Étoile looks like a story about ballet, but it’s really a series full of funny characters, weirdos, outcasts, big egos, and rampant artistic temperament. The series was created by Daniel Palladino and Amy Sherman-Palladino who directed most of the episodes as well. It’s already set for a second season and I can’t wait to see it. The characters in this wonderful series hooked me from the first minute.
Étoile is brilliant. The characters are brilliant. The music is brilliant. The lighting is brilliant. The actors are brilliant. The dancing (although there’s not much of it) is brilliant. The jokes are brilliant. It case you haven’t understood my point, I recommend you watch it.
The ballet companies in New York and Paris are both failing. Geneviève Lavigne (Charlotte Gainsbourg), the director of the Paris ballet, has the idea that they should swap stars (Étoiles) for a season to create some excitement and fill seats.
Geneviève approaches the head of the New York ballet company, Jack McMillan (Luke Kirby), with her idea. After some arguing and negotiating, they reach an agreement. These two have history and both actors are absolute delights in their parts.
Nicholas (David Haig) worked with Jack as artistic director. He encouraged Jack to accept the dirty millions in cash from Crispin Shamblee (Simon Callow) to finance this idea in both the US and France.
The Americans got Cheyenne Toussaint (Lou de Laâge) in the exchange. She’s a huge star and proud owner of the most abrasive personality in the world. She doesn’t take direction and seldom listens to her choreographers. When she gets to NYC, she rejects the male dancers paired with her and looks for Gael Rodriguez (David Alvarez) until she finds him working on a farm. She convinces him to come dance with her, a move that stirs up a lot of old anger.
Cheyenne happens upon a child, Susu Li (LaMay Zhang), in a rehearsal hall practicing ballet in the middle of the night while her mother cleans the building. Cheyenne forces Jack to accept Susu as a student. In the daytime.
France receives Gabin Roux (Ivan du Pontavice), a tempermental lead dancer, and Tobias Bell (Gideon Glick), a choreographer whose neurodivergent way of working confounds but excites. The Americans also send back Mishi (Taïs Vinolo), a dancer from Paris who was working in New York.
All the dancers in this series were professional dancers, except the two leads. Arcadian Broad was the dance double for Ivan du Pontavice with Constance Devernay dancing for Lou de Laâge. I don’t know what kind of magic they did, but you couldn’t tell the actors weren’t doing their own dancing.
The characters were so complex and real. It was a delight to watch these excellent actors bring such vivid people to life. Their individual story arcs as they worked to bring together performances in both locations were full of emotion, personality, and surprises. There are many characters I haven’t mentioned who add to the drama, especially the parents of the folks I have named.
Artists are emotional people. Anger, tears, triumph, rejection, joy, love – this group of actors handled the big swings with outstanding performances. Season one had 8 episodes and a number of big moments.
The series is on Prime Video. This is also the home of the Palladino’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. In the time since we had the pleasure of watching The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Prime, Amazon has added ads throughout the episodes with in-ad buying options. Not a welcome addition from my point of view, especially when a subscription to Amazon Prime is already high. I hope your aggravation with Amazon doesn’t prevent you from seeing Étoile.