Dance Moms: Season 1
  • Network: Lifetime
  • Series Premiere Date: Jul 13, 2011
  • Season #: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4
User Score
5.8 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 13 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 13
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 13
  3. Negative: 5 out of 13

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  1. skantea
    Sep 9, 2011
    4
    Three caveats, I'm a dude, I almost never watch reality programming, and I don't have kids. So why the heck would I spend 47 minutes of my life watching this? Originally it was morbid curiosity. I wanted to see the train wrecks. The Toddlers and Tiaras show sounded too far outside my comfort zone, but I thought since these girls ostensibly learned an actual craft, it would be a stomach-able compromise. I also think athletics and team sports are valuable experiences for young people, so I climbed down off my high horse and tuned in.
    Hey, kids are kids, that never changes, and this show is not about the kids. It's about American culture, women's gender roles and how damaging stereotypes are handed down from mother to daughter in the form of destructive personality disorders. The mother's are the stars.
    I try to critique media within the confines of it's genre and or sub-genre. I look at what's successful in that medium and try to make comparisons regarding professional competency as well as what might move the medium forward (the purpose of art, no?). You can't do any of that with this. It's pure sugar and salt, utterly nutritionless. A young girl couldn't even watch this for the value of the competitive routines because the performance in quick edits before going back to the reaction of the mom's. But that's pretty much what I expected, so what's my verdict?
    It's not a guilty pleasure. A rich dessert is a guilty pleasure, this is corn nuts, pop rocks, and mountain dew. The Dance teacher is competent, the kids are cute and driven, but none of that is appreciated. I would like to know more about the girls and their individual motivations and struggles. But the 'reality' is that wouldn't get ratings. It's disposable pap, the train wreck I tuned in to see and complain about. And if that's it's value to the medium, then I'll just get back up on my high horse and ride to a pasture with fewer gopher holes and cow patties.
    Rated 4 out of sympathy for the kids who might know how to use google.    … Expand
  2. coelo
    Mar 11, 2012
    1
    This show is depicting the people I always think about when I ask myself why is the world such a mess. If you want to feel depressed then watch this show, and pity the children in it, then go and give your own father and mother a giant hug and bless them for NOT BEING LIKE THE FREAKS ON THIS SHOW!

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
56 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 4 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 4
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 4
  3. Negative: 1 out of 4
  1. Slate
    Reviewed by: Troy Patterson
    Jul 15, 2011
    0
    The new worst show on television debuted Wednesday night on Lifetime--Dance Moms, an ugly docu-circus featuring a megaton bully of a Pittsburgh dance instructor, the little princesses she costumes as lunatic street whores, and a quorum of strenuously pathetic stage mothers, one of whom warbles that she would slit her wrists if her daughter even thought of trying out for softball.
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  2. Entertainment Weekly
    Jul 13, 2011
    67
    I love a show about crazy stage moms, and at moments this one doesn't disappoint.
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  3. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Linda Stasi
    Jul 13, 2011
    75
    Once you get past the reality-TV grabbers, you realize that while there is some of that, more importantly there's a lot of Miller. It is great to watch her work.
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