Smash
NBC | Release Date: February 6, 2012
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
72
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 55 Critic Reviews
Positive:
39
Mixed:
16
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
SalonWilla PaskinFeb 5, 2013
Season 2 Review: It is less accidentally ridiculous, and more knowingly, willfully campy, less pretentious, but also, for better and worse, less likely to include a Bollywood dance number. Read full review
60
Philadelphia Daily NewsFeb 5, 2013
Season 2 Review: NBC's Smash returns for its second season Tuesday still a work in progress. But at least there is progress. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesRobert LloydFeb 5, 2013
Season 2 Review: New show runner Joshua Safran has, in any case, declared himself a fan of the show, promising changes more surgical than wholesale, a promise disappointing in its way. Nevertheless, he has trimmed much deadwood. Read full review
60
Denver PostJoanne OstrowFeb 5, 2013
Season 2 Review: Much of the insanity that drove viewers to “hate-watch” the show in its first season has been scrubbed. Competence reigns. The results are mixed. Read full review
60
PopMattersMichael LandweberFeb 5, 2013
Season 2 Review: The problem is that the story in between the songs is still inconsistent and muddled. Read full review
60
Philadelphia InquirerDavid HiltbrandFeb 6, 2012
Season 1 Review: If musical theater gives you goose bumps, congratulations. You just got a front-row seat. If it doesn't enthrall you, Smash will strike you as almost unbearably tedious and pretentious. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsDavid HinckleyFeb 6, 2012
Season 1 Review: You want to like it, because the rough patches stem more from high ambition than from shortcomings. Read full review
60
TimeJames PoniewozikFeb 2, 2012
Season 1 Review: As an actual network drama--for me, the most important test--it relies too much on conventional showbiz plotlines and characters for me to get invested in it. Read full review
50
The Huffington PostMaureen RyanFeb 5, 2013
Season 2 Review: It's oddly disconnected from the idea of art as transformation, the show's characters are thinly drawn and it's usually fairly easy to see where the story is heading. Read full review
50
HitfixAlan SepinwallFeb 5, 2013
Season 2 Review: Even with all the changes in front of and behind the camera, Smash is fundamentally the same show with the same problems. Read full review
50
RedEyeCurt WagnerFeb 5, 2013
Season 2 Review: The addition of Chicago native Hudson is a masterstroke, but with all that other melodrama, Smash remains a hit-or-miss proposition for me. Read full review
50
Boston HeraldMark A. PerigardFeb 5, 2013
Season 2 Review: The musical numbers are competently staged, even if they often play like filler to underscore character montages. The plots mosey between drama and comedy and never hit their marks. Read full review
50
Boston HeraldMark A. PerigardFeb 6, 2012
Season 1 Review: You'll be left tapping your feet all right--wondering impatiently if there's any sparkle under this drudgery. Read full review
40
The New York TimesMike HaleFeb 5, 2013
Season 2 Review: There are not many signs that the show is taking a turn toward anything better--more realism, more audacity, less sentimentality. Read full review
40
VarietyBrian LowryJan 31, 2013
Season 2 Review: Cast changes and additions (a la Jennifer Hudson's new diva) can't obscure a skein whose soapy doings drown out its tunes, and where even the music often comes across as flat. Read full review
40
SlateTroy PattersonFeb 6, 2012
Season 1 Review: The way things are going, I would pay $100 if the purchase exempted me from having to watch any more of the show itself. Read full review
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