The opening scene of this week’s Bunheads places Michelle and Fanny in an extremely awkward situation. Michelle has learned that she inherited everything from Hubbell — the house, the land, and the studio, to name a portion of it. (Turns out she also has a car, which got her into some trouble; a lake, which may or may not be filled with goose poop; and a guest house — the shining star in Michelle’s eyes).
Fanny, of course, takes offense to this situation. Who could blame her? And instead of having the opportunity to get angry at Hubbell, she only has Michelle to place the blame upon.
And Michelle is equally frustrated. Does she even want this inheritance? Does she want the responsibility, especially when Fanny is involved? And does this mean she needs to make Paradise her home — permanently? Michelle seems to oscillate between disliking Paradise (feeling ostracized by Fanny is a major letdown, of course, as is having to explain why she didn’t know about the private drive) and, alternatively, being tickled by its oddities (the ballet dancers texting her about winning the ugly foot contest, for example).
I understand that she would never want to displace Fanny. But what is she to do now that she is the owner of all this property? If you were in her place, would you keep everything or sell it? Or would you strike a compromise, like Michelle did?
We meet some new characters this week:
With the exception of a few unique moments (such as Boo getting a “lucky snood” as a gift), and some emotional scenes (for instance, the ones in which we are given a window into Sasha’s disappointing family life), the third episode of Bunheads wasn’t too spectacular. My least favorite scene was when Michelle accidentally turned onto Grant’s private drive and endured a very unfunny scene with the tow truck guy. (She referenced Monty Python’s Cheese Shop sketch, while I was thinking that the tedium of this routine was like that annoying children’s song “There’s a Hole in the Bucket,” in which every possible solution is negated by another problem.)
I’ll be sure to tune in next week, though, to see what the guest house and all its charms — a claw foot bath tub smack dab in the middle of the house, for one? — have in store for Michelle. Plus, I’m looking forward to those Nutcracker auditions.
Quotes:
“Hubbell and I were married for two days. That’s it. Less if you count the time I was conscious, which was basically from valet parking to the nickel slots bathroom at Whiskey Pete’s. So we’re actually talking about 16 hours, tops!” — Michelle, reacting to Hubbell’s decision to leave everything to her in his will
“The day I lost my husband was the worst day of my life. Of course, I lost him to the divorcee in jeggings across the street and not in a car accident.” — Claire
“I occasionally used the ‘I was in the school library and the janitor locked me in, and this is not a hickey on my neck; how could I get a hickey locked in the library all night?’ story.” — Michelle, talking about lies she told her parents when she was out all night
“And they believed that?” — Sasha
“Yep.” — Michelle
“Were they morons?” — Sasha
“Yep.” — Michelle
“All I know is that you are going to live here, and I am going to live there [the guest house], and tonight, we are going to get very, very drunk.” — Michelle, to Fanny
Clacked by Rachel Blum-Jose 
on Jun 26, 2012 @ 00:39 EST5EDT
I have to disagree about it being an unspectacular episode. I thought it was the best so far. The humor worked better, the world opened up to some new characters, and Fanny’s scene in the kitchen when she tried to figure out how to make some tea without using anything that Michelle now owns was a tour de force for Kelly Bishop. Boo’s mom reminds me a bit of Sookie from “Gilmore Girls”, and the tow truck driver could’ve been Kirk from “GG”. I even liked the real estate woman when she wasn’t being a vulture. I hope Grant is a recurring character–I’ve always liked Steven Eckholdt. And I thought the girls’ scenes worked really well for maybe the first time. Less Palladino-ish dialogue and more natural-sounding. I’m still waiting for the girls who aren’t Boo or Sascha to develop a personality trait, though. I even liked the whole “private road” scene.
Of course, the idea that a woman who was dancing professionally in Vegas less than a week ago got winded climbing a private road to Grant’s front door seemed kind of silly. These days I’m practically seeing Lauren Graham on the screen in place of Sutton Foster–it seems like ASP writes one kind of lead female role, and Foster has sunk right into it.
Overall, it feels like a show finding its groove and moving slowly beyond the situation introduced in the pilot. I’m looking forward to more!
*POST AUTHOR*
I totally agree with you about Boo’s mom being like a Sookie character! I was going to mention that. Also, yes, I keep seeing Lorelai’s body with Michelle’s head every time she is in a scene. There’s a very strong GG “essence” in the show. Personally, I enjoy it because GG is one of my favorite shows of all time!
This episode was contrived and, to be honest, idiotic.
The way the girls took the photos was over the top. Sorry but I couldn’t suspend my disbelief. You can’t take photos like that. Everyone on earth knows that. With that much movement all you get on camera is blurs. On top of that nobody would believe the premise of that “contest” anyway. And then that “my toenail fell off” BS… I mean come on.
After that the stupidity in “You are selling the house? You called her?” and the “This is a private road” where nobody is giving out information again with the “I want a bagel” – “Sorry don’t have bagels” – “But I can clearly see them” – “Nope, you can’t” – “I have two eyes, and there are bagels” – “Those aren’t bagels, they are buns” – “No they aren’t they clearly have holes in the middle” – “No they don’t, that’s an indent” – “Don’t tell me that’s an indent, I can clearly see through them” – “No you can’t” – “Of course I can”
Sorry but after three episodes talking past one another has gotten tiring. And what an idiotic plot device not getting on a “private road” in the middle of nowhere in a town where everyone knows one another. And with the option to just push the car the three feet in neutral.
With everything in this show the authors seem to forget that we were thrown into the whole ordeal without knowing the characters very well. We don’t like them yet. The authors seem lost in their idea that behaving irrational and weird that makes them endearing. Where Gilmore Girls had ONE character that behaved like this (Kirk) we now have about a dozen of them. And let me tell you this ain’t pretty.
The whole show hinges on the main protagonist finding a love interest and fast. And if it’s the guy with the house at the end of that private road then I’m sorry but I don’t see it.