For two weeks once every four years, gymnastics is the most popular sport in America. Like everyone else, I was drawn into the drama of whether Shawn Johnson, Nastia Liukin and the Americans would bring home the gold last summer.
But is gymnastics popular enough for people to tune in once a week? ABC Family is hoping it is, as it recently launched “Make It or Break It,” which airs at 8 p.m. Central Mondays.
Unfortunately, I have to say, “Skip it.”
True, gymnastics is inherently dramatic — that’s why it makes for good TV during the Olympics. But the genuine drama already seems slightly staged; that’s the case with any sport where the outcome is determined by judging. In a scripted drama based on that staged drama, a viewer feels a step further removed.
The premiere episode of “Make It or Break It” is nothing but clichés. At the prestigious Rocky Mountain Gymnastic Training Center — based on those super-gyms in Iowa and Texas that produced recent Olympians — the athletes include The Spoiled Girl and her rival, The New Girl; The Nice Girl, who wants everyone to get along; and The Distracted Girl, who is distracted by The Token Guy Gymnast.
(The gymnastics scenes are OK, on par with the football scenes in “Friday Night Lights.” They are a necessary part of the show, but not the reason to watch the show.)
Sometimes cliché-ridden shows can be a guilty pleasure if the actors are compelling enough, but “Make It or Break It” falls off the beam, fails to stick the landing, steps out of bounds … pick the metaphor of your choice. The one twist in the first episode — where The Spoiled Girl’s dad forces out the coach and several top gymnasts to clear a path for his daughter — doesn’t make logical sense.
I know very little about gymnastics, so it’s disappointing that I learned nothing new in the first episode. It’s just the same type of climbing-to-the-top, soap-opera drama you’ll find in any mid-grade sports show or movie.
And I suspect gymnasts — unless they are lowering their standards because this is the first show ever made about their sport — will be even more disappointed in the lack of insight.