Amazon Ad

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

The Plan to Save Smash: NBC Execs Tout a 'More Consistent,' 'Edge of Your Seat' Season 2-TVLine



Here's an article by TVLine's Matt Webb Mitovich, which gives some scoop on Josh Safran's plans to change Smash for season 2 that NBC chairman Robert Greenblatt and the president of entertainment Jennifer Salke gave at the Television Critics Association’s summer press tour in Beverly Hills on Tuesday. Here's an excerpt from the article:



“We had some ups and downs creatively as the season went on, which is true of any [new] show,” Greenblatt conceded. Specifically, he said where the show disappointed — and hopefully where Safran will fix things — is in “the arcing of storylines and … going one direction with a character and continuing in a really interesting way with that arc.”

Greenblatt said that, even though Smash is slated for a midseason return, filming of Season 2 has already begun and “there are some great new storylines,” including the addition of Tony Award nominee Jeremy Jordan (Newsies) and American Idol alum/Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson (who appears in three of the first four episodes).

Speaking to the issue of inconsistent storytelling, Salke said that in a meeting with Safran, “[His] vision for the season… was so specific, you were on the edge of your seat. It just felt like there’s a real plan in place and things are coming together in a way that feels more consistent.”

As for the dropping of poorly received characters such as Ellis, Dev, Michael Swift and Julia’s hubby Frank — to which we suggested that Leo could very easily also be sent packing, perhaps to Micronesia — Greenblatt said, “It’s a big soap with a number of characters [and] at the end of the season, relationships end. You look at characters and evaluate whether they’re great characters or not.”



Link to the full article:Smash Season 2 Changes, Fixes, Preview - TVLine







My thoughts: As a Gossip Girl who has suffered through several years of Josh Safran's horrendous writing, I feel like I've earned the right to say that Josh Safran definitely isn't going to "save" Smash, if anything he's most likely going run Smash further into the ground just like he did with Gossip Girl. If Robert Greenblatt and Jennifer Salke honestly believe that Josh Safran is capable of having a specific vision for how to write for a TV show, then they have got to be smoking the world's strongest weed. The name Josh Safran should never be mentioned in the same sentence as the words "specific vision" unless a person is talking about Josh Safran not having a specific vision for how to run a TV show, because he doesn't.

I'll be beyond surprised if Josh Safran makes Smash better than it was last season. I could end up being wrong about this, but I'm guessing the show will get even worse than it was last season, the ratings will go down even more and Smash will be canceled by next May. I strongly suggest that anyone who reads this post should take the time to read some of the comments in the comment section of the original article, and you'll see that I'm definitely not the only one who thinks NBC choosing Josh Safran to be the new showrunner for Smash was a terrible idea. Josh Safran is one of the many reasons why I love 90210 more than Gossip Girl, which I've previously discussed in this blog post:90210: Even with its schizophrenic writing, I still love it a lot more than I love Gossip Girl (My thoughts on 90210 and Gossip Girl). To all the Smash viewers out there and all the NBC network executives, I'll say this: Get ready to experience Josh Safran's horrendous writing, because it really is horrible beyond words. Good luck, NBC. You're really going to need if you honestly want Smash to survive with Josh Safran being the showrunner for the show.

No comments :