ÉTOILE – Season One

The creators of Gilmore Girls (2000-07) and The Marvellous Mrs Maisel (2017-2023) return with Étoile, a comedy-drama set in the world of ballet, following the artistic staff of two world-renowned dance companies in New York and Paris.

Jack McMillan (Luke Kirby) is the executive director of the Metropolitan Ballet Theatre at New York City’s Lincoln Centre, but he’s struggling to fill seats. Geneviève (Charlotte Gainsbourg), interim general director of l’Opéra Français and Le Ballet National in Paris, faces the same issue. “A lot of our dancers have abandoned toe shoes for TikToks,” she notes in the first episode.

So, the illustrious French and American companies decide something big needs to happen: for one year, they’ll swap their top talent in the hopes of getting people interested in the genre again. The dancers aren’t impressed with this cultural exchange, and the board of trustees can’t make up their minds on who to send.

The cast is a motley crew of creatives, dancers, and trustees. The series does a good job of building the world of the two ballet companies, but doesn’t quite manage the same with the characters. The first episode hilariously sees all the board members sitting together in one room to decide who’ll go to New York and who’ll go to Paris. It’s a great opening introduction to the concept, characters, and world of Étoile. Sadly, the series doesn’t uphold this standard in the first half of the eight-part series.

The main attraction of this swap is the étoile / star herself, Cheynne (Lou de Laâge), an argumentative yet brilliant ballet dancer. Her arrival in New York is the show’s most significant and intriguing storyline. We meet her protesting at sea, and throughout the series, she makes an impassioned argument against… well, everything. She’s divisive and outspoken, but cares about ballet and supporting talent over corporate greed. Cheynne is unevenly written, however, frequently going on boring monologues that add little to the plot, but she’s also a brilliantly layered character. Still, despite her spikiness and refusal to follow orders, Cheynne makes numerous wonderful points about the hypocrisy and performative nature of sponsoring the arts that you can’t help but fall in love with.

Left behind in Paris is the ‘John McEnroe of ballet’, Gabin (Ivan du Pontavice), whose bad-boy behaviour is holding back his career. Returning to Paris is ingénue Mishi Duplessis (Taïs Vinolo), who’s fighting allegations of nepotism and learning to love her grumpy lodger. Less keen to be shipped to the City of Light is awkward choreographer Tobias Bell (Gideon Glick), who walks around with heavy metal music loudly playing in his headphones, ignorant of social cues and niceties. This character walks a fine line between a parody of autism and comedy relief; at times it feels uncomfortable that someone so clearly on the spectrum is the butt of the joke.

A standout character is Nicholas (David Haig), one of the senior staff members in New York who appears to do everything and nothing. A blast from the past, he’s full of stories about parties, quaaludes, and STIs. He spends most of the episode on his own side plot, injuring himself and making jokes that would make HR’s toes curl. He often brings nothing to the plot, but is the funniest thing about any episode.

Conniving trustee Crispin Shamblee (Simon Callow) is a larger-than-life pantomime villain who wears thin. He pops up throughout the episodes, often unnecessarily, and his presence soon becomes grating. Callow is always working at 100%, even when the scene doesn’t need it.

Luke Kirby (who played the soulful if not troubled Lenny Bruce in The Marvellous Mrs Maisel) is a master of making the Palladino’s brand of dry humour seem likeable when it could come across as smarmy in the hands of others. His character, despite being the lead, often feels underwritten. The reveals about Jack’s personal life come too slowly, leaving Kirby’s natural charm to do the heavy lifting.

Charlotte Gainsbourg plays up to stereotypes as an uptight Parisian, battling the Parisian elite and dancers on the threat of revolt. She and her left-hand man, Raphael (Yanic Truesdale, essentially reviving his Gilmore Girls role), send up the snobby French cliché without feeling insulting to the nation. The behind-the-scenes drama of the Parisian delegation is never quite as interesting as that of their New York delegates.

It takes a while to warm to the characters, who are presented as 2D stereotypes until the latter half of the series. Étoile seriously struggles with character introductions, which makes it hard for viewers to care what happens to them. It takes multiple hours to really explain the nuances of these people. Étoile does a good job of giving characters arcs and journeys, but would’ve benefited from getting under their skin much earlier. By episode 5, the show finally understands its characters and how to use them effectively. With a second season already greenlit, hopefully, future episode will better balance the large international cast across the two locations.

While the writer-director duo of Daniel and Amy Palladino has always made shows that have relatable themes, Étoile is incredibly niche and unlikely to have mass appeal. Gilmore Girls explored family, growing up, and small-town life, while The Marvellous Mrs. Maisel depicted divorce, starting over, and the more universally loved world of comedy. Étoile doesn’t just follow the dancer’s and artistic directors’ interpersonal lives, it deeply follows the world of ballet. That said, it’s not totally alienating to audiences. Outside of the performances, the show gently mocks the way the world has turned to social media for entertainment over art. It also makes a pretty important point.

Those who aren’t fans of ballet or dance may struggle with the extended dance and training sequences. These scenes are beautifully and intimately shot, but will likely bore anyone who isn’t a dance lover. A former dancer herself, Amy Sherman-Palladino was concerned with realism over the glossy ballet often depicted on the screen.

The show features real ballet dancers in many of the roles, allowing the routines to be shown in full glory without the need for sudden cuts or angle changes to make the scene seem realistic. The talents of real-life ballerinas, including New York City Ballet principal dancers Unity Phelan and Tiler Peck, and Boston Ballet principal dancer John Lam, are on display here. Even the lead cast of ballet dancers are played by actors with dance backgrounds for authenticity. If you’re not already a dance lover, Étoile is likely to bore you instead of converting you.

Daniel and Amy Sherman-Palladino bring their well-oiled writing style to the world of ballet. Influenced by screwball comedies, the quick-paced, pop-culture-filled dialogue reaches its full force in Étoile. It’s not a writing style for everyone, of course, as it can be irritating and smug. If their previous work, known for dry sarcasm and quick wit, was annoying to you, Étoile won’t win you over. But if you can palate their distinctive style, Étoile is a charming and realistic exploration of what it takes to be a ballet dancer and the hard work it takes to keep the lights on in your company.

Once Étoile gets going, it’s funny, heartfelt, and will make you want to support your local artists. It’s a shame the writing takes so long to introduce the real heart of the show, the characters.

USA | 2025 | 8 EPISODES | 16:9 HD | COLOUR | ENGLISH

Cast & Crew

writers: Daniel Palladino, Amy Sherman-Palladino, Jen Kirkman, Isaac Oliver & Thomas Ward.
directors: David Palladino & Amy Sherman-Palladino.
starring: Luke Kirby, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Lou de Laâge, David Alvarez, Taïs Vinolo, Simon Callow, Ivan du Pontavice & David Haig.