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Saša Rašilov and Jitka Ježková present themselves as a seemingly harmonious married couple in the series Taneční, one of the autumn highlights of Nova TV. He is a doctor, she is a chiropractor, they have two healthy teenage children and a First Republic villa. In the past, they used to be a successful dance couple, collecting trophies like on a treadmill. When they are both offered to lead the autumn dance for the youth, they both accept after a moment of hesitation, but each for different reasons. For her in particular, it is a chance to escape from the grayness of the partner stereotype, as well as a chance to defy her husband’s pedantry and the need to control everyone around her.
On paper, Taneční has everything that the viewer expects from light television entertainment – likeable, not completely eye-catching actors, picturesque side characters, where the contrast between the traditionally playing Zuzana Norrisová and the moderate Dana Kolářová is particularly interesting, or the slightly heated plots from life (drunk youths at dance parties). .
At the outset, it should be noted that the series deals with the dance phenomenon perhaps in the second or third plan, and even in hints. For example, one of the girls does not think it is entirely appropriate that in the 21st century young women should be chosen as “cows in the market” during the election process. Whether it will have some development in later episodes or it is just a boomer sigh of the authors, it is difficult to judge yet. In the foreground are the vicissitudes of life of older characters, parents, which most probably also corresponds to the intended target audience of 40+.
The paradoxical thing is that the dialogues of the characters, as well as many situations, are inherently not funny at all, quite the opposite. Although Saša Rashilov conceives the character of the former dancer as a somewhat snobbish prima donna who is supposed to be a source of humor, in reality all his interactions with the other characters are extremely toxic.
He despises his wife to a certain extent, bullies his daughter during dance practice, and only speaks to his son in a passive aggressive tone. It can be said that if it had been performed under the leadership of another director who would have pointed out these pathological features, Taneční could have been a completely different series. Without changing a single word in the script!
This creates an incongruous conglomeration, which is neither a classic comedy about the confusion surrounding dancing, nor a family drama about the crisis of a marriage after 20 years, and it is not even a classic mix, a dramedy. The whole thing rather gives the impression that Jiří Vejdělek seems to be completely unaware of the darker undertones and is varying the sharp argument at lunch as a kind of gossiping. Or, which is perhaps even worse, he finds similar situations basically funny. For the director of Men in Hope, who looks at relationships through the most immoral lens, where infidelity is a joke and everyone cheats on everyone else, the second option is more likely.
This is not helped by the fact that the characters are written flat and have no functional (or at least dysfunctional) relationships with each other. There are situations where the short-term acquaintance of the daughter of the protagonists physically attacks her long-term dance partner (and most likely also a friend), calling him a “bump”, while the latter can only react so that the boys don’t fight. At the same time, the debutante Anna Marie Fučíková gives the impression that she really has talent, she seems natural… if only there was something to play.
If a person would expect a visually captivating spectacle from a series from the (un)professional dance environment, they have to go elsewhere. Practically all the dance scenes are filmed in the same lifeless way and without a single idea. We set up the camera, play the music, and you move around it. We then cut it exactly the same as the visit to the cafe a little later. If you see a dance sequence from another Czech series Daughter of the Nation, which started a few days ago, you want to cry because of the zero ingenuity of Taneční hořce. Especially when practically the same scene appears three times in an hour-long episode.
With Taneční, one really has to double-check if they are really from 2024. They look at least a decade or two older in terms of form and content. They fell to us from the time when Nova first started experimenting with similar series and was looking for herself. Considering that we know that Nova/Voyo can also produce relatively high-quality things from the life of today’s teenagers (Sex O’Clock), Taneční is a noticeable regression within their work.
Series: Dance (TV Nova, 2024)
Comedy / Family, Czech Republic, 2024, 8 h (Runtime: 60 min)
Screenplay: Ivana Hokrová
Cast: Saša Rašilov, Jr., Jitka Ježková, Daniela Kolářová, Dana Batulková, Hana Vagnerová, Roman Zach, Zuzana Norisová, Betka Stanková, Vasil Fridrich
Premiere: Friday 4 October 20:10, TV Nova
