Spoilers abound, so read at your own risk!
Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino walk the razor's edge between quirky and obnoxious. Even with the beloved "Gilmore Girls," there are moments — "Secrets and Loans," "A Vineyard Valentine," anything involving April — where the scale tips in the wrong direction and the show becomes borderline unwatchable. Their Achilles' heel is overwrought dialogue that exists solely to pop culture peacock, but they also have a tendency to favor vibe over plot and character development, which is my biggest gripe with "Étoile." When the credits rolled at the end of the finale, all I could think is
A successful dance show is Sherman-Palladino's white whale. Her first, "Bunheads" (co-created with Lamar Damon), was canceled in 2013 after one season on ABC Family. In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, the Palladinos credit their "13-year grudge" over that cancellation as the inspiration for "Étoile." Fueled by a love of ballet and a decade-plus of righteous indignation, I expected something fabulous: all the wonderful dance sequences from "Bunheads" combined with the Palladinos' characteristic quick wit and five seasons of prestige TV lessons from "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel." Instead, the result is a culturally out of touch cringefest full of two dimensional characters who lack chemistry and a gossamer thin plot that goes nowhere. This is my least favorite of their shows and I want to dig into what makes it so tough to watch, even as a longtime fan/apologist.
First, a reminder of the premise: the Metropolitan Ballet Theater (MBT) and Le Ballet National (LBN) are both in dire straits post-pandemic and need to do something to get asses in seats. Everyone's all "TikTok this, YouTube that, [reference made by someone who doesn't understand the internet here]," and live theater is suffering. Jack (Luke Kirby), head of MBT in New York City, and Geneviève (Charlotte Gainsbourg), interim head of LBN in Paris, decide to swap some of their dancers (and one obnoxious choreographer) in an attempt to drum up publicity. The rest of the show follows Jack, Geneviève, the characters from the swap, and an evil billionaire named Crispin Shamblee (Simon Callow), whose infusion of money gives him carte blanche for shenanigans. I was hoping for equal parts "Smash," "Fame," and "Center Stage," not a haphazard fuck-about begging for the fast-forward button.
About 25 minutes into E1, I could tell the tone was off and, while it got slightly better by the end, it remained distracting throughout. What I love most about the Palladinos is their immersive, dialogue-driven world-building. Give me a single line, spoken or written, and I can instantly tell it's them. Their shows are always a blend of comedy, drama, and generational trauma anchored by brunette heroines. All those elements exist in "Étoile," but the balance is off by enough degrees that you're constantly aware of how each piece fails to coalesce. I couldn't suspend my disbelief and fall into the story because I could feel the artifice behind it. No one IRL talks like a Palladino character, so for their writing to work, it must align with the other elements of the show.
When the setting is a fictional small town (Stars Hollow, Paradise) or a real place in a different time period (1950s/60s Manhattan), their style works exceptionally well. The Palladinos' pseudo-reality seamlessly takes over as the brain adjusts to their overcaffeinated pitter-patter. Setting "Étoile" in the present-day and shooting on location in NYC and Paris shifts my expectations as a viewer. Social media exists in this universe, along with a lack of (ethical) funding in the arts, environmental disaster, and other modern day political horrors. By alluding to, or directly engaging with, these topics, the Palladinos have forced me to consider how well they capture the current zeitgeist. There are no kooky town meetings or jiggle joints to act as a buffer between the world as we know it and the one where everyone's mainlining cocaine.
The whole thing reminds me of that scene in S5 of "Gilmore Girls" where Lorelai is shocked to hear Emily reference a conversation with Kirk: "The only reason I reacted to Kirk the way that I did is that he's not in this world, he's in my other world. It's as if I, out of the blue, told you I was having tea with Mrs. Van Uppity." Watching Cheyenne (Lou de Laâge) talk to Jack's dick at P.J. Clarke's is akin to Emily meeting Kirk for a fiesta burger at KC's Annex. These people do not belong in this place and seeing them there, spewing their exhaustive yip yap, throws everything off-kilter.
Another big issue I have is with the characters — their development, the way the show splits time between them, and some of the casting decisions. Technically, there are three protagonists: Jack, Geneviève, and Cheyenne, who all receive somewhat equal attention. Then, there are the secondary characters with their own surface-level stories that we are forced to slog through in order to get back to the slightly better shit. This tier includes Mishi (Taïs Vinolo), Tobias (Gideon Glick), and Gabin (Ivan du Pontavice). Other characters — like Susu (LaMay Zhang), Crispin (Simon Callow), and Nicholas (David Haig) —are given a moderate amount of screen time but used mainly to serve larger plots and stoke emotion.
By the end, the only character I was invested in is Cheyenne, and I was thoroughly annoyed by every storyline that didn't involve her. She's an amalgamation of Jess Mariano and Paris Geller at their surliest with the once in a lifetime talent of Midge Maisel. Some of her traits, like the Greta Thunberg-esque environmental activism, are poorly developed, but I'm predisposed to enjoy (and make excuses for) angry women. Her mother, Bruna (Marie Berto), is equally delightful, and brings to mind a morally gray Maurice from "Beauty and the Beast." Cheyenne's sustained interest in Gael (David Alvarez) is the only subplot that made me roll my eyes, although I'm similarly indifferent to her history with Jack. And ok, I also don't give a single fuck about the artistic director drama that will surely become the foundation for S2. Even the most compelling part of the show doesn't really stand up well to light scrutiny.
The other protagonists, Jack and Geneviève, are sketched out relatively well, I just don't believe either of them is competent enough to hold a position of power, so it's hard for me to take the whole ballet funding fiasco seriously. Both have proper backstories: Jack is a nepo baby set to carry out the family legacy, and Geneviève is an outsider who clawed her way to the top and probably won't be able to stay there (her position is temporary). The show wants us to root for them, but it's impossible to ignore how badly they suck at their jobs. They arrive at press conferences unprepared, fail to set proper boundaries with their employees, get ensnared in idiotic situations involving a bull, etc. By the end, I was rooting for Geneviève to get fired and for Jack to die at 45 like the rest of the men in his family.
As much as I love Charlotte Gainsbourg and Luke Kirby, I wish other actors had been cast in these roles. I'm inclined to believe that Camille Cottin, the actress originally cast as Geneviève, would have been a better fit than Gainsbourg solely because she's less well known in the US. When I look at her, all humor isn't zapped away by thoughts of genital mutilation (thanks, Lars von Trier). I'm not against seeing Gainsbourg in comedies as long as the style suits her; in the case of Étoile, she almost brought too much pathos to a role that's quite silly. She was giving me Virginie Efira in a Justine Triet movie when what I wanted was Katharine Hepburn in "Bringing Up Baby." Kirby's Jack felt like a Lenny Bruce redux. I'm not sure if this is his fault or the trappings of becoming a Palladino regular. To be fair, Kelly Bishop's Clara is basically Emily Gilmore 2.0. As an actor, it's tricky to differentiate roles when working with auteurs, especially when you're beloved/known for one character in particular.
For brevity's sake, I'm going to list my biggest issues with the wider cast of characters in bullet point form:
- As cute as it is, the relationship between Mishi and Bruna is unearned, along with the whole 'misunderstood by rich/important parents that I'm finally telling to fuck off' arc. "Gilmore Girls" did it better.
- The only point in Tobias's favor is his ex-boyfriend, Kevin (Jonathan Groff). If I wasn't a "Spring Awakening" fan, there would be nothing redeeming.
- Saul says Gabin looks like "a fuckboy you pick up from a Cirque du Soleil tour, not a dance star." The socially inept foreplay between him and Tobias was far too drawn out and by the time they actually kissed, I was over it.
- Susu should have been a more substantial role. The show starts with her, so it feels wrong that we know next to nothing about her by the end of the season.
- Nothing says, "kill the rich" like watching Crispin, an elderly chemical weapons manufacturer, prance around in a green headband and raspberry leotard during ballet class. I'm unsure if he's supposed to be obnoxious because his eccentric bullshit is not radically different from that of other characters we're meant to like.
Even if the characters and the tone were "Maisel" quality, I would still struggle to find value in a show about the magic of dance that doesn't make dance look all that magical. Aside from the final number, which features Sparks (making it impossible for me to be unbiased), I can't point to a single dance scene that knocked my socks off. All the other Palladino shows, even those that don't revolve around dance, feature at least a few memorable sequences. "Gilmore Girls" gave us the 24-hour dance marathon and Kirk's Lynchian freestyle to "White Lines"; "Maisel" has the TikTok viral telethon dance to "Pink Shoelaces" along with several memorable moments in the Catskills; I love many dances from "Bunheads," especially Jeanine Mason's (Cozette) "Cuckoo" solo.
In comparison, the dances in Étoile are something I'll never think about again. I don't see myself going to YouTube years later and watching the result of Tobias's stupid little impromptu choreographed dance that everyone is inexplicably fascinated by over livestream. I don't like how the dances are shot, either (long takes, static camera, audience POV). The Palladinos desperately want me to feel the fantasy but it's unachievable when the show's focus is suffocated by excess whimsy.
Do I recommend this show? No. Will I watch a second season if Amazon green-lights it? I'm a sick bitch, so probably.
