'Smash' Recap: Season Two Premieres; Julia And Eileen Are Humiliated

Smash kicked off its second season with a two-part two hour premiere Tuesday night on NBC.

The Smash premiere opens with some meta commentary in the opening scene of its season two premiere – a la Karen (Katherine McPhee) singing “I know I’ve kept you waiting/I know I’ve made you mad,” all dolled up as Marilyn Monroe. It also poked fun at Julia’s (Debra Messing) constant wardrobe catastrophes upon Tom’s (Christian Borle) insistence that she dispose of all her scarves of varying fabrics and patterns.

Who was notably absent from the premiere? That would be Karen’s cheating boyfriend Dev (Raza Jaffrey), Julia’s ex mister-ess Michael Swift (Will Chase), Julia’s pot-smoking son Leo (Emory Cohen), and that horrible assistant Ellis (Jaime Cepero). We can also expect Julia’s ex husband Frank (Brian d’Arcy James) to be among the missing soon, as the two are headed for divorce. The most notable new face is Jennifer Hudson, with Jeremy Jordan as Jimmy a close second. Hudson’s heavily anticipated debut on Smash did not disappoint in the slightest. She absolutely killed with her take on “Mama Makes Three” in a fitted red dress. Jimmy is bound to be the new heartbreaker, pulling off “Broadway Here I Come” beautifully while being kind of a jerk to deal with. He’s wary of Karen trying to help him get his musical made, but in the end he decides to let her.

Bombshell, the musical that was finally pieced together, gets modest praise from the critics from the review showings – except where poor Julia’s writing was concerned. She basically has a breakdown, which is totally understandable after getting ripped apart in both her public and private lives. Her new roommate Tom helps her pick up the pieces. Meanwhile, Eileen (Angelica Huston) gets publicly humiliated when it becomes apparent that she broke some laws getting Bombshell made. Further production has to be put on hold until all of that gets sorted.

Continuing the diva saga from last year, Karen hates Ivy (Megan Hilty) – like won’t share a cab hates, like won’t even be satisfied by having her as a backup singer and wants her on the streets hates. Still ongoing is the post-marital battle between Eileen and Jerry (Michael Cristofer). As was his great pastime last season, he once again interrupts her dinner to sit down to chat. However, he wants to keep Eileen out of trouble and Bombshell still getting worked on, so he gives her some money to keep it afloat. Derek (Jack Davenport) is feeling the repercussions of being a perpetual perv, and is trying to extinguish the sexual harassment allegations concerning his behavior. Also, the Karen-Derek-Ivy love triangle is unfortunately still around. — Chelsea Regan

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Smash will return for its third episode next Tuesday on NBC at 10/9c. Check out a clip from the episode below: