Smash: Season 1
The "show within a show" concept gets a full-throttle workout in Smash, released here with all 15 first-season episodes on four discs. The many trials and tribulations involved in mounting a Broadway production, in this case a musical about the life of Marilyn Monroe, are depicted in creator Theresa Rebeck's TV series. But there's an operatic element here, too--soap operatic, that is, as the behind-the-scenes tumult is designed to be a good deal juicier than what happens onstage. Not that the legendary Monroe ("There was something about her," says one character.