To put it mildly, two fans of SMASH dissed me for watching it. One called it the most obnoxious thing she'd ever seen. This woman, my mother, watched the entire first season of SMASH and only disliked that Debra Messing had an affair.
Created by the great Amy Sherman Palladino, creator of Gilmore Girls, Bunheads is unsurprisingly driven entirely by quippy dialogue and female relationships. Every character on the show can reference a full range of pop culture and high culture. In the first five episodes, characters have dropped mention of everyone from Joffrey Baratheon (or should I say Joffrey Lannister) and Carol Burnett to Martha Graham and Waiting for Godot. And Kristen Wiig and Sylvia Plath and... yeah.
And the star, Sutton Foster, is one of the strangest actors to put on television. The woman is a Tony winner and is most definitely meant for Broadway, not a sitcom. Her faces and gestures have not been downsized from their stage size, and oh boy, does that lead to some jarring moments for the viewers. The grandma from Gilmore Girls is a lead as well, thank God.
Guys, this show is too weird for words. The girls who play the ballet students the show are just absolutely awful, the plot line is super weird, and the sets are clearly sets. The whole set-up for the show is ludicrous, and the dancers fit into the most stereotypical roles possible. I LOVE IT.
There's a dance number to that songs that goes "Istanbul, not Constantinople," you know what I'm talking about, and also one about recycling. I can't put these into words. So here's a video.
Also, the most recent episode was titled "No One Takes Khaleesi's Dragons." If that doesn't get you to watch, I don't know what will!
