Review – Bunheads

Rating: 4.  ABC Family’s new show will strike a chord with many of the “Gilmore Girls” demographic as it has with most of the critics.  The show’s title refers to the hairstyle worn by female ballet dancers at Michelle, the main character’s, dance studio. 

The San Francisco Chronicle said that they were “not sure at first how much we like a lead character who marries a man she doesn’t love because she’s on the rebound from a bad audition. Yeah, she’s drunk, and it is Vegas, but the character loop-the-loops are initially a challenge.”  They added that the show “will take some work and it could just as easily become either annoying or likable,” and said, “It will take more than the one episode ABC Family sent to critics to know which way ‘Bunheads’ will fall.”

Newsday says, “it’s got that multigeneration[al] appeal, spotlighting both teens and adults, this time striving to (re)define themselves in ways those Gilmore girls never had to. Monday night’s hour, spent setting up the premise, also drops a doozy of a conclusion that is up there with the equally stunning yet not-the-least-bit-similar twist delivered by ‘The Shield.’  They add that “‘Bunheads’ seems to know exactly what it’s doing.”

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says the show has “a similar sensibility [to] ‘Gilmore Girls’,” and that it maintains the same “familiar rat-a-tat-tat dialogue patter in a small-town setting.”  And, although it’s “not yet…up to the high standards of the first few seasons of ‘Gilmore Girls’…the pilot shows potential.”

The Washington Post says, “Bunheads” — slang for ballerinas, with their oh-so-perfectly coiled hair — has a gawky name but a great pedigree. It combines the witty pen of “Gilmore Girls” creator Amy Sherman-Palladino with Foster’s star power, adding “Gilmore” and fellow Broadway alumna Kelly Bishop as a bonus.”

Both the Sacramento Bee and the Miami Herald list “Bunheads” as a show worth watching this season.

St. Louis Today also gave the show 3 out of 4 stars, and call the show, “beautiful and sweet, funny and touching,” adding, “It could be the next best thing to returning to Stars Hollow, Conn., in its glorious ‘Gilmore Girls’ years.”