Make It or Break It
ABC Family's "new kind of family" moves into the back pain-inducing (read: backstabbing) world of competitive gymnastics. On floor exercise is Emily Kmetko, a poor, nice girl who was discovered at a YMCA and shipped to Boulder, Colo., to join a hyper-elite gym called The Rock. She works at a local pizza joint, much to the scorn of her wealthier teammates. On the uneven bars there's Kaylie Cruz, the pampered rich kid whose mother had an affair with a prominent gymnastics coach and whose boyfriend had a one-night stand with … Lauren Tanner, who's walking the balance beam and—well, simply put, just isn't very nice. Over on the sidelines (after a season as The Rock's top gymnast) is Payson Keeler, who broke her back during a key competition. Her dreams of Olympic gold are now as fractured as her vertebrae. Unless, of course, she beats the odds, ignores the doctors and risks her very life by attempting a comeback. But she wouldn't do that, would she?
Episode Reviews
January 11, 2010
TV Parental Guidelines Rating: tv14
"Follow the Leader"
It's rough going for The Rock's quartet of high-flying damsels. Payson's pretty bummed about her back. Emily's mom washed her team jacket in the same load as a hot-pink garment, thus ruining it. And Kaylie learns that the new national gymnastics coach is the same guy who slept with her mother—a relationship Kaylie's father knows nothing about.
"I'm looking forward to coaching you again," the coach tells Kaylie.
"Well, that makes one of us," Kaylie snorts, storming off.
So why wouldn't Kaylie, Emily and Morgan start a covert campaign to get the coach fired by telling other team members all sorts of lies about him? After all, he has bad breath, he hates to be looked in the eye and he sometimes inappropriately touches his students. They say.
Meanwhile, Kaylie is also whining about why life isn't all about her when it should be. 'Cause she's the national champion. And just to prove her point (only not really) she tries to seduce her old, cheating boyfriend, Carter.
"Why can everyone else cheat and lie and have sex?" Kaylie asks Carter when he rejects her. "And why can't I just do whatever I want?"
It makes me want to sit Kaylie down for some remedial ethics lessons. Thankfully, the show itself acknowledges that Kaylie's being a bit of a brat—sort of. The girls learn their lesson in the end and accept their new coach—cheating two-timer that he is. Emily learns to appreciate her wacky, hot-pink-loving mother—at least a little bit. Payson begins to come to terms with her injury—at least for now.
Actually, pretty much everybody's who's anyone at The Rock learns shallow-but-valuable lessons. Dandy, right?
Well, except for viewers to internalize those shallow-but-valuable lessons, they must first wade through sex-fueled storylines, drug references and a gymload of bad attitude.