The Big Leap

A pretty ingenious concept – a scripted series about people involved in making a dance-centered reality show – gives this series an enjoyable spring in its step. Sometimes funny, sometimes dramatic, the show benefits from a well-chosen cast.

It’s also got an ineffable charm that allows it to add up to more than the sum of its not inconsiderable parts. So take a leap – not even a big one – of faith, and just enjoy.

It’s schmaltzy and predictable, but it’s filled with entertaining dance moves and carefully fitted with a character — Scott Foley’s reality TV producer — whose relentless cynicism is simultaneously repugnant and a laugh riot. After about 10 minutes, I was fully onboard, despite the flaws and the overreaches, and ready for more.

This is a mild, mostly affectionate lampoon of reality shows and the people who make them and the people who compete in them.

It’s amusing and easy to watch. But it also feels hemmed in by its premise, a little too overdetermined. ... But the one consistent reason to watch is Scott Foley’s nimble, convincing performance as the reality show’s producer, a master manipulator whose deceitfulness is so sincere that you can’t help rooting for him.

"The Big Leap" delivers engaging dance numbers and characters that grow in the show’s second episode.

As a fictionalized test of which is more powerful, the TV machine or one person with a crystalline idea of what a shot in the spotlight could mean on her own terms, “The Big Leap” generates real interest. There’s plenty onscreen that needs a bit of work.