Critics Didn't Have The Time Of Their Lives Watching ABC's Dirty Dancing Remake - See The Review Roundup!

Nobody puts baby in a corner!
But judging by the critics, ABC probably should have kept its Dirty Dancing remake off the floor!
Fans of the 1987 classic should exercise caution when watching the (rather unnecessary) TV remake that trades steamy dance sequences and sexy lip-syncing for tame, awkward dancing and bloated musical numbers.
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Critics weren’t dazzled by the lack of heat between leads Abigail Breslin and Colt Prattes — who have the chemistry of actual swans compared to Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze — and felt the production was (like Breslin’s choreography) a bit all over the place.
If that’s not bad enough, the TV adaptation wasted time beefing up side characters — like Baby’s older sister Lucy (Sarah Hyland) randomly becoming a budding civil rights activist. Because 2017, duh!
See what the critics had to say about ABC’s Dirty Dancing remake (below)!

Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter: “Whatever the original movie is, it’s not Formal Dancing or Time Period Appropriate Dancing. The movie is sexy. ABC’s version is not. Even scenes that copy the movie without reservation, like Baby’s watermelon-carting arrival at the Kellerman’s after-hours staff shindig, have put any sultriness on ice.”
Sonia Saraiya, Variety: “Where the original traded in discomfort, attraction, and heat, the remake is markedly safer and more sterile ├óΓé¼ΓÇ¥ like a frosty mirror held up to the original. And without giving anything away, it’s difficult to imagine how fans of the original will not be incensed by the ending of the remake, which tacks on an ill-conceived epilogue that negates most of the power of the preceding narrative.”
Kimberly Roots, TVLine: “Breslin does an admirable job in the lead role. Her Baby is funny, cute, intelligent and engaging ├óΓé¼ΓÇ¥ which makes it even harder to believe that she’d fall for Prattes’ clod of a character. Where Swayze’s Johnny was rough-hewn and slightly dangerous, the TV-movie iteration of the character comes across as pretty dull anytime he’s not dancing.”
Robert Bianco, USA Today: “To say [Breslin and Prattes] have no onscreen chemistry is to minimize the problem: You actively want to get Baby away from him. He sulks throughout, and she spends much of the film looking ill at ease, as uncomfortable doing the vastly simplified routine at the end, when the transformed Baby and her big lift are supposed to steal the show, as she is at the beginning. Honestly, when that clunky climactic number finishes, you may feel the need to rewatch the original as a choreographic cleanse.”
Malcolm Venable, TV Guide: “What was once sexy, sultry and a little subversive has been sanitized and Disney-fied. Tugs at the heartstrings are cheap. Dialogue, and a musical component that has characters bursting into songs from the film, are laugh-out-loud funny — unintentionally. But its gravest sin isn’t that it’s unnecessary (which it is), but that its attempt to be relevant in 2017 falls flat, making it out of step with our times.”
Jen Chaney, Vulture: “As insecure as Grey’s Baby could be, there was never any doubt that she was the smartest person in any room, even a dining hall filled with Ivy Leaguers. Breslin doesn’t project Baby’s intelligence as strongly and, more crucially, she never seems comfortable in the dancing scenes, even when we’re supposed to believe she’s finally learned how to synchronize her body to any and all grooves.”