Thoughts on Bunheads Summer Season

On Monday night (August 20, 2012), the summer season of ABCFamily's Bunheads was completed. As someone who watched Gilmore Girls, I set out to watch the show due to Amy Sherman-Palladino being the executive producer. While I enjoyed the first ten episodes, there were similarities to her earlier series, Gilmore Girls.

The main character named Michelle Simms as played by Sutton Foster, ends up in Paradise, California. She was in a dead end life in Las Vegas as a showgirl. Michelle ends up marrying Hubbell Flowers (Alan Ruck), who is a shoe salesman, who comes to Las Vegas quite often. Hubbell takes her home, and ends up dying in a car accident hours after they consummated their marriage. Michelle has to adjust to her new life and mother-in-law Fanny (Kelly Bishop).

Before Michelle became a showgirl, she was a ballet dancer. Fanny was a dancer until she had Hubbell, but has a ballet school called Paradise Dance Academy. As a teacher, Fanny doesn't charge the students, but that needs to change, and Michelle joined her in teaching adults. The other main characters are four of Fanny's teenage students Bettina aka Boo (Kaitlyn Jenkins), Sasha (Julia Goldani Telles), Ginny (Bailey Buntain), and Melanie (Emma Dumont). The term bunhead references the fact that they all wore their hair in buns to dance.

While Michelle has gone on dates and has had sex since Hubbell died she was not involved with anyone seriously though she had a flirtation with Godot (otherwise known as Nathan Parsons aka Ethan on General Hospital). Fanny has an on/off relationship with Michael (Richard Gant who was on GH as Dr. Ford). Sasha doesn't have a love interest, but liked Godot. She is the best technical dancer, and has the best body for the ballet world of the teens. Boo had a crush on Melanie's brother Charlie (Zak Henri), but ends up falling for her shorter dance partner Carl (Casey J. Adler). Boo is heavier than most ballerinas, but is a talented dancer. Ginny is the busty blonde bunhead, who ends up liking Charlie also after breaking up with her longtime boyfriend Josh (Gabriel Notarangelo). The girl we know the least about is Melanie, she's Charlie's sister and is a bit sarcastic. She finds her brother annoying and is frustrated over Ginny and Boo fighting over him.

Like Gilmore Girls, Bunheads features a quirky cast of characters living in a small town, who speak really quickly and drop odd pop culture references. Unlike GG, Bunheads takes place in California, so sometimes the characters have west coast eccentricities instead of stereotypical New England issues. Michelle is an outsider trying to adjust to a new life, and in a way running from her past. Lorelei on GG had the support of her community, but had to face her past head-on as she had to allow her parents back into her life for the sake of her daughter.

Before the last episode of the summer season aired, news was released that the show was picked up for more episodes. I appreciate that, as while there was an ending it was a sad one. At the Nutcracker event, Michelle ended up macing the cast. The parents were up in arms, and Michelle left with her head up high as the students all supported her as a teacher.