Light years away from Stars Hollow and the Comedy Clubs in New York from the 1950s, Amy Sherman-Palladino and the last dramatic of Daniel Palladino, “Star”, plunges into the world of professional ballet. The series highlights the Metropolitan Ballet Theater of New York, managed by the executive director Jack McMillan (Luke Kirby), and the National of the Paris Ballet, managed by the interim director Geneviève Lavigne (Charlotte Gainsbourg). In the midst of slow ticket sales, an exodus post-coating dancer and a decreasing audience, Jack and Geneviève develop an ambitious plan to exchange their best performers for a year to bring more visibility to the two companies. While the dance is magnificent and some characters have some fun features, “Star” is an exhausting spectacle focusing a multitude of unbearable people obsessed with them to speak.
“Star”, which refers to the main dancer of a company, opens as a young girl, Susu Li (Lamay Zhang), dance alone in the dark practice room of metropolitan ballet. Elsewhere, in a nightclub in Manhattan, Jack and Geneviève party to try to unsubscribe before their next meeting. The next day, despite the festivities of the day before, Jack is not entirely on board when Geneviève presents his idea of exchanging their greatest talents. It is an offer in the bottle by the bizarre millionaire Crispin Shamblee (Simon Callow), that Jack despises. However, the director of the MBT changed his mind after convincing his Parisian colleague to lend him his most renowned (and difficult) star, Cheyenne Toussant (Lou de Laâge). From there, the pair rushes to prepare for the next dance season while the newly exchanged dancers are trying to find safe spaces in unknown environments.
Palladinos are known for overcrowded scripts and a rapid shooting dialogue in “Gilmore Girls” and “The Marvelous Mme Maisel”, displayed here in English and French. While the fast jokes work for those who are friendly, Jack, Geneviève and Cheyenne are network personalities that the whole series feels clumsy, as if the public was held hostage in this world instead of being welcomed in it. In addition, the structure of the eight episodes is weird. Instead of a transparent season, the story works like two different acts. The end of episode 4 could easily have been the stop point. The remaining episodes feel even more frantic than the previous ones and introduce random characters, unconvincing loves (past and present) and scenarios that appear from nowhere. Instead of being folded in global history, the second half of the season looks like a reflection afterwards – or another series.
Meanwhile, the few pleasant characters of “star” remain on the sidelines. Mishi Duplessis (Taïs Vinolo), a ballet national ballet ballet by Geneviève, then brought back into the exchange, to the most digestible bow. In Mishi de Vinolo, viewers meet a young woman whose all existence revolves around the ballet and who deeply wants to discover who she is outside the dance and far from the suffocating presence of her mother. Like Mishi, Tobias Bell (Gideon Glick) is also captivating. A choreographer obsessed with eccentric headphones sent to France against his will and without his precious toothpaste, he moves to the rhythm of his own drum and is one of the only authentic delights in the series.
As majestic and graceful as the ballet, “star” is lacking. The show jumps so little time in elegantly between New York and France, presenting unpleasant people who take pleasure in shouting each other. Although the Palladinos are trying to humanize the main characters by offering glimpses in their personal life, there are not enough reasonable interactions to promote real connections. While “Gilmore Girls” and “Mrs. Maisel” captivate the public, “star” never reaches such heights.
The eight episodes of “star” presented on April 24 on Prime Video.
