Here's the deal: if your kid is taking dance classes and dreams of performing, this show can be genuinely inspiring and educational. They'll see what professional-level dedication looks like and get exposed to styles their local studio might not teach.

But let's be real—it's a 20-year-old reality competition show with 2005 pacing, which means looooong episodes with lots of filler, dramatic music, and commercial-break cliffhangers that feel ancient by 2025 standards. The Metacritic score of 31 tells you critics weren't impressed, though the IMDb 7.0 suggests fans who stuck with it enjoyed it.

The dance itself is legitimately impressive and mostly wholesome, though some contemporary and Latin routines get sensual (hence the 14+ rating). If your 10-year-old ballerina wants to watch, you're probably fine co-viewing and fast-forwarding through the melodrama.

Bottom line: Great for dance enthusiasts, a hard pass for everyone else. There are shorter, snappier dance content options on YouTube and TikTok that might hold modern attention spans better, but this offers a fuller picture of the competition and training process.