Stream It Or Skip It: Netflix’s ‘Dance Brothers,’ A Show Where Two Finnish Brothers Open A Dance Club

What happens when you’re creative, talented, and have big dreams, but little money? Netflix’s new Finnish series Dance Brothers is a scripted drama about two young, scrappy dancers who realize that if they want success, they’re going to have to create it for themselves, so they open a club. But these guys are mavericks, rule-breakers, so despite their success, there’s always something else getting in their way: often just themselves.

DANCE BROTHERS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Roni (Roderick Kabanga) enters a crowded hallway of aspiring dancers. He tells the woman checking in auditioners that he and his brother Sakari (Samuel Kujala), have registered and are checking in, but the woman has no record of their names. “Let’s go anyway,” Roni says, and the two confidently walk on stage and perform and elaborately choreographed routine.

The Gist: Despite the fact that Roni and Sakari (who calls himself Sakke) crush their dance moves at this audition, the producers throw them our because they hadn’t properly registered, nor did they bother to learn the choreography from the show they were auditioning for. These brothers, and Roni in particular, don’t have time for rules and requirements! Alas, this means that they didn’t get the gig and have to return to a slew of gigs tending bar and working in their mom’s laundromat, and crashing at her apartment.

Roni sets up an audition for the two of them to audition for the prestigious Arvola Dance Company, who will be featured at the Helsinki International Dance Festival. If they get into this dance company, the opportunity that will do wonders for their careers. The choreographer explains that in the room full of dozens of dancers, he can only pick two. After it’s all over, Roni learns he’s not one of the chosen ones. Sakke, however, gets a text congratulating him on being picked, but he lies to Roni and says he didn’t get the job. The two join several of their friends at a park for an outdoor dance party where they get high, dance, and Sakke flirts with a dancer he knows from music videos, and they’re having the time of their life. The fun is cut short when they get in a fight with a guy who pulls a knife on them and they have to run for their lives, and they end up hiding out in an empty warehouse.

While they’re in the warehouse, the brothers check the space out and determine that maybe this building could make a great dance club where they could create their own modern dance company, have rehearsals, and create a new, less rigid kind of dance community than the existing one in Finland. As they discuss their dreams, they don’t realize that security cameras have been watching them the whole time, recording their every move. A few minutes later someone walks in, and they think it’s the guy from the party who was chasing them. Roni grabs a shovel and whacks the guy, who falls to the ground. They look at him and realize it’s actually an old man. The brothers look at each other, and realize they’ve made a terrible mistake.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? It feels like the majority of dance shows focus on ballet or the competitive world of dance schools and auditions. Dance Brothers focuses on modern hip-hip dancing and the characters skew a little older. Though there’s no stripping, it has a touch of Magic Mike, as it’s also about buff dancers aspiring to open a successful club despite financial troubles and interpersonal drama.

Our Take: The way that the first episode of Dance Brothers ends feels like a turning point for the brothers – they were already low, and now it seems like they’ve sunk even lower: “how bad can things get for these two?” the show asks. But the second episode is a huge shift, because it turns out [spoiler!] the old man they attacked is fine, and the building they were hiding out it is actually owned by a woman who is a customer at the brothers’ mom’s laundromat. This woman, Aida Bosch, watched the security footage and heard the brothers discussing the fact that they could turn that run-down space into a dance club, and she wants to rent it to them to make their dreams come true. Roni is suspicious, and it turns out the building has a lot of problems, but the fact is, this woman is handing them their dream on a silver platter so they accept and get to work turning the space into a club.

For all the good things that start happening to the brothers, there’s an undercurrent of stress, too. What’s Aida’s real motive for helping them? When will Sakke come clean to Roni that he was chosen for the dance festival and how will that affect the brothers’ relationship? The show is 80% manufactured drama and 20% dance performances, but at 20 minutes an episode, it moves at a fast clip and we don’t have to wait long for any particular dramatic moments to be resolved.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: As Roni and Sakke look at the man Roni has bludgeoned, the show cuts away and the best musical cue ever plays: “Everybody Dance Now” by C&C Music Factory blasts as the brothers realize that maybe Roni just killed a guy.

Sleeper Star: Eeva Eloranta plays Aida Bosch, the shady but generous benefactor who helps the brothers get their club going. She’s got that classic severe-but-also-artsy Scandinavian style, but her character is mysterious and feels sinister and we’re curious about what her motives are.

Most Pilot-y Line: “How about we start our own club?”

Our Call: Dance Brothers has some interesting twists and arcs, but as a dramatic series, it’s just fine, but not great. If you have a vested interest in modern dance or stories about making it in a creative field, you’ll probably enjoy the series on a higher level, but for the rest of us, I think we’re safe to SKIP IT.

Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.