Smash

Smash is a triumph.

Smash is excellent, a bar-raiser for broadcast networks.

Though clunky in places, at its best the series captures the essence of what the movie version of "A Chorus Line" didn't, providing an illuminating window into the creative process.

Smash introduces its winsome ingénue Karen (Katharine McPhee) to a headstrong young songwriter with hip Rent ambitions (rising star Jeremy Jordan, who headlined two real Broadway musicals last year). This subplot, like much of Smash, is cheesy and corny, but works when the impassioned singing starts. Which, for a musical drama about musicals, is what matters most.

Until, and unless, all the elements fall into place, it's more smush than smash. [18 Feb 2013, p.41]

You want to like it, because the rough patches stem more from high ambition than from shortcomings.

The way things are going, I would pay $100 if the purchase exempted me from having to watch any more of the show itself.