Bunheads review – 1×08: ‘Blank Up, It’s Time’

With the glorious return of Fanny (Kelly Bishop), this week’s episode offers us wonderful dancing, new love interests and an episode that easily incorporates all our beloved characters together.

Let’s review!

I was beyond excited to have Fanny back in my Bunheads world. While the past two episodes gave us some interesting moments, they sorely lacked the presence of Bishop. And the show knows it. With the cold open and the build-up to the first glimpse of Fanny, the show banks on our anticipation – and love – for this character. Let’s face it, the show needs Fanny’s tough love, non-nonsense attitude (she is, after all, the matriarch).

‘Blank Up, It’s Time’ also juggles all the characters together successfully. To which I say: finally! (Side Note: Can you believe it took almost an entire season to get to this?) Giving us a glimpse as to how the show will play out, I was happy to see the ladies and the girls interact in a real way.

Speaking of the girls, Sasha (Julia Goldani Telles) continues to test her limits but instead of the usual non-chalance of her parents, she is swiftly reprimanded by Fanny and taken off the Astaire-Rogers dance number. The whole episode could’ve gone terribly wrong with this storyline, but luckily they decide to keep it on the sideline for most of the episode, until Sasha shows up near the end doing her best Avril Lavigne impersonation and is kicked out of the school. I will admit I was a little worried when I saw the preview for this episode and it looked like this was going to be Sasha-heavy, but instead all we get are outburst,s followed by wounded expressions of disbelief. It actually makes you feel bad for Sasha instead of making you wish she would just grow up and get over it. So points for that.

Of course, the major theme of the episode is men: Fanny entertains a gentleman caller, Michelle (Sutton Foster) hooks up with a director (not in a casting couch kind of way), and Boo (Kaitlyn Jenkins) slowly falls for the weird boy in class. Let’s take a closer look:

First off, we have Michael (Richard Gant), Fanny’s longtime casual life partner. I love that she has a male lovah who drops in every now and then for some rest, some affection and some booty. Just another little thing that makes me love Fanny even more. Not sure where this storyline will lead – is he a a recurring character or will things fall apart next week? – but it’s nice to see Fanny have some fun and enjoy herself.

Then there is Michelle. She sleeps with her director, Conor (the wonderful Chris Eigeman, another GG alum), after giving him some honest feedback on his mediocre play. Things turn weird when Michelle realizes that the last time she made whoopie was with Hubble (Alan Ruck) which brought back all kinds of feelings as she finally realizes that he is gone. Worst possible timing! I am pretty sure crying in bed after sex is a fail-safe way to get a guy to never call you back. While it’s sweet to see Michelle shed a tear for Hubble, it feels out of the blue considering he died all the way back in the pilot. I get that she didn’t get a chance to grieve (what with Fanny and the inheritance), but it seems like so long ago that Hubble left and – to be honest – he was a character that we never got attached to. As a result staging this moment of grief so far into the season feels jarring. Hopefully this will mean that Michelle can finally move on and start dating. It seems like the show has thrown us a few good candidates, so she’s got options. Let’s see her explore some of them!

Finally, there’s Boo. This week she gets paired with Carl (Casey J. Adler) for the Astaire-Rogers dance, after Sasha gets the hook. Initially hesitant, she eventually falls for his weird charm, but not before Ginny (Bailey Buntain) and Melanie (Emma Dumont) sabotage the courtship. It is really sweet to see Boo have some manly attention after the disaster that was Charlie. And Carl is definitely a cutie-patootie, but is he good enough for our Boo? With only two episodes left, he doesn’t have a lot of time to prove himself.

Best lines of the night:

• Michelle: “Fanny you don’t want me touching your plants. Plants and I have a history, a bad history. The Killing Fields, that was me, I killed those fields.”
• Fanny: “Churches have wine, Jesus made it out of water. Ever heard of it.” Michelle: “I saw Jesus Christ Superstar, of course I’ve heard of it.”
• Boo: “Is the Katy Perry movie still out?” Melanie: “I’m sorry, I’m not sitting through that woman squirting things at me in 3D!”
• Michelle: “I follow the Kardashians. That’s a sport.”

What did you think? Was Michelle’s emotional outburst too out of the blue? Did you feel sorry for Sasha? Are you tired of her bad girl attitude? Excited about all the new men our girls have in their lives? Hit the comments with your thoughts

Bunheads airs Monday nights at 9pm EST on ABC Family