Smash Plot Question (Spoilers!)

Just got out of Smash, and while I laughed a lot, the question I can’t shake is:

What was with the pill addiction subplot?? Is that a reference to the series? I assume Susan Proctor is trying to get Ivy to become addicted to pills as like a “method” thing, but is that actually meant to be played for laughs? Like hahahaha she’s addicted to pills but don’t worry she can triumphantly kick her addiction by throwing away her bottle of pills in the penultimate scene!

Between that and Jerry’s alcoholism (??) which apparently was also meant to be played for laughs (???) it just felt so tonally inconsistent with the rest of the show, which felt kind of silly and campy. Ireally struggle to understand what they were going for there, or how seriously we were meant to take that.

Am I overthinking this? Can someone who “got that” enlighten me?