I am horribly late to the game with this Etoile show on Amazon Prime. A friend at work recommended it last year as I dismissed it for a month.
I watched the first few minutes of bitchy ballet people and thought, “This sounds like Gilmore Girls. Gary liked that show. Gary will like this.”
Then I saw on screen that it was created by the Palladinos, the same couple who wrote Gilmore Girls and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
So I told Gary about it, and he indicated that unless the opening credits include Lauren Graham running down a flight of steps in her shorts, Gary is not all in on the Palladinos.
I went back to it recently, and I eventually got to the scene deep in the first episode that introduces the character Cheyenne. I suppose the writers sat on her until I established that I could tolerate a certain level of misery from the other characters and then said, “Are you still with us? Try this grouchy ballerina.” It was like President Bartlet’s entrance in The West Wing. All the other characters are a test to see if you deserve the best one. Anyway, after she hurled a backpack down a stairway I thought, oh, I love this show.
Of course all the other characters are excellent as well, especially Charlotte Gainsbourg. It took me a while to recognize her as the French ballet executive. I knew her as the only actress to play Jane Eyre who matched the character’s description from the book: plain. I kept seeing the modern French beauty and for looking for hints of that plain young actress with the absurdly long neck. No hints at all. I suppose she might have had a new smile and … a neck-shortening procedure? Is that a thing one can do?
Anyway, watch Etoile if you can. Just one season but very enjoyable.