Bunheads - Season Finale - Recap and Review - Next!
Recap and review of Bunheads - Season Finale - Next!:
I've made no secret of my love for Bunheads, a family show that has richness and nuance in just about every aspect of its production, from the way characters are drawn, to the performances of those characters by the actors involved. The writing is note-perfect for the tone of the series, and the aesthetic of the show is helped exponentially by such dazzling triumphs of choreography as tonight's show-closing number (which we'll get to in a bit). This is all a roundabout way of saying that "Next!" is the best thing I've seen from a freshman series all year. When the episode was over, I immediately wanted to stick around for the replay, to watch the aforementioned show-closing dance, but also to see Sutton Foster in her theatrical element. There's a wonderfully old-fashioned vibe to the series, and it's helped immensely by Foster's showmanship and the effective simplicity of its aesthetic. I certainly hope that Bunheads can overcome its ratings deficiency and earn itself a second season, as there really isn't anything else like this on TV. But if this is the last we see of the show, at least they went out on their best episode. And while there was not a whole lot of closure to be had, there's a sense of a vivid, continuing world that remains alive even if we're not around to see it.
Credit: ABC Family
The series doesn't always confront the issue of female sexuality, at least as it relates to our bunheads, but "Next!" follows up on last week's looming possibility of the girls' exploration by presenting the case of Sasha (Julia Goldani Telles). Sasha feels it's time to finally go all the way with Roman (Garrett Coffey), but not as a matter of love or affection, or even necessarily of desire. She simply wants to be an informed, experienced young woman. At least, that's the front she's presenting. I felt that, at some level, Sasha adopted a clinical approach to sex in order to hide her fear about actually doing it. This is somewhat reinforced by her eagerness to get the other girls to embark on the journey with her, particularly pressuring Boo (Kaitlyn Jenkins) to move things along with Carl. As Sasha says, she doesn't want inexperienced friends, so she expects Boo to renege on the plan to finally have sex with Carl a year and a half down the line, and simply move up the date. Boo isn't sure what she's going to do, and Mel (Emma Dumont) skips the issue altogether by saying that she and Ginny (Bailey Buntain) don't need sex, they're simply going to be a spinster buddy-comedy pairing. The episode nimbly introduces the conflict of sex as a nexus around which to expand on the girls' relationships with one another, with their romantic partners, and with Michelle (Sutton Foster) herself.
Credit: ABC Family
Michelle goes to an ope casting call for a Broadway show based on the film "Dark Victory" starring Bette Davis. The bunheads follow Michelle to the audition, sneaking into the studio and watching the entire corralling process: the auditioners being herded together and made to dance, with many being cut, one-by-one. This entire sequence was among the best the show has ever done, as Michelle leaves the safety of Paradise, where she's at least somewhat respected, to reenter the anonymity of the audition process where she's little more than the number stuck to her unitard. The casting director seems to take a liking to Michelle almost immediately, lingering on her a little longer while walking along the line and dismissing dancers immediately based on their appearance, as if playing the world's most shallow game of "Duck, Duck, Goose." It's a tense scene, and I was surprised at how much, given that, realistically, we shouldn't want Michelle to get this role, since it would take her away from Paradise. Yet we root for her all the same, because she's our Michelle. And also because Sutton Foster really is just that talented. Her performance of a number from "The Chorus Line" (on the recommendation of the pianist, who balks at her choice of "I Dreamed A Dream", which he's sick of everyone doing simply because of Anne Hathaway) is terrific. Foster really does make things look effortless. But it's just not enough in this situation, and it's doubtful she ever really had a chance, as the pianist (Seth Rudetsky) tells her to give him a call the next time she's in New York, since he might be able to get her work, but fails to find a card he can give her. Making matters worse, it turns out the casting director always uses the same handful of dancers for each show, and that the producers pretty much force them to do these casting calls. Michelle leaves in a huff, sputtering away in her Blue Beetle and heading back to Paradise. Ah well, at least she finally got to have sex with Godot (Nathan Parsons), as we learn at the beginning of the episode.
Credit: ABC Family
Yet the audition is significant for other reasons. The girls want to support Michelle, but they aren't sure if it's a good idea to make their presence known. When the dancers are all corralled into the gym to perform for the casting directors, the girls take it upon themselves to jump in. Boo gets carried away and tries to follow the other auditioners out of the room to be put into groups of ten for the next round, but Sasha pulls her away, insisting that she's only a teenager and that she's not allowed to do this. Boo pleads with Sasha, insisting that this is how people get discovered in the first place, but Sasha isn't really interested in hearing her out. Boo finally snaps at Sasha's bossy attitude, and tells her that she's been treating her poorly for far too long, and adds that she'll have sex with Carl when she's damn good and ready. Sasha takes it with a detached facade, and that's pretty much the last we hear of it. Yet it's hard to imagine that some of it didn't sink in. Sasha spends far too much of the episode trying to get the girls to educate themselves about sex for her not to have realized that Boo was never going to be into the plan. The montage at around the midway point of the episode, set to "Smile and a Ribbon" by Patience and Prudence, is a gorgeous way to communicate the girls' sexual maturation (or rather, their attempt at it). We see Sasha baking muffins for the sexual study session in her apron, as if playing Patty Duke, along with extended sequences of the girls reading up on sex ed. One of the most telling portions of this sequence is in what each girl is reading: while the other girls read sexual education books, Boo, whose notions of sex rely on romantic notions, is the only person reading a work of fiction on teenage sexuality, the novel "Forever..." by Judy Blume. She then enthusiastically switches over to "The Hobbit" since, once again, Boo isn't really into the whole idea of being pressured into sex. But most tellingly of all is Ginny reading "Girls Who Said Yes" by Edward Thorne, a nonfiction work that should have been a hint to the revelation at the end of the episode.
Following Fanny's (Kelly Bishop) comically misguided attempts at staging a sexual education course in the dance studio, Michelle chats with Ginny on the bench outside. When Ginny starts to weep, Michelle asks her what's wrong, and Ginny reveals that she slept with Frankie (Niko Pepaj). It's a bombshell in a series that doesn't really traffic in twists, yet it feels completely organic to the story, and is the culmination of a weeks-long arc. Both Sutton Foster and Bailey Buntain are remarkable here, as Ginny recounts the experience and produces the "Thank You" note she sent Frankie afterwards, which states that she enjoyed the experience. Unsurprisingly, she reveals she hasn't seen him and that he hasn't called, though she isn't sure he even has her number. It's such a naturalistic performance, made all the more crushing for Ginny's justifications: "He was just so beautiful," repeated as if a personal mantra, a phrase defending her from judgment. Michelle isn't here to judge, however. She embraces Ginny and calms her as she sobs, and it's one of the most painfully beautiful moments of the series, even if it doesn't really provide closure of any kind (in the unfortunate event that this is the last we see of the show). I'm not entirely sure it needs to provide closure: this is an unfortunate aspect of life that doesn't always have a resolution. Bunheads portrays the teenage uncertainty of lost virginity better than most shows that actually are meant to be teenage potboilers, and I have immense respect for Amy Sherman-Palladino for crafting such a deft narrative here.
Credit: ABC Family
Better still is the closing interpretive dance number, as the girls convey their budding sexual maturity through a number set to "Makin' Whoopee", dressed in skirts straight out of the 1950s. There's a strange disconnect in seeing Boo so overtly sexualized (yet tastefully so) as she is here, and I think that's the point. It's an absolutely dynamite number that places the sexually-experienced girls in key roles in the dance: Ginny and the worldly Cozette (Jeanine Mason). It really is a dance that needs to be seen, as its effect isn't immediately apparent from a recap such as this, which is why I've embedded it below. But suffice to say, it's immensely engrossing simply as a performance, divorced from context. However, within context, it becomes all the more impactful. For me, this was the strongest number the show has ever done, and it's entirely in service of evoking a theme -- showing, instead of telling. That's just plain good storytelling.
Unfortunately, the fringe stories of the episode are the only stumbling point. Fanny's attempts to get Milly (Liza Weil) to help out Truly (Stacey Oristano) are sweet, as is the sisters bonding over their mutual attraction to Scotty (Hunter Foster), who they acknowledge is incredibly cute, even though he sort of looks like Michelle. I feel the episode would have been perfectly fine excising these stories altogether, but they're hardly substantial enough on their own to undermine the moment of what is the show's best episode. If this is the last we see of Bunheads, I'll be pretty bummed out, of course. But the show will leave behind a legacy of rare, consistent quality throughout. This truly was one of the best shows I've had the pleasure of recapping and reviewing here at Rickey.
