Fosse/Verdon - watch tv series with matching subtitles.
“Don’t show me the effort, don’t show me the sweat!” barks a choreographer in the first episode of much-ballyhooed new miniseries Fosse/Verdon. “All I want to see is that smile!” It’s a dictum Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon heeded brilliantly throughout their creative partnership – if less so in their tumultuous marriage – and one most readily apparent in the former’s Oscar-winning musical Cabaret, rehearsals for which are dramatized in that aforementioned scene. Fosse/Verdon, however, its tremendous lead performances notwithstanding, feels both effortful and sweaty, a somewhat disorderly eight-hour distillation of a five-decade partnership. The result is a series that’s patchy and unsure of itself, but also periodically salvaged by its artful swagger and kinetic energy.