S01.E08: The Offer

[AnimeMania]

(Season Finale)

Jack makes a bold decision about a new artistic director, putting him at odds with Genevieve. Tobias’ new piece premieres, and Cheyenne dances a heartfelt solo while questioning the choices she’s made.

Premiere Date: April 24, 2025    Prime Video    

[Frost]

"I Married Myself" is an absolutely horrible, boring, song and I can't believe a ballet was set to it.

I liked Tobias' final ballet and the fact that the whole thing went viral.

I'm looking forward to a second season.

[txhorns79]

I feel like this show is a very expensive looking mess that has some lovely dance sequences, but is overloaded with the usual ASP quirk and eccentricity masquerading as character development. 

The only character that felt like they had a real storyline and showed growth was Mishi.  I don't know that I can say that for any other character.  Why was Cheyenne so broken up over losing Gael?  I'm not sure I could tell you.  I know the show suggested that she might see him as a boyfriend, but I don't think they really showed that in their relationship, which appeared mostly professional and occasionally like friends with benefits.  The same with Tobias and Gabin.  I could see why Gabin would be professionally attracted to Tobias, because Tobias is supposed to be a big choreographer on the rise.  I don't see the romantic attraction because Tobias seems like he would be a nightmare to deal with on a more intimate level.  

The rest is just kind of a shrug.  I like Luke Kirby (even with his terrible hair here) and I like Charlotte Gainsbourg as actors.  However, as characters, neither seems to be very good at their job running their respective companies.  I also wondered if we were supposed to think that the evil donor somehow set up Jack for the crisis at the end of the season as some kind of revenge plot?  It wouldn't make much sense, but I felt like they were suggesting it.   

Finally, the Nutcracker runs in November and December at the New York City Ballet, right?  They didn't even try to make it seem like it was winter with all the green leaved trees and very light coats.                

 

Edited May 1 by txhorns79

[shrewd.buddha]

We enjoyed it and would have been happy for more - but it seems Amazon and Netflix have settled on eight episodes as the standard season length.
  It's nice to have some levity along with pathos, but it felt as if this show leaned far too much into silliness: 
  - Too much time with Cheyenne's quirky mother.
  - Jack's 2nd in command, Nicholas, with serious health issues played for laughs.
  - Crispin and his dirty money, doppelgangers, kidnapping, etc., etc.
  - The renaming of the Fish building and all the bad puns associated with that.

I'm sure the HR department will have a field day with the idiosyncratic, high profile choreographer casting his love interest as lead dancer.  
And then there's Jack, possibly restarting an affair with Cheyenne, his most famous employee, who he also offered the position of artistic director.

 I like the ballet aspect, Paris, design and scenery - - but it really does feel like Emily in Paris, story-wise. 

Edited May 1 by shrewd.buddha

[Quilt Fairy]

On 4/27/2025 at 6:42 PM, Frost said:

I'm looking forward to a second season.

There may not be one.  When I first read about this show, the article said it was signed for 2 seasons.  Now I read that the second season is not certain, which is unfortunate since I felt a lot of story arcs were left hanging at the end. 

[txhorns79]

1 hour ago, Quilt Fairy said:

There may not be one.  When I first read about this show, the article said it was signed for 2 seasons.  Now I read that the second season is not certain, which is unfortunate since I felt a lot of story arcs were left hanging at the end. 

Here is the Deadline article when the show was announced with a two season order.  I had not heard that they might not go ahead with a second season.  I'd be curious what it would cost Amazon to get out of making a second season.  I presume the kill fee would be enormous.   

[twoods]

I ended up enjoying this show, but with the typical Palladino style there were so many self absorbed over-the-top “quirky” characters that I was rolling my eyes half the time. Even the more normal, relatable characters had cringy embarrassing moments (poor Mishi). I would have rooted more for Cheyenne and Gael if they showed some progression in their relationship other than implying that they had sex everywhere. We barely see them together. However, will I watch a second season? Probably! 

Edited May 4 by twoods

[Quilt Fairy]

On 5/3/2025 at 10:43 PM, txhorns79 said:

I had not heard that they might not go ahead with a second season. 

I'm sure I read it somewhere but now I cannot find the reference.  Amazon has a history of cancelling shows that they had already renewed.  But let's hope this is not one of them. 

[sadie]

What a mess. I’m a huge GG and Mrs Maesel fan, but those shows worked because they had a central character running thru as the story. There were side characters but they didn’t share the spotlight. This thing was all over the place, too many characters, too many locales, to cram into 8 episodes. I didn’t really connect with anyone because we never got enough story on any one person. Both ballet companies seemed like messes, good grief. No way Tobias could work in this industry, you don’t halt a performance in the middle and everyone is just okey dokey, it was fiction beyond suspending disbelief.

And I normally love Luke Kirby but whatever frantic frenetic thing he was trying to do here didn’t work. I loved Cheyanne but got so little of her, I loved Misha but got almost nothing on her. Might have worked better if the story focused on the two of them as the central ballerinas but then ASP had to cram in all the other useless stories. Maybe a 22 episode season would have helped but I doubt it.

[txhorns79]

7 hours ago, sadie said:

No way Tobias could work in this industry, you don’t halt a performance in the middle and everyone is just okey dokey, it was fiction beyond suspending disbelief.

The idea that he would stop the performance the audience came to see,   choreograph an enitrely new routine for the dancers, and have it ready for presentation while a full auditorium watched and patiently waited (for what, a few hours?) was completely ridiculous.    

[Auntie Anxiety]

6 hours ago, txhorns79 said:

The idea that he would stop the performance the audience came to see,   choreograph an enitrely new routine for the dancers, and have it ready for presentation while a full auditorium watched and patiently waited (for what, a few hours?) was completely ridiculous.    

The eccentric personalities and quirky situations in Stars Hollow just don’t translate well into what should have been a more serious endeavor. It’s one thing for Miss Patty to interrupt the dance pageant because one of the young dancers has stage fright and gets sick to her stomach. It’s quite another when you’re talking about sophisticated ballet attendees who paid good money to see a newly choreographed piece. 

[ichbin]

On 5/1/2025 at 12:42 AM, txhorns79 said:

I feel like this show is a very expensive looking mess that has some lovely dance sequences, but is overloaded with the usual ASP quirk and eccentricity masquerading as character development. 

Tobias being the absolute worst character of all. It wouldn't be horrible if the show returns with that character having been written out. Quirky is one thing but that entire story line pushes beyond belief.

All in all I'd still like to see more of the rest while still being well aware of all its numerous flaws. 

[ombre]

Ugh. I was slow to love it, but by Eps 6 and 7 I was fully on board, totally digging. The love letter to *all* aspects of making art. Yeah, I'm there for that. From the massive backstage apparatus in Paris and the sequences of breaking in new toe shoes to the actual dances. All that. Eat it with a spoon. 

 

But this so undermined that! And it's funny... I actually agree that getting to see a choreographer working with a company in real time and highly dramatic circumstances would become an absolute sensation. But... There had to be a way to do it without it feeling hackneyed like the end of Elf!  

 

I have a lot more thoughts, but it think it comes to this: I can't stop comparing it to bunheads and how bunheads let the dance speak for itself. The piece in Paris actually felt so much like the bunheads numbers (Marguerite derricks - love your stuff!) that it made me really miss how they became epilogue, summary, moral - the coda that transcended the storyline. But they kept cutting away to take care of plot points. And bunheads-era asp would *never* have cut away from those numbers to advance the plot. 

 

Finally, I'm just not sure what the end goal is. It *feels* like jack and Geneviève are being set up as the endgame, but it *also* feels like by showing how they are peers they're set up as the opposing kings of a chess set. There's no way to make them happen as a couple without having one or the other lose the thing that makes them get up in the morning. And that's no foundation for a good relationship! So I just don't know what we're supposed to be rooting for. 

 

Sigh. I think it's time to re-watch bunheads.