aFirst, the étoile appears to be shaped to become fame with the shoes of the voice. One character deliberately cites a speech, “This is where you start paying by sweating.” This is no problem. It’s wonderful. Because who doesn’t love the typical 80s series about high energy kids about high school students in New York City? The problem is that we are not sure what it is as new ventures of Gilmore Girls and amazing Mrs. Maizel creators Amy Sherman Palladino and Daniel Palladino are on the rise. Apart from Capital W’s Whimsical, an attitude that rarely works well for anyone.
Setup is easy. Two dance companies, Le Ballet National in Paris and Metropolitan Ballet Theatre in New York City, struggle after categorizing Covid and other modern pressures, such as anti-elitist attitudes and the extent of anyone’s terrible attention. So, if they traded choreographers with their top dancers and launched a huge promotional campaign about it, what if everyone abandoned YouTube and instead became interested in ballet?
Genevieve, head of the French company (Charlotte Gainesbourg, surprisingly unconvincing in her first television role), has already secured funds for the project. All she needs is that her ex-love and head of a New York company, Jack (Luke Kirby), agrees. Money is a manufacturer of weapons and chemicals, Crispin Chambre (Simon Callow (his four weddings and funerals give the twist of an evil billionaire), despite the money being lightly spied. But when you are the director of a ballet company who had to order a regular champagne flute at the bar (instead of a preferred etching) for cost reasons, what is the principle of Pacenick? Jack reluctantly agrees to the swap, and they launch a deal. “It has to happen! For ballet!”
The big draw is Star Ballerina Cheyenne Toussaint (Louderage). Of course, she’s fine and in her spare time she’s an ecowarior. So furieuse As for the swap, she sometimes shows up in Genevieve’s office to tell her straight from the protest on the fishing boat despite her trawler jacket and stink. Le Poisson! But there is a ballet liquor to consider, so she has to go. Instead of her, Misi Duplesis (Tis Vinoro) comes and returns to the maintenance of her hometown of France and her neglectful parents.
Added to the mix is unfortunate neurotic and choreographer Tobias Bell (Gideon Glick, who offers many of the comedies that work on the screen). He is sent from New York to Paris, where he is paralyzed by a lack of coats of arms of toothpaste and an unknown child of an unknown cleaner who practices alone at night using videos of lessons secretly recorded by his mother at night. Cheyenne discovers her, a bond is formed, revealing a golden heart beneath her vibrant appearance.
The étoile is… okay. It spends time. But it appears that everyone is acting on a slightly different show than everyone else, and that is between every possible stool. There are jokes scattered throughout each episode, but not as funny as comedy, or dramatic as dramatic (and Crispin gives Cheyenne that artists need to be needed to prevent artists from “floating on this path” to “floating on the ether”), or it’s well bubbled up.
Sometimes (see etched champagne flute), it seems to be aiming for satire, but perhaps because Sherman Palladino is the former ballet dancer himself and loves form – the stick is dull. We are clearly intended to eradicate a variety of characters, especially Cheyenne, but they are impossible to invest in. Delage makes great lines with apoptric rage, but this is all you do — and when you literally cower from you as you march through the studio — it gets a little bigger.
And there is all the whimsical parts of the bolt-on, like the bull used in production but not to face the principal dancer due to the red costumes that designers refuse to change. These things strip you of the simple charm show you need to make Palladino’s previous hits ape. The étoile may be a show about dancers, but you need to find your feet urgently.
