Bombedshell

In case you missed it - and based on ratings, pretty much everyone has - NBC moved Smash to Saturday nights a few weeks back. Not surprisingly, ratings have not improved and the move is pretty much a burn off. So how did a show that premiered with much acclaim in the coveted post-Super Bowl slot tank so quickly?

1. Too much too soon. For every character we were given a full professional and personal story, shoehorned into whatever space wasn't involved in a musical number. For every giggle we got from Eileen throwing another drink in Jerry's face, we had to suffer through Julia's interminable family dramas and Karen's boringly doomed relationship with Dev. Better to have focused on the relationships with a more direct tie to the show: Eileen and Jerry's divorce (which put Eileen's ability to produce the show in jeopardy) and Derek's pursuit of every leading lady he encounters.

2. Do you know how long it takes to get a show to Broadway? No? Neither does the show. We've heard on more than one occasion that it takes years to get a show to Broadway, but somehow Bombshell is violating the laws of space and time to get to its premiere. Even though it's had three different actresses in the leading role, has had a rewrite of its book, two different producers, and was shut down for a time during a Federal investigation. But if Karen could learn a new song in five minutes while the show was testing in Boston, anything is possible.

3. Lousy new characters. I'm thinking here of our Hit List duo, one who is so tormented by his art that he's a complete dick, and the other a total wuss. I have less of a problem with the latter (countless careers have been cut short due to a lack of confidence), but the former, yikes. To be that much of a jerk, and to have almost no explanation as to why he's that way, is a recipe for creating a character that has zero appeal. And then to have the show's one remaining romantic story line be between him and Karen? I was kind of hoping that when he went missing that time that he would never come back.

4. Ellis. Just because.

There are certainly other problematic things to point out - Ivy's sudden and out of character turn to pills, for example - but it would get to piling on fairly quickly. Smash should have been a smart, adult alternative to Glee (itself an example of "who needs a coherent plot when we've got songs!"), and it showed that promise in the pilot, but couldn't keep things going. Maybe it takes years to get a show about Broadway to the small screen?