'Smash' Review: 'Glee' Redux, or Something More?

"Sometimes dreams are hard," pipes Katharine McPhee as struggling actress Karen Cartwright in a scene from NBC's "Smash." Yes, and sometimes writing good dialogue is hard.

That's not to say that writer Theresa Rebeck (who happens to be a fine playwright) doesn't have some good things going on in  "Smash": there are a few scenes that are diverting, and the story has been set up nicely with a clear conflict and without stepping too far into obvious archetypes. But the dialogue in the first episode can be clunky at times, lacking in subtext and rendering the characters less than believable.

Of course, this is a pilot episode, and pilots always have the added responsibility of mucking through a mountain of exposition, telling us who these characters are, why they are where they are, why they act the way they act, what their goals are and how they plan on getting them. Sometimes, there comes a point where you just have to spit it all out.

Thus, the first 20 minutes or so of "Smash" are a bit rough. We have to learn that the aforementioned Karen is a struggling Broadway actress with a loving boyfriend and parents who are just a little disappointed in her career choice. We have to learn that Julia (Debra Messing) is a musical writer who is also in the middle of an adoption with her husband, who wants her to be at home more, but she wants to write a musical about Marilyn Monroe with her writing partner, Tom. We have to learn that Eileen (Anjelica Huston) is a producer hell-bent on getting this play produced, but her divorce might dissolve her production company. We have to learn that Derek (Jack Davenport) is a difficult but brilliant director, which is accomplished through other characters saying, "He's brilliant!" and, "But he's difficult!" for ten minutes. And we have to learn that Ivy (Megan Hilty) is another struggling (but not so much as Karen) actress who is vying for the role along with Karen.

Yeah. It's a lot. So the on-the-nose, exposition-filled dialogue is a bit more excusable.

Speaking of Megan Hilty, she stands out in this cast as a true entertainer. Her Broadway background makes her musical numbers a delight, even though there are times you wish she wasn't stuck doing a Marilyn impression and could really belt it. The brewing competition between her character and McPhee's sets up for what could be a deliciously drama-filled plotline, and you can easily see Hilty making a heck of a sympathetic villain.

Katharine McPhee, whom you might know as the runner-up from season five of "American Idol," clearly has talent. She's beautiful, she can sing, and she's not a bad actress either. However, to believe her as the undeniable star that Derek sees her as, we're going to have to see a lot more out of her. Yes, she sings Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful" very nicely. But it's a pop number, complete with the kind of runs and embellishments that you would hear on "American Idol," but not in a Broadway musical. Thus, to believe her playing Marilyn over Hilty could prove to be a bit of a stretch.

Most of the musical numbers in this episode go to Hilty anyway, though, as Ivy is on board with the Marilyn production from the start. What we end up with is a mix of covers (the aforementioned "Beautiful" and a snippet of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow") and original songs, all of them from the Marilyn musical. One has to wonder if that's a sustainable model: eventually they'll run out of songs from the musical, and the characters will have to be singing their feelings out of a performance context, which is a whole new level for the audience to buy.

But already, the show has some advantages over "Glee." First of all, these musical numbers are positioned within the episode at points that make sense, as they did when "Glee" began. Since then, "Glee" has gotten a bit lazy and thrown musical numbers in wherever and whenever they feel like it, having characters force their friends to sit down and listen to them sing with little or no context. "Smash," therefore, wins in the context department.

The other advantage "Smash" has over "Glee" might also be its greatest weakness, and that is this: the show takes itself very seriously. While "Glee" always has a wink of irony to it, "Smash" is a straight-up, unapologetic musical theatre orgy. As a result, when characters dream of being a Broadway star (or are told that they're a star) on "Smash," you believe it. On "Glee," it always seems just a bit delusional, especially considering the youth of the characters. There's a lot that happens after high school, kids.

The downside to this is that there's little to no humor in this show. There are attempts at it, but not a single moment that makes you chuckle. Then again, this is a drama and not a comedy like "Glee," so there's some excuse there. But hey, even "Mad Men" can be funny sometimes.

While it borrows much of the same format, it's clear that "Smash" does want to distance itself from "Glee" a bit. The musical aspect of the show is played less as a gimmick here, and more as a natural result of the fact that the show is about putting on a musical.

Like the Marilyn musical being created in front of us, you have to wonder if "Smash" is really such a big deal, or if we're just being told that it is. There's certainly room for growth, and it's always tough to judge based on a pilot episode. But if "Smash" can learn anything from "Glee," it is this: tread carefully going forward. And for goodness sake, have fun with it.

The entire pilot is available for free on iTunes & Amazon, so you can watch it for yourself and let us know what you think!