A long time ago, someone told me I should become a fan of Amy Sherman-Palladino. At the time, Gilmore Girls was still running, and I didn’t want to play catch up – though there was oddly a running gag at my full-time job at the time about me being a big fan of the show. I tried her next project, The Return of Jezebel James, but obviously it crashed and burned. So when I first heard about Bunheads – a show about a Vegas showgirl who moves to a small town — I was a little hesitant that the show would not appeal to me. I’m not exactly the demographic ABC Family is likely trying to hit; but demographic be damned, I’m hooked.
Broadway star Sutton Foster plays Michelle Simms, a Vegas showgirl who is beginning to realize her career as a dancer is quickly drawing to a close. When she thinks she has just about hit rock bottom, she finally takes long time admirer Hubble (Played by the perpetually underrated Alan Ruck) up on his offer to whisk her away from her life. Said whisking, however, leads her to the small town of Paradise – a town so small, the teenage girls resort to breaking into the library to (gasp!) read as a way of getting their kicks, at least ever since they closed the movie theatre.
Michelle’s challenges in moving into Hubble’s life are personified by his mother, the brilliant Kelly Bishop. Because all of life is born out of incredible coincidence, Fanny Hubble just happens to run a dance studio adjacet to the house she now shares with both her son and Michelle. The new wife takes the opportunity – twice – to bond with a group of students. Paradise must be small enough that the cliques in high school can’t develop, as this group of girls seems to have a representatives from all of the major archetypes. Sasha (Julia Goldani Telles) is the mean girl, Ginny (Bailey Buntain) is the smart one, Bettina (Kaitlyn Jenkins) is the awkward one and Melanie (Emma Durmont) is the one we don’t get to know well enough in the first hour.
Other than Foster, perhaps my favorite member of the cast is Friday Night Lights’ Stacey Oristano as Truly Stone, Hubble’s former flame. Truly primarily exists for comic relief, and she nails it. She spends most of the pilot crying – for all of the obvious reasons, and a couple of other reasons too; but instead of it coming off as awkward, it’s played to the perfect tone.
But this show is really about Foster, Bishop and the girls. This is Foster’s first major TV role – she had a three-episode arc on Flight of the Concords previously – and she brings a completely different type of energy to the role. What little I’ve seen of Gilmore Girls, her character could easily be a fraternal twin sister of Lorelai; the way they deliver Sherman-Palladino’s intoxicating dialogue is eerily similar. The dynamic with Fanny is interesting. At first I thought Bishop was taking the mother-in-law cliché a bit too far, but her reaction to Hubble coming home with a wife does make a good deal of sense. They have a wonderful conversation late in the episode, where Michelle decides against telling Fanny what she thinks she wants to hear and instead is realistic and honest. If they can maintain that relationship in the midst of all of the drama to come, things will be work out for them both.
Between Aaron Sorkin’s return to television with Newsroom, and Sherman-Palladno’s Bunheads, fans of fast paced, melodic dialogue are in for a fun summer. The pilot of Bunheads sets a fairly straight forward direction for the first season, which frankly wasn’t exactly what I expected when I sat down to screen it. But with a solid cast and a talented showrunner at the helm, I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next.
CliqueClack is excited to be able to offer our readers the ability to watch first episode of Bunheads! Just visit ABC Family’s exclusive screening page and enter the case-sensitive code CCTVBunheads — there are a limited number of views, so head there quickly!
Clacked by Ivey West 
on May 30, 2012 @ 11:00 EST5EDT
Thanks for the link/code. It really feels a lot like Gilmore Girls; there was even familiar strummy guitar music when she walked into town. I am definitely excited about it.