Bunheads -- The Joffrey Ballet Auditions
Okay, I know it's petty, but every time I see the opening credits for Bunheads it's ticks me off. Fanny is just as much a part of this show as Michelle is. It's her ballet school not Michelle's. And I find myself liking Fanny more than Michelle. Put Fanny in the opening credits.
Okay, rant over.
All of Michelle's things arrive from Vegas and it seems her landlord also sent some furniture he didn't want. Fanny comes upon the mess piling up in the drive and tells Michelle she needs to get rid of it pronto because the Joffrey Ballet is coming there for auditions and she can't have that mess there when they arrive.
Michelle learns a few new things about her new home. The refrigerator is hot and the stove doesn't work. When she turns it on it starts leaking gas and Michelle has to run for help and leave the windows and doors open so she would be overcome by gas fumes.
She falls asleep like that. Enter Fanny who apparently doesn't sleep much at night like an in-house vampire. Fanny says it's nice to have someone to talk to in the middle of the night as Michelle tries to go back to sleep. Michelle also isn't too thrilled when Fanny starts unpacking all her boxes and starts putting things away. She gets another of those un-thrilling moments in the morning when she's walking around her place in her skivvies and notices Fanny's dance students are peeping in at her. Seems she also doesn't have curtains.
Fanny is planning the reception for the Joffrey Ballet with Rico and Truly. Rico's partner Nina is appalled that Rico is doing a catering business as well as the fact they're open seven days a week. Rico, himself, doesn't know quite how that happened. Everything comes to a standstill, however, when Fanny receives a fax from the Joffrey Ballet and she claims they're cancelling and holding the auditions in Ojai instead. Fanny is devastated.
It turns out that Joffrey just wants Fanny to fix her floors in the dance studio. Only problem is Fanny doesn't have the money to do it. Truly has to explain why this is so important to Fanny; she gave up everything for Hubbell and this is all she has left. Truly also makes curtains for Michelle and helps to hang them up, since Michelle made a mess of trying to hang a curtain rod, herself.
In turn, Michelle decides to save the day for Fanny. She tries to sex up Bob and Don, two men in town who could fix Fanny's floors, so they'll do it on the layaway plan. They show her the door. When Michelle gets home she tells Fanny they're going on a road trip to Oxnard to find someone to fix Fanny's floor on a layaway plan. As it turns out Fanny is the one who manages to sex-up a man name Floyd who agrees to do it for her and the Joffrey Ballet auditions are back on.
Sasha and Boo switch roles as Sasha keeps trying to be nice to Boo and Boo is giving her nothing but attitude back. Things defrost between them when Sasha steals money from her mother's purse to buy Boo some new ballet shoes when her old ones become unbearable. Sasha claims her father bought them for her and he got the wrong size, but Boo isn't fooled.
Things aren't going so well on Boo's home front when she realizes her mother has no faith in her making it into Joffrey when she finds a "Better Luck Next Year" cake in the fridge waiting for Boo when she fails to get in, again.
The auditions seem to be bringing memories of Michelle's last audition where the man wouldn't even let her audition up as she has nightmares about it. Hopefully, Michelle got the point Fanny was trying to make with the way Boo was treated. She got cut the first time, so Fanny popped a black wig on her head and sent her back in with a fake name. When Boo got cut again Fanny popped a red wig on her head and sent her back in. Boo comes back after being cut, again, but this time she got to perform and she was complimented on her performance, giving her hope for next year. Fanny tells a puzzled Michelle that the first time Boo got cut they weren't seeing her, just that her body type was different from the other girls in the room. By sending Boo back twice, they finally did see her.
I think the best thing about this show is the relationship between Michelle and Fanny. They really are good for each other. It'll be interesting to see how their relationship continues to unfold.
