(The Federalist)—Before I could even finish watching the first season of Étoile, the new ballet-themed show from Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino, Prime Video pulled the plug on it.
On paper, the decision to cancel Étoile seems surprising. After all, Amazon MGM Studios heavily touted its deal with Sherman-Palladino and her writing partner/husband, Daniel Palladino, after the success of their first Prime Video show The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. The studio spent millions on Étoile, which featured a huge ensemble cast and filmed in both New York City and Paris. But watch an episode or two of Étoile, and you won’t be surprised by the cancellation news at all.
None of the dialogue is particularly funny. None of the characters pull at your heartstrings. And despite being a show about saving ballet, Étoile and its creators entirely misunderstand why ballet is beloved.
Étoile bounces back and forth between many characters, but there are four main ones. Jack McMillan (Luke Kirby) is the director of a prestigious New York ballet theatre. Tobias Bell (Gideon Glick) is an eccentric choreographer working there. Genevieve Lavigne (Charlotte Gainsbourg) is the artistic director of a historic ballet company in Paris. Cheyenne Toussaint (Lou de Laâge) is the Paris ballet’s étoile, or star dancer. Hoping to reverse faltering ticket sales, Jack and Genevieve agree to swap their talent, including Cheyenne and Tobias. Chaos ensues.
There are a lot of dance movies and even dance television shows (Sherman-Palladino has made one before – her ABC Family show Bunheads was also cancelled after one season). Sherman-Palladino tries to break the mold by focusing on characters behind the scenes of ballet instead of on up-and-coming dancers. As a result, the show ends up being less about dance and more about marketing and fundraising. The dance sequences are beautiful, especially the ones set in the ornate Paris opera house, but they are few and far between. Étoile is not #balletcore escapism. Instead, viewers spend more time in offices and boardrooms than in rehearsal rooms.
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