Star City Season 1 Episode 3 Focuses and Makes for a Better Show — Review

Critic’s Rating: 4.3 / 5.0

4.3

Even though the Star City series premiere clocked in at two hours, it didn’t make clear exactly what this show is trying to say.

It threw a lot to the wall, and most of it didn’t stick — politics, relationships, space — felt like too much too soon.

So there is a need for the show to clarify what it’s trying to do, and after this hour, it feels like we’re getting closer to it.

Star City Season 1 Episode 3 “Bad Dancer” slows down and zeroes in, delivering a stronger hour than its predecessors.

Arcs that felt scattered or born out of paranoia come together to create a more tension-filled show.

Irina’s subjects stop being voices in her headphones and become real people with real lives that interact with hers.

Meanwhile, the KGB’s suspicion that the Americans are spying on their technology shifts from a theory to a real threat.

Between balancing the dangerous endeavor of space and the Cold War with the West, the hour strikes a fine balance that hopefully carries over to the rest of the season.

Betrayal emerges as a strong theme this hour. Whether it’s her feelings betraying Irina, or science betraying cosmonauts, or even Valya, his country, it feels like a place where so much control is exerted, everything feels like a misstep against someone else.

It’s easy to listen to other people’s lives if you are a software program designed to look out for certain things.

The risk profile is quite different when you’re a human being with empathy, and the people on the other end are going through some human things.

The love triangle between Sasha, Valya, and Tanya is one of the most human things people can go through.

Irina has had the front seat to the messy, messier, and messiest parts of this entire thing. Like characters in a TV show, she feels like she really knows them.

She empathizes with them, sometimes getting aroused with them.

But unlike characters in a show, these ones can show up in the real world. And those parts you missed in the audio finally reveal to you the human, not the character.

So when Irina meets Tanya, and they hit it off, her humanity betrays her, and she spills a secret she should never have.

It’s odd how the show tries to withhold this information both in the scene and the audio recording.

It comes off as totally forced because if she were narrating it to someone else who happened to pass out before she finished, it would be understandable.

But distorted audio? The secret had better be worth it. Irina finds the noose tightening around her, just like every other character this hour.

Sasha is in absolute shambles after being rejected by Tanya, and Arseni’s death can be attributed to Valya’s betrayal. He would stop at nothing to destroy Valya with these emotional reasons.

And if Tanya has truly fallen out of love with Valya, she could use her discovery to knock him off the board.

Everything explored at this hour looks like a fragile chess game where a single mistake opens a trap door that leads straight to the gallows.

Even the Chief Designer’s secret project could cost him everything.

Right now, it all rests in the hands of humanity. Will people betray those they trust or love? How will such betrayal shape actions and conflicts?

Can everyone work together for all mankind, even when they’ve been badly hurt by others?

That seems like the conflict in the middle of it all.

We also get a thrilling treat this hour as three cosmonauts go to space for something.

I say for something because I can’t tell you what is supposed to be happening here. While there are exhilarating scenes from space, the storyline does not feel cohesive enough.

The moon landing already happened, but we are not going back to launch the first woman and build a base?

Those don’t seem remotely interesting because the major feat has already been achieved.

Chief Designer’s Venus project seems like the only viable arc, but given the secrecy with which it’s being conducted, it lacks the stakes of a multi-team mission. There’s nothing as exhilarating as watching the entire control room either panic or applaud in unison.

Gut Check

“Bad Dancer” works because it sidelines characters like Belikova or Lyudmilla, who don’t feel they’ve earned the focus, while balancing the politics and the space.

The tension is not loud, but it’s there. Everything is so interwoven; the fallout will be swift and silent because this is the Soviet Union, and the illusion of order must be maintained.

Intrusive Thoughts

• Apple TV mark of quality: Sasha advising Valya how to please his wife, only for her to freak out because it reminds her of what Sasha does.

• Will Arseni remain in space forever? Kinda iconic.

• It was good to hear a hopeful score after the thrilling anxiety that is the opening theme.

• After what the Americans pulled, it’s not hard to see why Lyudmilla would be so vigilant and brutal.

Over to you, Star City fanatics. What did you think of the story this hour? With these developments, will Belikova and Lyudmilla’s integration feel smoother in future episodes?

Let’s keep the conversation going — it’s the only way the good stuff survives.

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