At The Fall (Television Review: SMash S2E2 The Fallout)

"The Fallout"  is technically the second episode of SMASH for the second season, and was shown as the second half of the two hour premiere last night. It was seamlessly transitioned. We get more of Jimmy Collins (Jeremy Jordan) . Karen has gotten obsessed with Jimmy's music, based on that one song she heard him singing late one night. He seems to be resisting, though. and it's a puzzlement. He is a struggling bartender and this is a chance for his music to be heard, but he doesn't want someone with connections to hear it? Jordan is a good enough actor to pull it off - he mixes some charm with his darkness that you believe. And what of "Bombshell"? Looks like the Fed got involved, but they can continue rehearsing, if they can get a theater. And Harvey Fierstein does a wonderful two scene cameo, with him stopping Tom in the street for theater gossip (yes, that happens all the time with the theater folks, and I am not being sarcastic) and it's such a bitchy, real cameo (including the red backpack he carries around) that it instantly became my favorite scene from last night's episode. There's the bit of subplot about Ton and Julia being "invited" to speak at the Theater Wing event (Harvey calls it "Theater Wing Ding Thing") and it was kind of funny, ending with them "manipulating" to perform a number at the event. Totally unbelievable, but ultimately forgivable, if only we get to see Megan Hilty perform "They Just Keep Moving The Line,"  knocking it out of the ballpark. People keep on talking about Jen Hudson, but I still think Megan Hilty is better - she is a much better actress than both Hudson and McPhee, for starters. Karen tries to sing a song at Jimmy and Kyle's Brooklyn party, which oddly reminds me of a scene from "Girls." (I half-expected to see Andrew Rannell's Girls character to be a guest) I liked that song, "Caught In The Storm," and I liked how it sounds very different from Marc Shaiman's songs, but still sounding theatrical. Somewhere amidst the episode was a fantasy sequence with Derek imagining girls dressed as Robert Palmer back-up dancers (in hot pink stilettos) singing the Eurythmics song "Would I Lie To You." It was such an unexpected camp moment, and I enjoyed it immensely. It brings just the right punch of humour in last night's pretty soapy premiere. There's hope for the show, and I will be watching every week.