recent thoughts on Smash

1) I'm pissed that they killed Kyle. I know that even the characters on the show see it as shocking and unfair, but from a storytelling perspective, I feel like they did it just to give Jimmy a reason to straighten out and to bring Jimmy and Karen back together, which is shitty. He was worth more than that. How about having JIMMY-- drug addict/former drug dealer/all around shitty guy-- die, and then having Kyle and Karen dealing with their guilt over pushing him away, and Kyle dealing with trying to move forward in his career without him, and Karen turning to Derek for comfort and then realizing that she has just used him? I know that life isn't fair and that sometimes someone who doesn't deserve it at all dies suddenly, but again, from a storytelling perspective alone, wouldn't Jimmy's death create more opportunities for character development than this, when getting fired from Hit List could have been enough to make Jimmy realize that he needs to change, and when Karen had already pretty much realized that she still loves Jimmy even though she doesn't want to? I don't like it one bit. It seems like it gives a lot of characters-- Karen, Jimmy, even Tom and Julia-- an easy out for their recent behavior and their problems, like, "Oh, Kyle's dead, so now we should all come together and forgive each other," even though they've all done things that they need to deal with for real and face the consequences for. Yeah. Hate it.

2) Even though Derek is sometimes pretty oblivious and needs to have the obvious pointed out to him-- like Ivy basically telling him last night, "Okay, Derek. I get that nothing is happening between you and Karen NOW. I'm still hurt and insulted that you're only with me because you can't have her."-- I love that lately, he is the only one who consistently acts like a grown-ass adult. No, Karen, what happened between the two of you was not NOTHING just because you didn't actually have sex. And no, Karen, there is no reason that anyone else on Hit List needs to know anything about it. GOD!

That's all I care about. I still hate Tom.