Episode 10 of Smash sees Karen (Katherine McPhee) taking centre-stage – only to be replaced at the last minute by ‘the new Marilyn’ – movie star Rebecca Duvall (played by Uma Thurman.)
“It’s not that the creators can’t decide who will play the Marilyn role in the workshop production of Bombshell, the show-within-a-show at the heart of Smash. It’s that the creators of the show can’t decide who Marilyn herself actually was. Was she a genuinely innocent naïf who never tried too hard, as suggested in episode two? Was she a manipulative striver who only coveted public attention, as suggested by the musical number in episode seven? No one seems to know.
Last night alone we were presented with dueling versions of Marilyn: the baby who needed to be coddled by her directors, and the independent woman who stood up to them. I know that over the years the titular bombshell was many things to many people—including herself—but come on, make up your minds, people. There aren’t even this many cartoonish personalities in Modern Family.” – Vanity Fair