of Julia's ridiculous tantrums, as Jerry's changes seem to violate the spirit of the show she set out to do in the first place. Jerry's argument that "Never Give All the Heart" can't work because "It's too intellectual" is one of the most patently-absurd statements ever made on the series, and while it was likely meant to be taken this way, it doesn't dull the insipid nature of the conflict: Jerry is dumbing down Bombshell for populist concerns, yet the storyline is also dumbing down Smash in how it presents a thinly-constructed, one-dimensional conflict that doesn't hold much in the way of dramatic weight.

Credit: NBC

I will say this, however; Jerry's meddling gets the wheels turning in a way that bears fruit by episode's end. Derek (Jack Davenport), sick of having the show directed out from under him by Tom, and fed up with all of Jerry's changes, quits the show altogether. Despite Eileen's best attempts to win him back, Derek remains adamant in his refusal to return. Jerry's obstinacy even has Karen (Katharine McPhee) questioning whether she wants to continue in the show, as he refuses to allow her to appear in a low-budget preview of The Hit List that Jimmy (Jeremy Jordan) and Kyle (Andy Mientus) have put together in the basement of a run-down little theater.

Jimmy is furious that Karen has bailed on the production with only six hours before the first performance, which will have several important theater aficionados in attendance. The performance fails when the replacement bombs, and Jimmy suddenly can't stomach the sight of Karen anymore. However, the entire mishap has one benefit -- for Eileen, of all people. Karen runs into Ellis' ex-girlfriend, who mentions to Karen that he and Jerry had been working together on something. Karen relays this suspicious information to Eileen and does some digging around, discovering the evidence of Ellis and Jerry's collusion to steal the show out from under her. More determined then ever, Eileen decides she's going to keep things quiet until she has all her ducks lined up. In the meantime, she sets plans into motion for Tom to take over for Derek as director of Bombshell after his upbeat, flirty reimagining of "Never Give All the Heart" impresses at rehearsal. Julia is also rededicated to the show after Tom's compromises to satisfy both hers and his vision of Bombshell inspires her confidence anew. I love Tom, so his ascension to the director's chair is the best development of the episode, for me, as it promises a higher profile for Christian Borle, whose talents have been sorely wasted over the course of the series.

Credit: NBC

Things are even looking up for Derek, who commits himself to directing The Hit List once Karen comes to the rescue for the final preview performance, knocking it out of the ballpark in a duet with Jimmy, whom she convinced to set aside his anger to do the right thing for the show and its cast. The new song, "Heart Shaped Wreckage," is the perfect capper to the One Act preview, closing with a kiss between Jimmy and Karen, and eliciting a huge response from the audience. The number also gets the attention of the Manhattan Theater Workshop's musical director (Jesse L. Martin), who offers to buy Jimmy, Kyle and Derek a round of drinks while they discuss developing the show. But Karen, caught between the worlds of The Hit List and Bombshell, can't join them. Though, as she says early in the episode, The Hit List has reminded her why she wanted to be on Broadway in the first place, she has commitments that aren't so easily shaken. "I'm with Bombshell" she tells the musical director, disappointed and, seemingly, slightly embarrassed, when he asks her if she'll be appearing in The Hit List. Of course, I'd be floored if she didn't still end up with the lead in The Hit List before all was said and done, and we get Ivy (Megan Hilty) as the woman who should have been Marilyn from day one anyway, although where that leaves Liaisons is anyone's guess.

Liaisons is also in previews, and when Ivy's comical song kills it with the audience, Terry Falls (Sean Hayes) gets jealous and has her number cut. He explains to her that because he's the star, he has to be the best at everything: the most funny, the most heartbreaking, the most talented. Ivy breaks down at having her one bright spot in the entire production taken away from her. Terry, off his meds and incapable of understanding another person's emotions, confronts her about why she's so upset, and Ivy explains that everything about the show is terrible, from his comical take on the serious subject matter, to his own horrific acting choices. However, Terry isn't broken-up about Ivy's confession. He's actually relieved, and thrilled to receive such honesty from someone. "That's the most honesty I've gotten in twenty years," Terry declares, and decides to hold a workshop with the cast, with both he and Ivy encouraging them to voice their issues with the production. Once it becomes clear that they're free to truly speak their minds, everyone lets loose about how embarrassing and awful the show is, and with that, Liaisons begins its steady turnaround to actually being a respectable production. It's a nice enough storyline, as Sean Hayes is tremendous in the role, and Ivy's growth from young ingenue to straight-up pro is terrific. But it's also kind of insubstantial within the context of some of the more important developments in the episode. The business with Liaisons just doesn't feel of a piece with the rest of the show, perhaps owing to its aristocratic, French aesthetic. It just feels strangely out of place, and is one of the more problematic aspects of "The Fringe," though I'd argue that Jerry's meddling and Jimmy's increasingly self-important, entitled attitude made this a bit of a hard sit.

Credit: NBC

"The Fringe" is the worst episode of the season so far. For me, at least. But I can sort of see how it might have been necessary, in order to set up the conflicts and developments that were hinted at in the preview for next week, which really needed an episode like this to set them up. My issue is simply that Safran and co. probably shouldn't be writing stories that need lousy episodes like this to set them up. But who knows? Maybe the payoff will prove to be worth the set up.