Make It or Break It – At least Kaylie hasn’t been hospitalized yet

I started covering Make It or Break It just a few weeks into its premiere season. I’d tried the show largely because I was such a big fan of Greek, and I wondered if ABC Family — like USA Network and TNT before it — might have found the formula to successful original series. While recent attempts haven’t proved that out as far as I’m concerned, Make It or Break It got me hooked.

The show’s first chapter, from the pilot to Payson’s injury and Kaylie’s championship, was really good TV. The characters were enjoyable, the stories were interesting, and all the stereotypical “teen show” stuff was either absent or muted. That wasn’t what the show was about. Rather, it was true to its premise: it focused on the lives of four elite gymnasts as they trained to be the best. There were boyfriends and jobs, but only as far as those things played a role in the girls’ athletic lives.

But no more. I don’t know that the current teen dramedy that we’re left with isn’t what the show set out to be in the first place (I doubt it, and think instead that this was a compromise reached between the producers and the network in order to get the season one part two renewal), but it certainly isn’t the show that seduced me in the beginning. This show is miserable, and if the current chapter weren’t coming to a close in just a few short weeks, I’d stop covering it right now. I can’t do it anymore.

The entire Ellen Beals story is painful, from her bullying of Emily to her minimizing of Sasha. An organization as successful and reputable as USA Women’s Gymnastics would never allow itself to be steered by someone like her, and certainly it would be careful to separate the board leadership from the athletic leadership, much like any other sports organization does. No way should Ellen have been out there telling the girls what to do while they practiced, and no way should she have been able to push Marty out the door with such ease.

And for what? Isn’t there enough drama in the struggles these girls experience in competition, the in-fighting between team members (I’m looking at you Kelly Parker), and their problems at home? What does Ellen Beals bullying Emily do for us?

I have to imagine Ellen knew exactly what Lauren would do with the envelope that she handed to her for Steve, although I was surprised that Lauren ripped it open right then and there. Unfortunately that only fueled Emily’s “I’m the adult, you’re the child” garbage with Chloe … I’m 100% with her as far as not wanting someone else’s handouts. But how, exactly, does she expect to be able to “give all of it back” to Steve? And while he was way over the line, why is it that Emily can’t also see what Steve did as a sweet, albeit misguided, expression of his feelings for Chloe?

Meanwhile, no matter what lessons she has the opportunity to be learning from her life experiences, Lauren continues to … well, she could at least grow a little. Her plea of “This happened because I don’t have a mom” to Chloe when discussing premarital sex was disgusting.

My wife guessed week’s ago that Payson was developing a crush on Sasha. I was sure she was wrong, but now that’s the only thing I see her ballet story leading up to. Payson Keeler, from the beginning the best gymnast on the show, who was provided with the opportunity for the best story on the show after her injury (which fell far short), and who then got a second chance with her fight back to the top, is now being handed “crush on the coach.” Bravo.

And I think that about sums up what’s wrong with Make It or Break It as we near the end of season two part one. It’s gone from being a fresh, new story to one that we’ve seen a thousand times before. I hate to say it, but I’m just about done.

Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Aug 11, 2010 @ 14:00 EST5EDT