Peggy Mitchell-King

We watched the whole thing and it was painful. Ridiculous and very confusing story line, no chemistry between the two lead actors who seemed to be in two different movies, directed by two different directors, couldn’t care less about anyone in the story, and were rooting for the bad guys to kill off Vince asap so it would just be over. Best part was the NYC aerial scenery and the highway and subway scenes. Only real emotion felt was worrying about the actors getting run over on the BQE while arguing about something ridiculous in their underwear at night. That was scary!

Absolutely GREAT dancing by all…hence the 3 stars, but the ridiculous and unbelievable stories/relationships/casting/acting really hurt this series from being taken seriously - e.g., would not the cleaning lady be reprimanded/fired for videotaping classes, a definite no-no? Would Nicholas micro manage all of his funeral plans but do TBD on the coffin? Would Gael really select the boss’ conductor sister as his true love interest over Cheyanne or any of the other younger and prettier girls in the company given his relationship history? (Zero chemistry between them and she looks old enough to be his mother!) Would Tobias Bell really have been allowed to stop an actual gala performance to throw a fit about the ballet HE choreographed saying it’s all wrong AND have the formally dressed older audience stay and find his ridiculous interruption and mouthing off funny? No way! He’d be dragged off the stage and the curtain would come down immediately. By the end of the series, I either hated or felt sorry for every main character. Is this really what the writers wanted to accomplish? I doubt it. Positives?- aside from the truly excellent ballet dancing by ALL, loved that Lincoln Center, SAB, and Steps let you film there and also enjoyed the scenes at O’Neill’s Saloon/Baloon now PJ Clark’s- the real NYC ballet dancers’ favorite casual food place/bar. Some of the “in” jokes/asides (e.g., Gelsey in Maine) were ok for balletomanes but incomprehensible for anyone not in the ballet world (so few) and reinforces the “specialness” and elite quality of those who “get” them. Despite the wonderful dancing which absolutely stands on its own, this series did nothing to instill an appreciation for ballet or an understanding of the difficulty of becoming a success in ballet (dancer or choreographer) for the general TV viewing public. In fact, it pushed every possible negative ballet stereotype to the nth degree in super cringy ways. I can’t imagine anyone who doesn’t already love and understand ballet and its strange world wanting to rush out and buy tickets to an actual performance after seeing this series, assuming that was one of its objectives. Net takeaway? Ballet and the world it lives in is populated by weird, annoying, narcissistic artistes and is run by very wealthy old white people and their own nepo babies. As a ballet lover, one who wants ballet to survive and thrive in the future, the opportunity this series had to make ballet appealing to a wider audience was missed. I’m just sad….this series could have accomplished so much more.

Pretty complicated plot but overall held our interest throughout the entire 12 episodes that we binged in one night. Definitely watch it in its original language with English subtitles.