![]() This is especially true for the bevy of romances the show sets up - there are so many! And they are all good! I want to talk about Justin and Simon’s first kiss forever! - including the doomed one between Mike (an out-of-work auto-factory worker trying to win his wife back) and Paula (a onetime HR executive with breast cancer). There are certainly moments and story lines that could use some breathing room for a more profound payoff, but mostly, thanks to some really dialed-in performances and writing that doesn’t waste too much time on exposition, it’s easy to get emotionally invested. With only 11 episodes in the first season, The Big Leap sometimes feels like it is moving at warp speed. The “getting married before the bride dies” wedding between two characters who only met eight episodes prior And, yes, sure, I might be trying to download this version of the song. Like, obviously when two cast members aren’t getting along, they’re going to have a dance-off to Ludacris’s “Move Bitch” to see which one can stay on the show, and obviously “there’s a shaman in transpo” who is going to give tightly wound choreographer and executive producer Monica mushrooms, and she’s going to have a vision of how to save Swan Lake, and that vision is this hip-hop ballet. There are many things that happen on this show that sound insane on paper, but the trick is that the context around those moments is done so well that, for the most part, you’re already too swept up to question it. I love every single word in that sentence, and if you watched The Big Leap, you would too. Obviously there’s going to be a dance-off, and obviously it will be … like this. The hip-hop ballet set to the orchestral version of “Move Bitch” that takes place in a ’shroom-induced fantasy If you’re not into this show at that point, you probably won’t be into this show. And it’s gorgeous! And Gabby cries because she feels free. It all culminates in their actual audition, in which Reggie wants to really wow everybody with a lift, but Gabby’s dealing with self-esteem issues after years of being told she’s too big to be a dancer. But once they’re in a room together dancing, it’s easy to forget that minor plot issue. Do I fully believe Reggie would be so easily persuaded to let Gabby teach him choreography so they can both get on the show? Not really. ![]() So much of buying this show rests on buying the chemistry in this first episode between Gabby, a single mother whose unexpected pregnancy derailed her dance dreams, and Reggie, the disgraced NFL player looking for redemption. The Big Leap not only has to lay out its very ambitious tone, but it also has to introduce the show within the show and an eclectic ensemble cast of characters that we need to care about. So much of buying this show rests on buying the chemistry between Gabby and Reggie, and they make it easy from the get-go.Ī pilot episode has so many things to accomplish, and a pilot episode for a dramedy about a fictional dance reality show has an extra-long to-do list. Let’s review the highlights of the just-wrapped first season. It takes some big leaps, if you will, and sticks the landing. There are several elements in season one that seem risky - whether they’re plot points, character arcs, or, you know, bringing flash mobs back - but the show manages to pull it all off. For a broadcast show, it makes some ambitious moves and doesn’t seem afraid to be unabashedly itself. There are several great performances going on that add some surprising depth to characters that could easily be one-note, led by Scott Foley, who seems to be having the most fun as Nick Blackburn, the outwardly cynical executive producer of the show who is, deep down (way, way deep down), a softy. Get on board!) The dancing can be extremely moving. (Of course there is cheese, people - it’s a dance show about second chances. It balances the cheese and the comedy well. Juggling those typically disparate tones, a huge ensemble cast, the show-within-a-show framework, and, yes, all the dancing could easily result in a train wreck, but The Big Leap makes it work. It’s an uplifting series about people looking for second chances in life and love, and it’s a cynical, biting send-up of reality TV. It’s a broadcast dramedy about a dance reality show that takes a group of everyday people in Detroit and puts them into a 20-person company to perform Swan Lake. The Big Leap seems like a show that shouldn’t work. This absolutely should not work, and yet …
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