Make It or Break It

I'm very picky about my choice in shows worthy of following steadily. My schedule doesn't allow for a great deal of frivolity during the school year and I hesitate to invest more interest in following the path of someone else's life rather than living my own. Considering my tendency to lean towards suspenseful dramas and my chronic irritation with teenagers, it was not my expectation to be into a show like Make It or  Break It, if for no other reason than its being picked up by ABC Family, the station that's known for bringing such hits as The Secret Life of the American Teenager and Greek. From what I understand of ABC Family, it's the station that Disney Channel lovers go to when they realize that they might be getting too old for Hannah Montana, but would rather not seek out a show of substance. And yet I found myself, more often than I would imagine, stationed in front of a television at nine (eight central) on Monday evenings, waiting to see what fate had befallen the Rock Girls.
 Something about my affection for gymnastics and my boredom on the day that happened to be the series premier left me sitting in front of the television watching Stick It! the movie that was supposed to get us excited about this hip new show. The movie wasn't excruciating if I just ignored the crap that happened in between the gymnastics, so I figured the couch could bear my weight for another hour while I gave ABC Family's latest attempt at originality a fair shot.
The premise of the story is not incredibly remarkable. Rather than the typical cluster of lockers and classrooms, and elite gym is the major background for the ensuing drama among a tiny drove of teenaged girls and their parents. You have Lauren, the catty blonde who always gets her way from Daddy, Kaylie, the sweet popular girl who allows distractions to interfere with her drive, and Payson, the ultrafocused overachiever who won't let anything stop her. The course of their lives is altered minutely but significantly by the arrival of a shabby, unpolished scholarship recipient with a strong sob story and amazing potential: Emily Kmetko.  I sat, I watched, I thought, and by the time ten o'clock rolled around, I wanted more. I wanted to see what happened next. I will give the writers kudos for coming up with a very intriguing end to the pilot. It was curiosity about where they would be able to take it from there, more than anything else, that led me to tune in again. In addition to it being about gymnasts, it surprised me and I wondered how long they would be able to keep surprising me.
For seven weeks they held my attention. Seven weeks and I came to care about what would happen next, not just out of literary curiosity, but out of concern for the lives of these fictional characters. Seven weeks and I kept coming back; watching faithfully nearly every Monday night. In those seven weeks, I became familiar with the characters, had chosen favorites, and was able to make predictions about what should happen and what likely would happen. In seven weeks, I decided to make this one of "my shows". It wasn't quite as popular as most stupid ABCFamily shows and went on hiatus last summer rather than being picked up for another season. I was angry, more for the caliber of shows that the network held onto in comparison, and I was ready to mourn my one and only young girl's drama.
Now, the continuous whining on teens and tweens seems to have finally paid off as the show has been picked up for a third season just in time to get the Rock girls to the 2012 Olympics. I was disappointed with the way that they ended their last season, even though I knew a good deal of it was because they thought it would be the very end, but I look forward to the writers' attempt to pull themselves out of the hole that they dug. It will be nice to have those kids to root for again.