Review: 'Bunheads' - 'Better Luck Next Year!': Taking the cake
Michelle helps Fanny prepare for the Joffrey auditions, while Boo braces for failure
Michelle (Sutton Foster) meets the movers on "Bunheads."
Comic-Con prep means I don't have time to write about last night's "Bunheads" in anything resembling depth, but Dan and I will be discussing it on this week's second podcast, and I wanted to offer people a chance to discuss episode four, which in many ways felt like the pilot to the show Amy Sherman-Palladino actually wanted to make. A couple of quick thoughts coming up just as soon as I'm robbed in reverse...
After spending three episodes steering Michelle to Paradise and giving her a reason to stay, we're done dealing with any grief over Hubbell (who's not even alluded to in this one, much less mentioned), and it's just a situation where Michelle and Fanny are getting to know each other, learn how their personalities and skill sets work together, etc.
But if this is the show she wanted to make, I don't know that "Better Luck Next Year!" was the best example of that show. This one was written and directed by Sherman-Palladino's husband and creative partner Daniel Palladino, and like his "Gilmore Girls" episodes, much of it felt ever so slightly off from his wife's voice, and pushing certain character traits (in this case, Fanny's bossiness) past funny and into annoying.
I liked the three minutes or so we spent on Boo, but "Bunheads" is still a series that treats the girls more as an ABC Family requirement than anything it's genuinely interested in.
What did everybody else think?
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Login or create a HitFix account Login Signupcpreynolds
July 10, 2012 at 10:00AM EST Reply to CommentI keep trying to get into Bunheads, but I struggled last night. Even flipped over to RHoNY
ps
July 10, 2012 at 10:10AM EST Reply to CommentWell, I had to suspend my disbelief about the floor fixing deus ex machina. (Couldn't Michelle have an old showbiz friend who builds sets who would help them out? Still contrived, but more plausible. Also Fanny has enough money to do the catering and gardening and all the other improvements, but not for the floor? I suppose this is an ASP show -- they are always loose with the money logic)
But I liked the episode. I think Fanny and Michelle have good chemistry, and for that alone, I will watch. I thought the girls had a decent sized chunk of the episode -- I like Boo's Rosie O'Donnellish mum and the actress who plays Sasha is good as well. But I do think their storyline might be a little tired. The poor little rich talented girl, and the fat middle class happy untalented one...
Gobo9 Really? Do we have to call Boo fat? She's bigger than a typical ballerina, but who isn't?
July 10, 2012 at 1:05PM ESTKensington Well, on the flip side to that why do we have to act like calling Boo fat is tantamount to calling her some kind of monster?
July 10, 2012 at 2:45PM ESTANR The money thing was really weird - considering Fanny runs a dance studio, fixing the floor should have been a priority even without the Joffrey auditions. It's crucial.
July 10, 2012 at 5:09PM ESTA Kensington, it's because the actress is so young, I think, that it feels wrong to mention her weight or shape.
July 21, 2012 at 11:49AM ESTbforte
July 10, 2012 at 10:30AM EST Reply to CommentThe 'Game of Thrones' back-and-forth was the absolute highlight of the episode. I plan on incorporating "Ned Stark'd her" into my everyday life from now on.
jerzeelin
July 10, 2012 at 11:47AM EST Reply to CommentI dunno....I loved Gilmore Girls but I think this show seems like it could be a PART of that show. And sometimes I swear I am looking at Lauren Graham-Sutton Foster sometimes looks just like her when she's contemplating something or other. Is ASP a one-trick TV show pony? When Boo and her mom started with the food schtick it, the dialogue could have been between Lorelei and Rory, who could consume massive amounts of junk food. Between the laborious setup-(goodness, couldn't an aging Vegas dancer have answered an ad for a job helping the cantankerous dance madam and be done with the Hubbel fairytale of unbelievability?)and the same-old-small-town-quirksters, I keep waiting to want to LIKE these characters and become invested in them but so far i just keep getting Gilmore Girls-The Miss Patty Episodes...and maybe casting Kelly Bishop as the dance madame was a mistake...too much like Mrs. Gilmore...and so shrill.
Kensington Absolutely! That would have been a much better reason to bring Fanny and Michelle together. No dead bodies necessary!
July 10, 2012 at 2:47PM ESTJedyKnight
July 10, 2012 at 12:07PM EST Reply to CommentOn one side it was dissapointing that 2 of the girls were given the smallest of plots and the other 2 were M.I.A... on the other side, i found it really really funny, specially the whole Manifesto/reverse robbery bit at the begginning.
I think the lack of screen time for the girls would be a smaller deal if the show was called Paradiso, or something referencing the town, and the girls were just a small part of the whole, but since is called bunheads, having the actual bunheads carry little to no weight of the episode is problematic.
FlatonherFanny
July 10, 2012 at 12:18PM EST Reply to CommentI don't know how I feel about the show. I look forward to the pretty, California atmosphere and the souffle entertainment, but Fanny and Michelle's speeches are so over the top cutesy and contrived, I lose patience in the middle of watching. I fear I'll be tuning out if something of substance isn't introduced.
unclevanya I like that "souffle entertainment" tone you used. I actually think this was entertainment while having poison ivy. Cutesy, I would replace with retarded, contrived I would replace with a UFO!
July 10, 2012 at 6:35PM ESTver
July 10, 2012 at 1:28PM EST Reply to CommentI agree--it seemed like there was a lot of filler dialogue (catering dialogue was especially superfluous). I think it's the writing.
bin
July 10, 2012 at 1:59PM EST Reply to CommentI can't get into it. It feels way too much like a GG redux but one with a tin ear. It just feels too brittle all in all.
Kensington
July 10, 2012 at 2:44PM EST Reply to CommentI keep watching this show, and I want to like it, but it's almost unseemly how quickly they appear to have gotten past the whole Hubbell thing. I know it would probably be too painful to have Fannie and/or Michelle moping around, but then why contrive such a heavy reason for bringing them together if they aren't going to deal with it realistically?
I know that Hubbell's been dead for a month, but it was jarring to have Michelle joking about trying to seduce the handymen in front of her dead husband's mother.
It's just weird, tonally.
bitchstolemyremote
July 10, 2012 at 5:14PM EST Reply to CommentI still don't think that they've done enough to make us believe that Michelle would remain in Paradise. Aside from that it's nice to see Michelle finally making friends with the community and - as predicted - Boo and Sasha are more or less the focus of the girls now.
Our take: http://wp.me/p1VQBq-14G
M
July 10, 2012 at 5:46PM EST Reply to CommentRepeating dialogue doesn't make it funny.
Repeating dialogue doesn't make it funny?
No, repeating dialogue doesn't make it funny.
BigTed
July 10, 2012 at 6:00PM EST Reply to Comment"Past funny and into annoying" could be this show's slogan. Between Fanny's passive-agressive and sometimes plain nasty manner (barely leavened by the idea that somewhere inside she really cares) and Michelle's compulsive logorrhea, I couldn't stand spending more than a minute or two with either of them -- and yet the show seems to be devoting half its air time to watching them blather and bicker. As much as I'd like to enjoy this show, I don't think it's going to happen.
unclevanya
July 10, 2012 at 6:30PM EST Reply to CommentAmy Paladino's husband Daniel lost any credibilty, if he had any for writing. This might be grounds for divorce, for torturing Amy's fans. I didn't know this till your review, in a way that's a good thing. She could never write such a mess, unless she is useing Walter White's meth.
I was loving this show. Last night after missing a week, I was looking forward to it.
It's futile to say what was wrong. The person who wrote it didn't care.
nic919 I knew something felt a little off this whole episode and this explains it. I had enjoyed the first three, even getting past the whole Hubbell is dead thing, but this week there was a little too much "try" in the dialogue.
July 10, 2012 at 11:56PM ESTunclevanya
July 11, 2012 at 12:17AM EST Reply to CommentIt's definite, we all agree Daniel keeps far from writing.
katie71483
July 11, 2012 at 1:42AM EST Reply to CommentI've watched all four episodes, and as much as I love ASP for Gilmore Girls, I think I'm done. Also, does anyone else find it odd that they went to all the trouble of setting up the rich stranger with the private road and haven't mentioned him again?
Dean
July 11, 2012 at 10:44AM EST Reply to CommentWow, what a lot of complainers. I'm liking this show very much. Maybe it's still ironing out some kinks and people will always find something to complain about, but as a GG fan, I'm happy to have ASP's voice back on TV. I'm surprised that the other GG fans here aren't responding to it as strongly as I am. Loving Michelle/Sutton Foster. The girls will get featured more over time. This world is still being set up. We don't need to be bombarded with each one's situation all at once. Let it evolve and develop, people.
Kelli Oliver George Reply to comment...
July 12, 2012 at 11:35AM ESTKelli Oliver George I agree, Dean. I am loving this show (although, I didn't watch Gilmore Girls, so I have nothing to compare it to. Which makes me think that perhaps, I should be getting the DVDs for Gilmore Girls? Maybe?)
July 12, 2012 at 11:37AM ESTAnyway, this show is fun, quirky and perfect for some light summer TV fare.. Nearly all shows require some abandonment of disbelief, so I am okay with the contrived death of Hubbell.
Patricia
July 15, 2012 at 3:06PM EST Reply to CommentI was off on vacation, had this ep on DVR and was hoping against hope that it would show some improvement, but the early scene of Boo and her mom in the market with all the fat jokes?
Amy SP, you ought to be ashamed of yourself. This is not good comedic writing, since this is not 1972.
I'll watch out the episode, but I fear that I am done with this show.