Last season, our favorite gymnasts from The Rock traveled to California for a promotional event. This time it was the US National Team in France for a competition … this was no California trip.
And this is no Make It or Break It season one. Between Lauren being herself, and the constant petty sniping and bickering, watching this show has become somewhat of a miserable experience. It’s painful, at times, to see what it’s turned into.
And I’m not quite sure why. It’s not as if any of the major plot themes have changed — there’s still a villain, a superstar stumbling, the girl from the streets trying to make it, the unconfident champion, and boys. But something’s definitely off in Colorado.
Austin Tucker is a bad version of last season’s Nicky (Cody Longo), who wasn’t very interesting in the first place. I really hope Austin was one-and-done, because all I see coming from him are stereotypes and foreseeable moments. And by the way, where was Nicky? Isn’t he number two on the men’s team?
As much as I hate to admit it, Not-Razor’s reappearance may have been the best part of the episode. The whole goodbye thing was painful, but his coming back and supporting Emily in the locker room was actually kind of nice. In the moment. But I’m not sure that I mind the current lack of clarity on his next return.
I’m still behind Payson, and disappointed for her that her petition was denied. Plot-wise it was a nice twist, because I expected her to be done with her sob story arc. However, will we be interested in it enough to ride the waves up and down again? I’m not so sure, assuming that it’s done as poorly as the first time around. But if the writers step up their game I’m on board. Maybe include more Kim and Sasha? Couldn’t hurt.
This seems like a weird thing to say, but Lauren is not an enjoyable villain. Sounds like an oxymoron, right? Well, if you think about it, you love to hate most baddies; otherwise, their characters would just infuriate you to the point of fleeing the show. Lauren’s right there for me. I simply can’t stand her. And why no one slaps her across the face, or at least ignores her, is beyond me.
And the fact that Ellen Beals (Michelle Clunie) is becoming Lauren #2 isn’t helping anyone. It’s bad enough that she’s looking to live her life through the National Team, but this whole conspiracy against Sasha thing is too much. She was a terrible addition to the show.
And what was the point of Emily’s subway gymnastics, from a plot perspective? Usually that sort of thing is used as a means of showing off a hidden talent that an actor has — “Look, he can communicate with monkeys!” Here it was just a shameful spectacle.
Not good, folks. You did not make special guest star Nastia Liukin proud.
“You should know we’re having sex.” – Lauren to Kaylie, about her and Carter
“I’ll take a hug as collateral.” – Austin to Emily … creepy much?
Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Jul 06, 2010 @ 13:00 EST5EDT
