Amy Sherman-Palladino has always wanted to make television about dance.
The “Gilmore Girls” and “Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” creator’s latest, “Étoile,” follows two prestigious dance companies in New York and Paris who decide to swap their top talent in an attempt to shake things up and bring more eyes to the arts. Back in 2012, just a few years off “Gilmore Girls,” Sherman-Palladino helmed a season of “Bunheads,” starring Sutton Foster as a former Vegas showgirl who ends up working at a small-town ballet school.
But neither series clicks like the creator’s other work — and the answer may be in the subject matter.
The performing arts — music, dance, theatre — have always been linked to television and film, but challenging to put on screen and make accessible to Hollywood viewers. This often manifests with middling movie musicals, and on the TV side with shows like “Smash,” (a cult favorite now on Broadway) “Mozart in the Jungle,” (notorious for winning a Golden Globe and prompting Google searches for “What is ‘Mozart in the Jungle’”), “Fosse/Verdon” (critically acclaimed but not widely watched), and “Bunheads” itself (poorly received by critics though it had its own fan following).
None of these titles struggles with love for the source material. Sherman-Palladino danced professionally before she quit to write for television, “Smash” was created by playwright Theresa Rebeck, and “Mozart” follows a philharmonic orchestra and is based on oboist Blair Tindall’s experiences and memoir.
There’s something deeply human in watching artists face adversity and pursue their passion — or at least there should be. The same themes ultimately manifest on a show like “Friday Night Lights,” where the discipline of high school football isn’t inherently relatable but resonated mightily with viewers for the show’s lovable characters and tight-knit community. Yet for performing arts, that connection usually only translates through reality competitions instead of narrative fiction.
It doesn’t help that “Mozart” and “Étoile” are set in the siloed world of the arts elite, a space of privilege that is accessible to few (even as an audience member trying to find affordable tickets). “Bunheads” is weighed down by the obvious executive note to essentially recreate “Gilmore Girls,” to the point that the ballet is all but incidental. (“Smash” just descended into chaos, but I personally cannot fault it for that.)
“Friday Night Lights” might be set in the more widely beloved world of sports rather than the arts, but it offers a strong template for what could bring the performing arts to life on screen. Like any good show, the project has to be character-driven; in his review of “Étoile,” IndieWire’s Ben Travers noted that the characters were “enormously, fruitlessly difficult — difficult to each other, difficult to invest in, and difficult to see clearly until it’s far too late to care.” This is a risk when telling the story of egomaniacs and divas, but dare I say it worked for an enormously successful series called “Glee.”
To that end, the stakes have to matter. This might feel like Screenwriting 101, so how can it be applied here? Two prestigious ballet companies need money — probably not the sweeping audience hook that it could be. An underdog dreams of being a Broadway star? Now that might resonate with anyone who sings in the shower. An inexperienced oboe player ends up under the wing of her eccentric conductor? Not a situation we’ve all been in, but an intriguing dynamic.
And lastly, also noted in IndieWire’s review of “Étoile” — the show or film has to explore performing arts in a manner distinct from the real-life experience. Putting a camera in the audience POV of a dance show is only a reminder that the real thing is probably way better. Putting a camera in the wings, on stage, up close and personal — using a mix of static and tracking shots and difference angles in a way that no one can experience in an auditorium — now that’s worth watching. Why be restricted by laws of physics when you’ve got movie magic on your side? Change the costumes or setting if it feels right, or use the medium of music, dance, or theatre to add a surreal element. “Smash” Season 1 often jumped between the rehearsal room and a staged version of the same song, a great and simple way to make each number more engaging. That and “Glee” indulged in their fair share of dream sequences, with mixed results but points for effort.
There’s no need to get too far in the weeds with any of it — if “Friday Night Lights” had spent more scenes on the details of every play or depicting games in real-time, I might not have made it to the end. Sherman-Palladino knows this from “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” which treats comedy the way that “Étoile” could have treated dance. The series always made time for Midge’s (Rachel Brosnahan) inner life and personal relationships, illustrating how those factors affected her stage performance and overall life trajectory. No one on “Étoile” has a life outside of the ballet, which could itself be a compelling thread to pull at but remains unexplored like the rest.
So while “Étoile” may not be what was promised or hoped for, it can always be a lesson. All art is intertwined and viewers aren’t necessarily opposed to discovering it on screen — they just need to be welcomed in, and TV has the power to do that.
“Étoile” is now streaming on Prime Video.
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