So, last year I started watching SMASH, and I admit it was largely because of some kind of TV crush I've had on Katharine McPhee ever since I really liked her on American Idol (which show I gave up on long ago, which abandonment probably had its roots in Katharine's absurd loss to lame Taylor Hicks). The premise was kind of interesting to me, and the music was written by the writers of Hairspray and Catch Me If You Can and Down With Love, and when I started watching it I mostly really liked it because it seemed slightly similar to Glee except with much more original music (which was actually really good) (yes, you should click on those and listen to them), and less inappropriate behavior among high school students (pretending to be something it's totally not and appealing to an unsuspecting demographic), and also a lot less stupidness (or at least different kinds of stupidness) not to mention (for the most part) an actually talented cast. So, the bare minimum of things that are actually worth watching on Glee, but then also not really like it at all. Then the show started to really turn some weird directions and have some pretty rotten content and contrived drama (I know, right? On a TV show?? The very idea), and some of the characters/actors were truly quite revolting, and some of the storylines were so absurd and pointless, but for some reason I couldn't quite pinpoint I just kept watching, and from the buzz on the interwebs, I'm not the only one who was sucked in and just had to keep love-to-hate-watching it. But word is that there are a lot of changes being made for Season 2, including some of the main higher-ups/writers/producers/etc. and it's supposed to be much better. I'm not sure that I'm actually expecting much improvement, but you never know, and nowadays there's ever so little worth watching on TV anyway that I might as well hope it turns out okay, right?
ANYWAY, the point of this whole post is that Season 2 starts today (mid-season shows, I don't know), and that has prompted me to finally post something I've been meaning to for many months, and it is THIS:
Yes, that. It took me by complete surprise when it was happening. It's the best thing that ever happened to the show, and ever since that episode I kind of couldn't get this song out of my head. And now that it's on my iPod, I can sing along to it any time I feel the need (right, Wife?? You know you love it... I mean, right??). A lot of it is references to the characters and what's going on at the time, but I think it's still enjoyable even if you haven't been following the show. I'm not even HUGE into Bollywood, but I DO love a good flashy musical number. (And never mind that people were complaining that it's an Indian number named after an Arabian story. Who cares?)
So I guess I'll keep casually watching to see what happens, especially since there are a couple new cast members that look promising, even though they're writing out one of the only truly (relatively) decent characters, who, as it happens, is prominently featured in the video above. I still think KPhee is watchable, and most of the music is pretty good. But mostly the original music. The covers are meh.
UPDATE: Yes, erm, I may or may not have listened to this like ten times today (so far...) in the course of writing this post... Oh me.
So...you DO know? Or you don't? You're so changeable.
ReplyDeleteI may have to check out this show now, just because of the Bollywood number. I'm not hugely into Bollywood, but I do love a good Bollywood number or parody. :)
ReplyDeleteOh yes, it's a very good one, and I think it's actually a better song than those in most Bollywood movies. But I should warn you that this is the ONLY Bollywood number that has been on the show, so it's not like they happen all the time. They feature different styles of music, this just happened to fit the context of a scene when one character had a sort of musical fantasy moment.
ReplyDeleteIt may be that the page isn't loading right for me (especially since it looks like others listened to it just fine), but I don't see a video or music player or anything on the post. Good think I already have this song in my iTunes. I guess?
ReplyDeleteEurgh, stupid thing keeps deleting the HTML embedding code! Why?? No good reason. Anyway, it's up there again (for now...).
ReplyDeleteBut HAVE you seen Bride and Prejudice? That was almost a copy of a scene in that movie. I always love a good Bollywood number. But still, I won't watch Smash. But speaking of shows that I kept watching long after I shouldn't have, once on 30Rock Liz says, "I can commit! I'm still watching SMASH!" And I laughed.
ReplyDeleteYES, I have, and NOOOO, this is WAY better than any of the numbers in that! Mostly because it was written in the style of Bollywood, but not BY Bollywood writers. So it's better, ha ha. But I'm surprised you gave up on it, you watch anything and everything!
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