S01.E03: Class Act

[peachmangosteen]

Quote

A fundraising gala sets the stage for drama, as Nabil stirs suspicion and Bette makes a scene. Tensions between Oren and Shane hit a breaking point.

Airs December 14th.

[tennisgurl]

Everyone on this show is so dramatic and teetering on the verge of a breakdown, you almost don't need a cop to body slam a teenage dancer at a fancy gala event for shit to explode. 

Most of the actors are either good or passable, but the guy playing Oren is really bad, to the point of it really taking me out of his scenes. 

[peachmangosteen]

22 minutes ago, tennisgurl said:

Most of the actors are either good or passable, but the guy playing Oren is really bad, to the point of it really taking me out of his scenes. 

I had said that the Naveah actress was the most embarrassing but then I realized that Oren takes the cake lol. I do think he got better though and he just seems so earnest, which I always appreciate.

[meatball77]

I think the direction is just bad.  Brand new actors who don't have a lot of experience doing dialog with bad writing and without a director to pull good performances out of them.

[zenithwit]

I spent way too much time during the dancing for the tourists scene noticing that you can't actually see reflection of the crowd or the dancers in the Bean.  I get that it probably wasn't filmed on location but that small detail really took me out of the scene.

Also, why would two ballet dancers choose to do hip hop in Millennium Park?  Those dance moves would not draw a crowd that large in real life.

[In2You]

6 hours ago, zenithwit said:

I spent way too much time during the dancing for the tourists scene noticing that you can't actually see reflection of the crowd or the dancers in the Bean.  I get that it probably wasn't filmed on location but that small detail really took me out of the scene.

Also, why would two ballet dancers choose to do hip hop in Millennium Park?  Those dance moves would not draw a crowd that large in real life.

Those were like the only scenes actually filmed in Chicago for this show. 

 

[lucindabelle]

The cop staying on this case is beyond ridiculous. As the other cop said it’s not even a homicide. 

[Lovecat]

On 12/19/2020 at 1:29 AM, meatball77 said:

I think the direction is just bad.  Brand new actors who don't have a lot of experience doing dialog with bad writing and without a director to pull good performances out of them.

Fun fact:  This episode was directed by Joanna Kerns, who played the mom on Growing Pains.

On 12/24/2020 at 3:10 PM, zenithwit said:

I spent way too much time during the dancing for the tourists scene noticing that you can't actually see reflection of the crowd or the dancers in the Bean.  I get that it probably wasn't filmed on location but that small detail really took me out of the scene.

I was looking for the cameras, LOL!  

This show is ridiculous.  I honestly don't know whether Shane's Angsty Underwear Dance on Rooftop was the highlight or lowlight of this episode.  Will I keep watching?  Oh, yes.  Yes I will.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I like that in addition to getting the ballet terms and critiques correctly, the show is also making sure that the other technical things like the lighting discussions about gobos. It takes so little effort to get those details and there are still so many shows/movies that don't bother.

I could not believe that June was talking about trying to get emancipated so that she wouldn't have to move back to New York and attend (gasp!) public school. As Bette pointed out, how would she pay her tuition and dorm costs? A judge isn't going to grant you emancipation based on "I'll figure it out later." One of the things that's required for emancipating a minor is that they have a legal source of income. Unless she has some sort of money that's hers alone (like maybe a trust fund from her grandparents), she doesn't have the means to support herself so no judge would emancipate her. "I don't want to move to a different city and go to a new school" isn't going to convince a judge to legally emancipate a minor. I know Bette was just deflecting because June brought up Bette's dad being a lawyer, but Bette wasn't wrong. I'm waiting to see if Bette's parents are separated but they are keeping it a secret for the sake of appearances or if he has a secret family in another country or what.

Similarly, I'm not a huge fan of Oren but I was glad when he saw how wrecked Bette's feet were and he told her she either needed to quit Ramon's ballet or he was going to tell someone about her injury. It's not worth risking your entire career to rehearse and perform while injured that badly. Bette was also right to get June to change out of that horrible shapeless white slip dress (which looked terrible on her) into that fitted red dress (which she looked amazing in!).

Caleb is really hard to like. He's been ragging on Nabil for praying because his dad was killed overseas which is pretty fucking racist. One person is not responsible for an entire group of anything, but on top of that Nabil grew up in France. He had absolutely nothing to do with what happened to Caleb's dad. Caleb has been acting like Nabil personally murdered Caleb's father with his bare hands. It's one thing to want to switch roommates but pushing him in front of a truck? DUDE. How does he consider that trying to do right by his father?

What kind of ballet company has an opening night with an empty balcony section? The area where Neveah and Nabil were talking during Delia's piece had no patrons. There were only ushers up there which is just crazy. There is no way that a successful ballet company would have an entire section of the theater that was empty on opening night.

Even though Monique's motivation is to protect the school, I loved that she went to the police station and got Nabil released. She was right - if they had enough to charge him, they would have. The torn bikini and the ripped picture of Cassie weren't enough to prove that he pushed her off the roof.

I've been trying to figure out how old Delia is supposed to be. She barely looks older than Bette, yet she's already a principal dancer.

Ramon continues to gross me out in every scene. I have no idea what Delia sees in him. It would be easy to go the soap opera route and have her use him as a stepping stone for her career but she seems to actually like him. I'm still convinced that the photo of Cassie in Paris that's ripped in half is with Ramon and that he pushed her off the roof because she threatened to expose their inappropriate, unprofessional, and illegal relationship. He hasn't technically crossed the line with Bette (probably because he's currently sleeping with Delia), but I still don't like his vibe with her. He comes off with skeevy and inappropriate with just about every female he interacts with, from the students to the weird way he was staring at Monique during Delia's performance before he put his arm around her.

There's something about the actress playing Bette who reminds me of a cross between SMG during the early seasons of Buffy and Kiernan Shipka on the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.

Ha, I loved the Heathers shout out!
Neveah: Why are you doing this?
Bette: Because I can.

Edited January 2, 2021 by ElectricBoogaloo

[sab85]

On 12/24/2020 at 2:10 PM, zenithwit said:

Also, why would two ballet dancers choose to do hip hop in Millennium Park?  Those dance moves would not draw a crowd that large in real life.

Yeah, dancing there? People would have been running them over to get to the Bean.

Along Michigan Ave or the river would have been much more realistic.