'Smash' Season 1, Episode 3 Recap - 'Enter Joe DiMaggio'

Here's the thing about "Smash": I love the aesthetic. I love the opening titles with the sound of a tuning orchestra and the tap of the baton. I even love the title cards for the name of the episode. The transitions into fantasy for the musical numbers are great, and the show is nicely shot and edited.

I love the aesthetic, I just don't like the show very much.

Now that the question of who will play Marilyn has been answered, the show has to take a new direction and get us to care about characters other than Karen, who is now more than a little useless as far as the plot is concerned. So instead of focusing on Karen's plight (she spends the episode at home in Iowa with her eyeroll-inducing parents and her even more insufferable karaoke-singing friends), we focus on the others involved in the production.

Ivy is concerned that she only got the part because she slept with Derek, and then continues to fret about the fact that Derek hasn't invited her over to his apartment (where, remember, Karen has already been). Julia is concerned because the actor who just got cast as Joe DiMaggio is Michael Swift, an actor with whom Julia had an affair. Eileen is concerned because the investors she was hoping to bag for the show are all her ex-husband Jerry's people, and they're not interested in doing business with her.

Of the three, the only one we really feel for is Eileen, because she's really the only one with a struggle here. Sadly, that whole plotline was ruined by Jerry's inhuman ability to find Eileen any time she has dinner with anyone, and the unfunny running gag of her throwing drinks into Jerry's face.

In fact, there continues to be little to no humor in this show, three episodes in. That's becoming a pretty serious problem. Any attempts at laughs are so meek that they're miles from eliciting a chuckle. Sometimes you even have to ask yourself if they were making a joke or not... case in point, the "Bruno Mars show" that I can only hope was an intentional jab at jukebox musicals.

But at the very least, most of the characters on this show are likable. That isn't true of Ellis, who is not only useless plot-wise but is also quickly becoming annoying. Like Julia, I find myself irritated by his presence and lack of anything to contribute except for ingratiating comments. This episode saw a bit of his personal life, including his Lady Macbeth of a girlfriend, and also saw him stealing Julia's notebook. Not sure what his master plan is, but I know I don't care and would prefer to see him fail.

Will things pick up? Maybe, but they'll have to do so quickly: there's a short episode order for this first season. This episode was wasted time, time spent giving Ellis ammunition against Julia when it should have been spent on the Marilyn show, or on Karen's career.

Shape up, "Smash." I like you, but you've been warned.