Bunheads -- The Summer Finale

I guess the longer this show has gone on I've find myself becoming more and more disenchanted by it. I think it's because it's just such an obvious knock-off of The Gilmore Girls. It's like Amy Sherman-Palladino doesn't have any true original ideas and has to redo the only one she ever had.

The episode began with the return of Sasha to the dance studio. Fanny allowed Michelle to choreograph a dance, and she convinced Sasha to dance in it. It allowed for Sasha to return without either Sasha or Fanny having to apologize. Only problem is Fanny called in a dancer named The Ringer and she's too afraid to tell the robotic psycho to leave. She passes the responsibility on to Michelle who passes it on to Sasha.

The whole Ringer storyline was just completely unbelievable. Fanny, who isn't afraid to tell anyone what she thinks, is too afraid to tell this little psychopath that her services aren't required and to bug off? By letting this lunatic run amok it was just to cause mayhem in the ballet performance and set-up Michelle leaving Paradise. It was a bad plot device since it made no sense. Surely, Michelle or Fanny saw The Ringer stalking Sasha. At that point they should have set the psycho down and tell her to leave or they'd have her arrested.

Another plot device that didn't make sense was the Michael/Fanny one. Fanny was going to get a cabin and give up her ballet studio and move away from Paradise with Michael. Then she found out he bought property of his own, and she called off the plan. Why was Michael buying property of his own such a deal breaker for Fanny? Anyway, Michelle tells Michael what Fanny had planned in hopes things will work out for Fanny and Michael. Instead, he just disappears without a by-your-leave. First off, the ballet studio is Fanny's life. It's how she was able to hang on to the dance world when she had to give up her career to raise Hubbell. So why couldn't Michael just stay in Paradise where Fanny could have the best of both worlds? And why would Michael take off when he heard Fanny wanted to be with him?

We all know Michelle will be returning to Paradise. I just hope ASP's plan isn't to phase Fanny out when she does return. Fanny is the only original character on the show who isn't some knock-off from The Gilmore Girls, even though she's an actor from The Gilmore Girls. Michelle and Fanny's relationship is far more interesting than Michelle and The Bunheads. Fanny is the glue that holds this show together. If they get rid of Fanny the sound you'll be hearing is its death knell as it plays out the rest of its season one episodes and gets cancelled like Jane By Design.

Michelle discovered the Bunheads at war over Melanie's low-life brother, Charlie. She arranged a peace treaty with them. Boo agreed to give the loser up so Ginny could date him and Melanie agreed not to object to it, while Ginny and Melanie agreed to stop being Mean Girls to Carl.

Unfortunately it didn't last when Charlie showed up with another girl. For some reason, pathetic stupid Ginny blamed Melanie for the fact her brother is a dog. Sorry, Ginny, but if you were paying attention, this is the same crap Good Time Charlie pulled on Boo. At least he didn't write another girl's name on your arm and ask you to call him up with the number, so consider your stupid little self lucky.

In the pilot episode Boo, Ginny and Melanie were the three girls doing ballet who didn't have the perfect ballet dancer's physique, while Sasha has the perfect shape and form to be a ballet dancer. You felt sympathy for them, which has rapidly vanished. Boo, who has been constantly penalized for not having the perfect dancer's body did the same thing to Carl that was done to her, which made her seem like a petty little creep. And Melanie and Ginny were worse as they made fun of Carl and where just nasty little creeps to him. As a result the Bunheads have lost what little sympathy quotient they ever had going for them.

At the fundraiser for the Nutcracker ballet, while Sasha was hiding from her stalker, The Ringer, she met a boy named Tyler who was as waiter. Later she met him again and he was calling himself Roman and was all decked out as an Emo. Again, another thing that made absolutely no sense. Exactly what was the point of that?

Another story that came out of the blue starting last week was Michelle and Goudeau. He announced he was off to Australia and kissed her in front of everyone in the bar. It might have been a nice moment had there been any build-up to the moment and more importantly if there'd been any actual chemistry between the two. It just came off as a Luke and Loralei rip-off attempt. It also doesn't help that Goudeau comes off as an airhead surfer dude who has nothing in common with Michelle.

Finally, things implode between Fanny and Michelle, when Fanny learns Michelle talked to Michael and she blames Michelle for Michael taking off like a thief in the night. My hope is Michael went to sell the property he bought and will return to live in Paradise with Fanny. A show without Fanny will be a show without any life or vitality.

Things go from bad to worse when the psycho Ringer replaces Michelle's water bottle with mace and when Michelle spritzes all the dancers, she maces them, allowing the psycho to take the stage. Only the psycho doesn't even notice that everyone is leaving the building as she maniacally twirls on stage. Since this was all to lead to Michelle leaving town, wouldn't it have been better writing to have Michelle's friend Richard offer her jump start her dance career and have Michelle decide to leave to pursue her dreams?

Fanny also blames this on Michelle and labels her as bad luck and having destroyed her ballet studio. Sorry, but this is Fanny's fault for not telling The Ringer to leave. Michelle has a dream where she's auditioning again and Hubbell is in the audience. He tells her Fanny always wanted him to dance and wished she had had a daughter. When she wakes up its to hear the parents arguing with Fanny and demanding Michelle never go anywhere near their kids. That's enough for Michelle; she's outta there. Sasha tries to get her to stay as she and the Bunheads [in a really cringe-worthy moment] stand on chairs saying, "Captain, my captain." Michelle appreciates the effort but still walks out the door and leaves.

Amy Sherman-Palladino needs to get over her Gilmore Girls obsession and start writing this show as its own unique entity. She also needs to do some major work on these Bunheads because at the moment none of them are that likable or interesting. If she doesn't, this show isn't going to make it. As it is, like Jane By Design, it's rapidly gone downhill. This show needs to get it together before it's too late.