Fox's feel-good The Big Leap is equal parts sentimental, goofy, inspiring and escapist

Chicago Sun-Times

"If you check your cynicism at the door and allow yourself to be swept up in the broad comedy, the crisp writing and the wonderful performances from an eminently likable cast, The Big Leap can become appointment viewing," says Richard Roeper. "Set in Detroit but filmed at the Cinespace Chicago Film Studios and the Rialto Theater in Joliet, this is a fun, breezy, dance-centric drama/comedy about a group of misfits who are stumbling their way through life and for various reasons jump at the chance to audition for a reality TV show in the hopes one big break can change everything — and yep, that’s kind of dopey, but also not beyond the realm of possibility, seeing as how there are approximately 5 million reality/competition shows these days." Roeper adds: "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 hardly groundbreaking to see how the producers of these shows might well care about their subjects, but also intend to exploit them and manipulate events if necessary. Of course, even as Fox is poking fun at the genre, it’s also the home of The Masked Singer and Masterchef Junior. You can have your reality cake and take a bite of it too."

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• The Big Leap is like UnREAL, except it still believes that reality TV can do good: "Fox’s new dramedy The Big Leap is, on some level, like a version of UnREAL made for a broadcast network with a heavy reliance on reality TV," says Daniel Fienberg. "It isn’t completely without cynicism, but it’s very localized cynicism within a show that, at its heart, still believes that no matter how contrived 'reality' might be, it’s still a genre capable of changing the lives of its participants for the better — say, by contributing to the renewal of Detroit and successfully mounting an entertaining production of Swan Lake. That’s a lot of, well, big leaps to buy into, and maybe that’s why The Big Leap worked for me fairly well as a comedy and felt pretty hollow at every turn as an inspirational drama, though in this broadcast landscape 'half-success' almost counts as 'success.'"
• The Big Leap is not good for you, but my god, does it feel good: "It’s like a big old Dunkin Donut for your heart," says Dustin Rowles. "It is an 'inspirational drama' slathered in cheese, like grown-up Glee with dancing and unbelievably attractive people. Scott Foley: Hot. Teri Polo: Hot. Piper Perabo: Hot. Ser’Darius Blain: Hot. Simone Recasner: So hot. It’s a drama about a reality show featuring nothing but underdogs, including goddamn Jon Rudnitsky, who no one remembers from Saturday Night Live and who I didn’t even realize was Jon Rudnitsky until I checked the IMDB credits. It’s a weeper, but not in that sad way. In the kind of way that features inspiring moments and manipulative pop songs, and people achieving their dreams, but it’s cut with just enough mustard not to feel too Hallmarkian. It is a salve, y’all. A big dumb wonderful salve with just enough cynicism (provided by Scott Foley’s character, so hot) to keep it from getting out of hand."
• The Big Leap has found a new star in instantly likable newcomer Simone Recasner: "Recasner conveys her character’s multifarious forms of angst — a young single mother whose own mom is something less than supportive, she craves the opportunity to express herself," says Daniel D'Addario. "Having been paired by production with a disgraced athlete (Ser’Darius Blain) who’s looking for a second chance of his own allows both to blossom. But she won’t necessarily have her epiphanies on reality TV’s terms. An interesting tension in the show’s first two episodes is Foley’s character’s desire to push storylines on each of his puppets — a role Gabby refuses to play. 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."
• Simone Recasner didn't think somebody the way she looks could be on TV: "I didn't see myself being on TV, definitely not network TV," she says. "And it's because I literally never saw myself reflected on TV. So I am excited beyond belief. It's hard for me to really fathom what that could potentially mean to another little kid, or adults, any age. It's exciting that we do delve into the conversation of her body because it is very much important to the work that she's doing, but also what's amazing is that then the show also goes beyond that. That fact exists of her being a big dancer in a world that still worships smaller bodies. But then we also get to see her be a great mom, a horrible mom, a horrible daughter, a great daughter — all the facets that make a person a person. I hope that there can be a million more plus-size people on TV and in people's living rooms."
• Scott Foley never experienced being an outsider in his cast before: “The character is the boss and he has to be able to separate himself from the humanity of all of those people and look at the show from the angle of the drama he has to create,” he says. “It was also a chance for me to separate myself — and not necessarily in a good way — from the rest of the cast. I had never really been an outsider in a cast before, and that was really interesting to me. I knew it would be a challenge (but) I think that’s a really important part of the job and the character. Because of that separation of church and state, if you will, it helped me to find the character.”
• Foley drew inspiration from working with Bill Lawrence on Whiskey Cavalier: “I watched the way he dealt with talent and writers," says Foley of Ted Lasso co-creator and Scrubs creator Lawrence. "(I noticed) his empathy, but also his drive of having the show be the focus without sort of hurting anybody, if that makes sense. Bill is nowhere near as callous as my character can be. But he was a big inspiration to me when I was developing the Nick character off the page and in my head.”