So much so, in fact, that I don’t know how much longer I can hold on here. And that pisses me off, because I’ve really been enjoying Make It or Break It … but how much can we take? Lauren’s just an absolute horror.
First of all, how disgusting can she be to Summer? The woman’s trying her hardest to form a relationship with the daughter of the man she loves, but Summer’s getting nothing but low-blows and cheap insults from Lauren in return. Summer has the patience of a saint, and I can’t believe she hasn’t already punched Lauren in the head.
Then there’s Kaylie; we all knew it was coming, but still … can you believe Lauren set her up by leaving Carter’s phone for Alex (Jason Manuel Olazabal) to find? Cold. And what’s the twisted logic there? That Carter and Kaylie will break up, and he’ll run to Lauren in his anguish? That’s what you do to your “best friend?” I’m not sure you even do that to your biggest enemy. The fact that Lauren sought out Summer in tears doesn’t make up for a damn thing — nor does it make me see her any differently.
And, this is no villainous standard, either. This is just distasteful hate, directed at anyone and everyone who enters Lauren’s radius. She’s actually succeeded in making her sabotage of Emily in the pilot seem reasonable, and that’s sick.
But, that aside, how great was it that Carter punched Alex? I still think the guy’s kind of a loser, but I totally expected that punch to go flying in the opposite direction. Still … he’s a sleazeball.
I get the feeling that the parent-child relationship goes in the opposite direction a lot on this show. Clearly it’s true with Emily and her mom; I think it works that way with Payson and Kim, too, to an extent, since Payson’s the sphere around which everyone orbits. Her lying was typical teen, but when everything in their lives comes back to the kid, something’s off.
And there’s also a bit of that with Kaylie and her mom, too. Ronnie (Rosa Blasi) was practically begging Kaylie to keep her affair with Marty a secret, which gave me an image of Kaylie doing the same with regards to Carter. And the two-way blackmail from the other week just supports the theory that Ronnie isn’t really the one in charge there.
Not-Razor (Johnny Pacar) is definitely a bit of a stalker. Even if he did come to the party to deliver pizza, he sought Emily out back there, after coming to see her at the Rock, and popping up at the fashion show, amongst other things. He’s a bit of a creepy dude, and I can’t shake the fact that Pacar is so much older than Hobbs from my mind.
He did, however, have a great line towards the end of the episode, the true rocker that he is: “I feel like we’re trapped in a Coldplay song … which is its own level in Dante’s Hell.”
I hear they have a special way of greeting perverts, my friend.
Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Aug 11, 2009 @ 14:50 EST5EDT
The only thing I couldn’t believe was that in all those weeks Carter had never canceled his lost cell phone, so Lauren was able to call it. I suppose his family is also rich so he doesn’t have to worry about some partygoer racking up a few hundred dollars worth of long-distance calls on it.
I think this show has found its level and is not looking to strive for anything deeper. My problem is that the premise in a two-hour movie offers at least 30-50% gymnastics, but you can’t have a big competition every month in a weekly series so the intervening episodes are filled with relationships and soap. It’s summer, so I’m willing to cut it a little slack. Unlike that other new soap, the writing doesn’t make me want to shoot something in the face.
I did laugh at how quickly Payson’s lie was discovered. It felt like she didn’t have any scenes between those two. And I did like how her male clone pointed out to her that it wasn’t an illegal drug deal.
*POST AUTHOR*
Fair point; never thought about why Carter didn’t cancel that thing. I think it must have not occurred to the writers either.
Yes, I think Payson’s as innocent lamb. The question is, will she blossom as the show progresses into something different?