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"Let me lay this on the line - I was not looking forward to watching this week&amp;#039;s episode of Smash. I did enjoy the first season in parts - I do think it got a worse reaction than it deserved, though there were clearly some serious problems there - but the first two episodes this year seemed seriously lacking. My expectations for this week&amp;#039;s instalment continued to be lowered with the opening sequence, in which Karen sings and crowdsurfs in a nightclub (it&amp;#039;s a fantasy sequence, of course, but it&amp;#039;s still really, really icky.) But maybe I was in a good, because after that moment I was really entertained by this episode.  Don&amp;#039;t get me wrong, Smash wasn&amp;#039;t perfect by any means and had plenty of eye-rolling moments. But compared to the first two instalments this season, I actually enjoyed myself - and it&amp;#039;s in no small part to the dramaturg of the title, Peter Gilman.  Eileen&amp;#039;s parachuting Peter in to help Julia with the book, much to her dismay, and Daniel Sunjata is a lot of fun in the role. I mean, Peter is clearly a douche (he talks about coffee way too much, and his wine-drinking group are unbelievably slappable.) But at the same time, you can&amp;#039;t exactly disagree when Peter points out all of the things that are wrong with Bombshell - I mean, did you ever want to actually see this musical?  Unsurprisingly, Julia takes this massively to heart but Peter is nothing if not a manipulator and tells her there was no &amp;quot;heat&amp;quot; in Bombshell - basically, it needs more sex. I mean, nothing about this is subtle - the producers might as well have raised a flashing neon sign reading &amp;quot;sexual tension&amp;quot;, and it&amp;#039;s a depressing inevitability that Julia and Peter will end up in bed together before long. But anyway, Julia plays right into his hands by writing a brand new Kennedy-Marilyn &amp;quot;sex&amp;quot; number (which, I&amp;#039;m not going to lie, feels a bit too awkwardly predatory). Peter can then smugly point out that she would never have written it without him, winning his place in future episodes. I know it&amp;#039;s annoying that he and Julia hate each other right now, and they&amp;#039;re clearly going to end up having a torrid affair, but I welcomed Peter&amp;#039;s new take and smarmy personality.  Elsewhere, the other main thrust of the episode concerns Karen&amp;#039;s determined efforts to make Derek meet young upstarts Kyle and Jimmy to discuss their musical. Derek&amp;#039;s a bit preoccupied, though, considering his job on The Wiz is in doubt following all those pesky sexual harassment allegations. He actually wants to show one of the producers a musical number from Bombshell, but the kibosh is put on that by Julia who forces him to try out the new sex song instead. Considering the fact that Derek has never been one to back down - and considering his job is at stake here - I&amp;#039;m not exactly sure why he didn&amp;#039;t fight back more apart from the way it helped the episode develop. And I&amp;#039;m also not sure what exactly the Wiz producer found quite so offensive about the number, which was incredibly tame (Kennedy slipped off her jacket!) Still, it&amp;#039;s the impetus that Ronnie needs to quit The Wiz and decide to throw a one-night-only concert to prove that she&amp;#039;s got a little edge. Sure. Incidentally, Jennifer Hudson is woefully unserved here, with only a tiny showcase of her stunning voice in this episode.  But while Derek&amp;#039;s got other things on his mind, Kyle&amp;#039;s getting over-excited about their meeting, even though the book currently consists of disorganised papers hastily gathered together. I really, really, really could have done without Jimmy&amp;#039;s quest to find his old notebook - with all-important script in there - which came complete with a scuffle with an abusive figure from his past. I get that it&amp;#039;s necessary for Jimmy to have a &amp;#039;heavy backstory&amp;#039; (not just to explain why he&amp;#039;s such a tool, but because it emerges later that his musical is entirely based on his life, obviously.) But when it comes, it&amp;#039;s really skated over, and just feels superfluous. Inevitably, Derek and Karen end up standing up the young playwrights so Jimmy turns up at the Bombshell rehearsals to bitch and moan and storm out. Luckily for him, Derek still hasn&amp;#039;t managed to snag Karen, so in an attempt to get in her good books he agrees to go to Brooklyn with her to hear Jimmy and Kyle out. Jimmy is angry, until he isn&amp;#039;t anymore (seriously, this is all smoothed over more quickly than you can even comprehend.)  To be fair, I&amp;#039;d much rather see Kyle and Jimmy&amp;#039;s musical Hit List - about a hard-done-by kid whose songs are stolen by a rising wannabe popstar - than Bombshell. But the more they talk about it, the more you realise that we&amp;#039;ve seen it all before... in Smash itself. Seriously, a guy with a tough past? Jimmy. A guy whose songs are stolen by a young, ambitious woman? Um, didn&amp;#039;t Karen do that last week? But still, Hit List kind of sounds like fun, and suddenly Derek is on board and asking for beer. But one reason that this episode wasn&amp;#039;t quite as good as it could have been was that Ivy - like Ronnie - did not have anywhere near enough to do. She talks her way into an audition for the lead role in Liaisons and, after some coaching from Tom, lands it. So that&amp;#039;s what she&amp;#039;ll be doing for the foreseeable future, I suppose. Mind you, she did have a fabulous moment - she goes to Derek for advice, only to find him working on Bombshell rehearsals with Karen. The staging of her melancholy cover of &amp;#039;Dancing On My Own&amp;#039; works really well in the moment, and seems like a turning point for Miss Lynn (however unsubtle). I do feel like Girls has ruined the Robyn song for any other television show considering how brilliant that season one scene was, but Smash turns in a valiant effort.  In fact, that&amp;#039;s how I view most of this episode - the show&amp;#039;s not brilliant, yet, but at least this instalment had a lot of fun moments. It&amp;#039;s the little things - Julia and Tom&amp;#039;s sunglasses espionage before meeting Peter, for example - and if it can keep that up while retaining the much faster pace and rollicking ride of this episode, things will be on the up. Smashed   &amp;quot;Dramaturg&amp;quot; is a funny word.  Oh my God that new title sequence is hideous. Hideous! And of course they have Anjelica Huston throwing a cocktail at the screen.  I liked Karen a lot more last season - when other people tended to dislike her, it seems. This time around, she&amp;#039;s a little insufferable in many ways - suddenly smug, and her little victory dance when Derek agreed to meet Jimmy and Kyle was infuriating.  Julia&amp;#039;s defence of her &amp;quot;perfect teeth&amp;quot; was quite good fun.  Julia and Peter&amp;#039;s back-and-forth - even if it just set-up for their eventual romance - was good fun. &amp;quot;Did you just call my book shallow?&amp;quot; &amp;quot;No, not at all. Two dimensional, maybe.&amp;quot;  Also: &amp;quot;Was there anything that you liked?&amp;quot; &amp;quot;I think Marilyn Monroe is an interesting subject for a musical.&amp;quot; BURN.  &amp;quot;It was Boston.&amp;quot; Sorry, Bostonites - apparently you&amp;#039;re uncultured buffoons who will cry at anything.  &amp;quot;Russell Crowe is more collaborative! North Korea is more collaborative!&amp;quot;  Did anyone else feel like the new Bombshell song made out Kennedy to be insanely creepy? At least Peter points out that Marilyn&amp;#039;s meant to be the predator, but still, it just made me shudder a little.  Tom&amp;#039;s muttered repetition of Peter&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;ergo&amp;quot; made me giggle.  Peter wants to get rid of the shadow selves. Oh no, how am I ever going to get over this?  I love that Derek put his hand out for a beer and Karen completely ignored him in favour of Kyle and Jimmy.  What did you think of the episode? Let us know below! 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<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/smash/review/a460179/smash-the-dramaturg-recap/>