‘Étoile’ (2025) Prime Video Series Review - A Comedy Drama Worth Watching

Jack McMillan (Luke Kirby) and Geneviève Lavigne (Charlotte Gainsbourg) - two people who run a world-renowned ballet company in New York and Paris, respectively - execute a plan to save ballet and their company. They have lost a generation of young people to TikTok, which means the audience for ballet is dwindling. To save this art form from further damage, Geneviève comes up with a plan that could benefit both her and Jack's company. All they have to do is swap their most talented stars so that Paris can witness the spirit of America and America can see the colors of Paris. Geneviève believes this move will attract both the old and new audiences. Jack is reluctant - he is too attached to his dancers. But he anyway ends up shaking Geneviève's hand in the end. Anything for ballet, right? Despite all the talk about and around this dance form, Étoile (created by Daniel Palladino and Amy Sherman-Palladino) shouldn't be seen for its "realistic depiction" of what goes inside those "arty buildings." Everything that happens inside Jack and Geneviève's office only looks as accurate as the activities of Dunder Mifflin employees. "Reality" is not the point; humor is. And Étoile is one of the funniest shows you will watch this year that also manages to capture the tone, the structure of classic TV comedies that used to have a big story and many small stories in between.

Most of those shows, however, had episodes that had 25-30 minutes runtime. Étoile's episodes range between 50 and 60 minutes, yet it never becomes exhausting (the finale runs for 1 hour and 14 minutes). The silky smooth comic mood is delightfully diverting. Many new sitcoms go for disposable humor. The gags aren't built; they are thrown around casually for easy laughs and to desperately keep you from checking out of the series. The jokes in Étoile have a consistency, which is probably the biggest surprise. Whenever Tobias (Gideon Glick) leaves the room, someone always asks, "Is he coming back?" Jack, in one of the latter episodes, is often sarcastically reminded that he is the company's head. Eva Cullman (Tiler Peck), a ballerina, responds to any query only after a man whispers something in her ears. This small routine even finds its way to a ballet performance (when the curtain rises, we see her talking to that man). Look a little closer; you will find some gags emanating a mirror image-like quality. A character talks about young people's obsession with TikTok and other social media services. Another character, at a birthday party, goes on and on about how today's generation, due to their phone addiction, has lost the ability to communicate with other humans (he fondly - perhaps too fondly and frustratingly - remembers those days when people used to have plenty of sex). Some workers tell Geneviève that they liked watching the bull more than the "long and boring" opera, and she repeats their lines later at a gathering. Jack casually walks into the men's locker room while talking to someone on his phone. A character in one of the episodes says that he needs a private room to have an important discussion, after which he walks into the kitchen and tells the cooks to clear the room.

My notes are mainly filled with all the jokes. It's so rare to come across a comedy with good writing that I couldn't help but pick up all the gags I found appealing. There is a lovely, amusing scene between Geneviève and her sister, Leonor (Céline Menville), that starts with a skateboard and ends with that skateboard. The quarrels, the insults the sisters throw at each other produce rhythms both bitter and wacky. A similar energy can be detected in the scene where Cheyenne (Lou de Laâge) - or the incomparable Cheyenne - visits her mother, Bruna (Marie Berto), after a long time. Their arguments, interrupted by Mishi's (Taïs Vinolo) fangirl comments, are so brash that they come across as equals in their relationship. Bruna sometimes steals the show through the power of her expressions. When bread pops out of the toaster, her eyes become big as she gives a wide smile. Bruna might have as well invented that toaster. Cheyenne is an equally memorable creation. When she appears on the screen, she completely grabs your attention, your eyes. She mainly doesn't speak - she screams. Everything around her is automatically dialed to a hundred. Lou de Laâge can easily play the role of Sydney Sweeney's long-lost sister in a film.

Seeing Gainsbourg in a comedy is always a pleasure, especially because when I think of her, my mind instantly goes back to Nymphomaniac and Antichrist. To see her in Étoile then being all silly and irritable (thanks to her heels) and charming is like heaving a sigh of relief. Then there is Simon Callow's Crispin Shamblee, whose omnipresence reminds you of the many Robert Downey Jrs in The Sympathizer, Park Chan-wook's historical black comedy. Étoile gently tackles heavy subjects like strained familial relationships and the single-minded pursuit that leads to many sacrifices from the side of an artist (a ballerina looks at her Instagram account and realizes she hasn't done anything apart from dancing). The latter point, though, isn't solved through an explicit conversation or a motivational speech. It just resolves itself offscreen. You do sometimes feel as if Étoile is not properly handling crucial things. For instance, we never see Mishi discussing THAT incident after spoiling someone's reputation in public. And it would have been nice if Étoile had paid a little more attention to the ballet performances - they don't excite your senses visually. When the audience in the series sniffles or rants while watching the pieces, you fail to see the reason behind these emotions. I was never in sync with the spectators on the screen.

But Étoile has enough witty touches to make you happy. It opens with characters talking about syphilis, and when a woman calls one of them weird, he says that ballet people are weird - they are wired differently. Cheyenne repeats this sentiment later when she tells a boy that ballet dancers are odd people because they purposefully stand on their toes and that he should never ask a ballerina to show her feet to him. The various threads in Étoile are not held tightly. They flow and swing gracefully. This looseness is part of the design. It renders the series nimble, lightweight, undemanding. Étoile, dear readers, is worth watching.

Final Score- [8/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times
Note: All 8 episodes are screened for this review.
Premiere Date: April 24, 2025, on Prime Video