Flesh and Bone

I rated this show based on how the first season of it made me feel.

There are people complaining that the show about ballet doesn't have enough ballet in it. How short-sighted of them.

This show is not about ballet. It is about its protagonist - Claire. Or Clementine, as she's passionately nicknamed by an eccentric supporting character.

This is a show about inner darkness, and Claire striving to find a way out of hers.

With its spectacular cinematography with a carefully muted color palette, with the rich, dramatic, beautiful soundtrack, the whole thing has this surreal, almost David Lynch-like feel to it, it is filled with pathos, emotion, drama.

We are shown scenery and people, but we are made to see feelings.

There's nudity in the show, but it is not just thrown in "because they could". It is clearly part of the vision. People's emotions get stripped raw, and sometimes, so do their bodies.

I don't like pretense. I snub my nose at "Sundance Festival winner" type films. I don't like long pointless stares, long shots of swaying grass, camera angles that linger too long for no discernible reason - that sort of thing.

This show can be on the surface mistaken for a pretentious one. It could've gone that way very easily. For example, a long ramble of aforementioned supporting character could've been seen as a pretentious scene-filler - but, the actor is exceptional, and, like in David Lynch's surrealism, it all makes a certain kind of emotional sense.

The soundtrack doesn't just clank in background to match the tone of a scene. Like the camera, the music here is an actor with a voice of its own.

It feels like a part of a deliberately painted picture. It's not what the characters say or do, but why they're driven to it.

All of the cast are picked perfectly, and they feel real. Claire does not seem like an actress playing a role. She's simply Claire. It's hard to believe that the actress wasn't already Claire before the filming even started.

This show transports you into another world. It is an emotional journey, a rich atmospheric drama. It makes you feel what the protagonist feels, if you let yourself open to it.

Compared to this work, "Black Swan" is a pretentious flash in the pan. There's something grand here at play.

Let it play.

There are very few shows that do something so rare that to capture it on camera is dazzling. This is one such show. In most shows acting is enough, and of course it's an art all in itself but nothing like this. This is a true ballet show where they don't fake the dancing. It's breathtaking in its complexity and a beautiful masterpiece when it all comes together.

The thing that makes this such a fantastic show besides the dancing is the story behind it. They incorporate a level of darkness which you almost never see on the screen. And when you do it's almost instantly fleeting. Not in this show though, they made it perfect. It's got such a resounding Janus feel to it, that it can be best described as daunting. Hat's off truly 10/10.

Although this series is very dark and gritty, there's some interesting issues brought to life here. I felt like this never gave into stereotypes, featured some marvelous dancers, and gave the women in this show some really meaty parts.

I have seen some bitching about it not being feminist enough, which is baseless. The men in the company serve mostly to fill out the company. Which makes sense really, this is NOT a show about ballet - this is a show about our main character, Claire, and her messy and dark life.

I wouldn't recommend this for anyone under 18, mainly because of the deeply dark subjects that are explored in the show. The nudity and sex is part of life, as a former dancer I definitely relate to the dancers not being modest. But I guess many people are still very prudish in 2015.

I really enjoyed the show, from the beginning to the very end it kept me very entertained and dance shown is gorgeous - not surprising as it was choreographed by Ethan Stiefel!!!

Sadly, it seems there won't be a second series - so I guess I will have to re-watch the first series.

If you're ready to dive into the darkest secrets and ugliest parts of a character (this is no rom-com), then you'll be very satisfied with Flesh and Bone.

The series deserves a standing ovation, it's a masterpiece.

Each episode got better and better, the final episode was breathtaking. It's a dark, disturbing story on all fronts, but so compelling. The acting is very good, the characters are fully developed - faults and all. The score is amazing, the sets are beautiful and it's filmed in such a way that you feel you are there watching. I didn't expect the show to be so captivating, and it actually took a couple of episodes before I felt invested in the series, but each episode built upon the prior, and the series will drawn you in. While watching the final episode, I began to understand the story itself was like a ballet performance - beautifully executed in a tragic sort of way. The final ballet is amazing, and worth watching the entire series just for that.

It seemed some critics panned the series - but in my opinion, it's a masterpiece - the best of the best. If you liked Black Swan, Fame, Flashdance or other similar themed movies, I think you'll find Flesh & Bone as amazing and enjoyable as I did.

The year was 1995 and Joe Eszterhas, the top of writer of the day for mainstream exploitation films, released (unleashed) his most exploitative script of all time -- Showgirls.

At the time, it seemed like a slam dunk. It had something to push everyone's buttons. It was about strippers. It had dancing and sex. It had backstory. And just as additional insurance to guarantee greatness, the casting director deliberately picked the female star of a popular teen sitcom for the leading role -- guaranteeing a "shock" factor as the world watched a sweet teen icon go down the darkside.

It should have worked but it didn't. The mass audience, the gestalt, seemed to belatedly develop a conscience and punished the film, presumably, as payback for all the earlier works of of Eszterhas' they enjoyed but probably shouldn't have.

A major TV comic talking about the film (which was a flop within weeks of release) said "I haven't seen so many poles abused since WW2."

Ironically 20 years later, with TV in full-on stratification and everyone with a video camera offering a new series, the writers of Flesh and Bone have taken the ideas comprising Showgirls and fixed them and repaired them.

It is exploitative but does not make you feel guilty.

Pretty good TV.