The following contains spoilers from just Episode 1 of Prime Video‘s Étoile.

In Étoile, ballet dancers are taking center stage — and they aren’t the amateur ballerinas from Miss Patty’s Stars Hallow studio.

The Prime Video Series, which hails from Gilmore Girls and Marvelous Mrs. Maisel creators Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino, debuted all eight episodes of its freshman season on Thursday. Set in both New York and Paris, Episode 1 sets up an ambitious gambit: Two world-renowned ballet companies decide to swap their most talented stars in order to save their storied institutions. (FYI: Étoile, pronounced āˈtwäl, is defined as a principal dancer in a ballet company.) 

But why the need for such a ploy? A mixture of things.

Over in America, Jack (played by Maisel vet Luke Kirby) has just received a bad review, and Paris’ Geneviève (Alphonse‘s Charlotte Gainsbourg) says dancers have ditched their toe shoes for TikToks — not to mention general disinterest among the public and various hurdles still lingering from the COVID pandemic. “The Swap,” as they call it, is a transatlantic solution to drum up renewed interest in ballet. One major catch? Crispin Shamblee (Outlander’s Simon Callow) is footing the marketing bill — and he manufactures weapons and pals around with tyrants. Plus, according to Jack, he’s also a “soil raper” and gave the eulogy at Rush Limbaugh’s funeral. (Yikes!)

Despite Jack’s unwillingness to make a deal with the dancing devil, the plan carries on. The company heads get together in a tense meeting that employs Palladino’s signature fast-paced chatter, in both English and French. Jack reluctantly agrees to send his quirky, moody choreographer Tobias (Mrs. Maisel’s Gideon Glick) to France. Meanwhile, Geneviève authorizes the swap of Cheyenne (The Innocents’ Lou de Laâge), the bad-girl Parisian ballerina who spends her spare time as an eco-warrior embarking on daring missions to curb environmental destruction. But neither Tobias nor Cheyenne are happy about the exchange.

Cheyenne arrives at her new home, and immediately butts heads with Crispin — our eco-warrior queen does not want to dance for America’s stars and stripes. And as the first episode ends, it’s unclear whether Cheyenne will take on her new position with renewed energy to spite Crispin, or sabotage the company in order to exact her revenge.

What’s your take: Does Palladino’s gift for gab lend itself to the high-strung world of ballet in Étoile? Or is the series missing a certain, “Je ne sais quois”? Grade the premiere, then hit the comments!

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