ABC Family's Bunheads

[FilmNerdJamie]

Been on the air for two weeks and I see no threads and/or mentions? *****es, please! This is Amy Sherman-Palladino's return to TV since exiting The Gilmore Girls, people!

Bunheads is the tale of Michelle Simms (Sutton Foster), a former ballerina 'bunhead' who wound up a Las Vegas showgirl. Seeing her life and career at a dead end, she impulsively takes up the offer of marriage from her persistent admirer, Hubbell Flowers (Alan Ruck) and moves to his sleepy coastal town, Paradise. Once there, Michelle winds up teaching alongside his mother, Fanny (Kelly Bishop), at her ballet school: the Paradise Dance Academy.

At face value (for 99.99999% of the pilot), repeats the charm/cuteness/fast dialogue factor of Gilmore and the three leads bring it. That is until, literally, the closing minute of the premiere...

Takes a strange tonal shift it hasn't fully recovered from (Wants to have it both ways) and seemingly goes against everything set up.

 

[Sawyer]

I was legit shocked by the end of the pilot. I was kind of wondering why Alan Ruck wasn't a regular, but I didn't think they'd go there.

 

[FilmNerdJamie]

I did and I didn't see it coming. More I think about it... the more I categorize the ending as a massive ****-up.

 

[Sawyer]

I don't know if you can really label it a ****-up so early in the game.

 

[FilmNerdJamie]

Foster and Ruck were a cute couple and he absolutely wins you, as a viewer, over like he does her character. You could have kept the main dynamic of the show (Her and her mother-in-law butting heads running the ballet studio together) without throwing that monkey wrench in. Necessarily harsh.

Also... and this is going into spoiler territory...

Spoiler

Apparently Kelly Bishop is only a recurring cast-member. AKA: she won't be in every episode. So... how much further are they planning on taking this from the concept as initially presented? Refreshing, ballsy and frustrating all at the same time.