The Televangelist: How Smash Shatters the Reality of Relationships

Last updated on: February 24, 2012 at 7:15 am by Richard Clark

The Televangelist: How Smash Shatters the Reality of Relationships 2012-02-24T07:15:42-07:00 Richard Clark

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Each Friday in The Televangelist, Richard Clark examines the met and missed potential of television.

Smash, NBC’s financially high-risk attempt at bringing back the prime time drama, is packed with generic flourish, founded on spectacle, and rife with low-key relational drama. An adult-centered answer to Glee, it’s half musical, half high-budget soap opera centered around the production of a Broadway musical. Conversations don’t crackle as much as they creak, forcing groans from the audience more often than genuine surprise and laughter. The music is recognizable, but covers of existing songs fall markedly flat because of a general noncommitment to any single musical theme or aesthetic. It’s a great show that too often settles for incredibly stupid. And yet here I am, watching this show every single week. I stay because of narrative desire, because I’m drawn in by the spectacle.

I can promise you it has nothing to do with a harmless crush I have on Katherine McPhee.

I absolutely will not indulge myself by waxing poetic about Katherine. That would be beneath me to write, beneath you to read, and beneath this esteemed Web site to host such nonsense. Still, that crucial factor — a vague attraction to an unknowable person — guides the viewing habits of many of us. It may not be the reason that guys watch Smash, or girls watch Twilight, but it’s there. Admit it.

Smash doesn’t so much acknowledge this fact as much as it exploits it and builds a foundation on it. The world of Smash, made up of creatives and their unenlightened satellites, is full of little more than power grabs and baseless crushes. It’s a show that casts every dark moral area in a shade of gray, encouraging us to glide along mindlessly as its stars act like grade schoolers, crushing on one another and bullying one another, then waking up the next morning and doing it again. The few struggles these characters have with these moral choices are merely pragmatic in nature. In a world of creative people with dreams, and family members and friends living vicariously through those dreams, all that matters is whether or not those dreams are achieved.

The show presents us with a series of illogical choices, of dreams that are built on the nightmares of others. Two girls ruthlessly compete for the part of Marilyn Monroe. One girl finds it reasonable to sleep with one of the decision makers. She and her friend discuss the decision as if it is a discussion about the artistic merit of Transformers. It’s not a value judgment as much as it is an issue of taste. Smash, in its commitment to the surface and its refusal to go deeper, fails to acknowledge casualties in any way that truly calls the root of this chaos into question. When a married woman admits to an affair she had two years prior, her husband and son sit in her house, unknowing and content. The only casualty is her free spirit — she struggles briefly with guilt. A desire to return to the man she encountered two years earlier lingers.

Meanwhile, Katherine McPhee (she might as well be playing herself) visits home, feeling frustrated that her parents don’t understand her attempts to become an actress. That is quickly remedied when her dad admits to staying out all Saturday night skulking around in a bar in order to finally catch a glimpse of his daughter performing karaoke. Her mom notes, “He missed church this morning too, apparently he was out late last night.” This so-called “church,” this “mother” and this “father” are about as real in this world as the car full of props posing as friends who drive up just at the right moment screaming, “Come on, Broadway baby! Got to get you back to the big time!” without any sense of irony.

Even Glee found ways to nuance these things in a way that seemed true to life. Smash, on the other hand, whether on purpose or otherwise, trivializes any other aspect of life beyond our ambitions. This is a show about our crushes and our dreams: projections of our perfect life, our perfect mate, our perfect friend, our big chance. They are glorified and codified into a simple mantra: If you want it bad enough, you chase after it. To hell with the naysayers and unbelievers. All those things in the way — people, belief, reality — those are merely obstacles.

Asides

Television

The Televangelist

Previous Post

February 23, 2012

The Moviegoer: Oscars 2012 Preview

Next Post

February 24, 2012 Sacred Space: A Plea for the Persecuted

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Asides Elsewhere Featured Film Games General Culture Headline Literature Music Of the Moment Podcast Politics RetroPost Sports Technology Television Uncategorized Viral

Select a Month February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz