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If you're feeling "Gotta sing! Gotta dance!", we might just have the show for you....
Universal / 650 Minutes / 2012 / Unrated / Street Date: January 8, 2013
Just don't call it Glee. Smash, the new television series that chronicles the rigors and thrills of putting on a Broadway musical, definitely scratches the same itch that the Jane Lynch show does, but there's a lot more than just singing and dancing going on here. This Season One TV-on-DVD set pays as much attention to the behind-the-scenes elements of getting a major production to the stage as it does to the production itself
As we dive into the nitty gritty of a musical based on the life of Marilyn Monroe, Smash: Season One, we get all the back-biting and drama that you'd expect, as well as a fleet of familiar faces, most notably Debra Messing (Will and Grace) and Angelica Huston (Prizzi's Honor) as major behind-the-scenes architects of the event. It's basically two shows in one: the musical itself and what it takes to get the thing up and running.
Yet even with a setup as relatively intriguing as Smash's, this DVD set feels woefully familiar. TV can be both familiar and good, of course, but Smash feels contrived from its onset and never really concocts a singular feel for itself. The production design of the show is out of this world, and the elements of the Broadway show - singing, dancing, choreography - are top-notch, but its petty melodramas never gel in any sort of majorly fulfilling way. Smash is always watchable, but ultimately quite disposable.