I hate to say it, because I was really looking forward to the China meet, but last night’s season one finale of Make It or Break It was perhaps one of the worst season finales I have ever seen on television. And I don’t get what happened.
There were so many plots that were ripe for either exploration or conclusion last night. The second half of season one hasn’t been as stand-out as the first half, but in the last few weeks we’ve been introduced to a number of issues that were seemingly being aligned to crescendo last night. Yet somehow, one after another, each imploded on its way to the top of the mountain.
I can’t even begin to express my disgust with Sasha for allowing Kaylie to compete in the meet. Her no-show up until the last minute proved definitively that she’s no leader, and he sent the wrong message to the rest of his team by letting her back in. We didn’t see that anyone was upset about it (in fact, we didn’t even see the other members of the squad that we don’t know during Kaylie’s pep talk at all), but that’s because the script was written without anyone taking issue with Kaylie’s selfishness. But the reality of the situation? Sasha had an opportunity to pull a Coach Herman Boone from Remember the Titans, when he benched a newly repentant Petey Jones. Instead, he just reinforced the image that his only concern is his own ego.
And I say that with respect, but come on; do you imagine for one second that his asking Kaylie to perform a move that she’s never perfected was about her? Or that sending Payson in to compete was for the sake of the team? This was about Sasha proving that he was right, and mean lady from the National Committee was wrong. And I was incredibly disappointed in him for that.
Sending Payson in, Payson going in, and Kim letting her go in, was about the dumbest thing that any of them could have done. Do you realize how dangerous that was? I don’t care how simple her routine was. Had her hands slipped while she was holding herself upside down, then what? Sasha would say, “At least she tried”? Not only was the move incredibly easy to anticipate, but it was also the height of stupidity, recklessness, and poor plot direction.
As was Leo taking the note that Not-Razor left for Emily. And Carter choosing Lauren in the end, only after we knew (but he didn’t) that Kaylie had chosen him. Or no one knowing who Emily was during her interview. Or the stupid “Trust” catchphrase. It was as if everything that any casual watcher of the show could have guessed would come next, did. The entire episode was one giant dramatization of “But then why does that surprise me?”, as Kaylie said to Lauren at one point.
And Kaylie’s championship was a fluke, despite her protestations otherwise. She absolutely beat Kelly Parker head-on, but Payson would have walked away with the gold at Nationals had she not gotten injured. Is it in poor form to acknowledge that truth? Kaylie can be defensive about her lack of recognition for the accomplishment, but she had yet to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she was a winner, and she knows it.
And I couldn’t wrap my head around what the meet actually proved in the end. As a competition between Sasha’s six and the National Team’s, okay. But the big picture was that it just meant that his girls sucked a little less than the National Squad when compared to the Chinese. Congratulations? Yes, if you take the medals that Emily, Lauren, and Kaylie won (amazingly, the only ones to win) and add them to the winners from the previous meet, you might have a strong team. But that’s all hypothetical. They and we can make as many guesses as we want to, but the episode failed to show how, with Emily and Kaylie added to the equation (just because she did better here doesn’t mean that Lauren’s failure in China can be erased), the new National Team would perform. All I saw were two team losses.
Look, the significance of the meet aside, these last eight episodes did not meet the high bar set by the initial run of twelve. I could call it the In Plain Sight factor, but then I’d just be poking the bear (wink). But whatever it is, they fell short, the finale in particular. I don’t know what needs to be fixed specifically, but a major overhaul is in order. That was not good.
What did you think of the finale? How about season one part two? What’s next for our ragtag crew? Let me know in your comments below.
Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Mar 09, 2010 @ 13:00 EST5EDT
OMG Aryeh, you nailed this.
Like you said, the second half of the season is so much worse than the first half. But the last 2-3 episodes things seemed to finally get a little bit better, only to fall in the deepest pits of hell with this episode.
So why is it so bad? For me I feel this is completely the fault of the writers/creative producers (whatever the term is for the people who think up the general idea of the show and where it should go). Not only are the plotlines ridiculous and very hard to belief like you so excellently pointed out, the actual lines of the script were just awful as well, it reminded me of an Uwe Boll Movie for pete’s sake. Example: Kaylie’s dad saying “My daughter doesn’t make a deal with the devil” against the woman from the national commitee. I mean ‘WTF?’ That was so out of character, out of line, out of the frickin world.
And there were many lines like that. I felt embarrassed and insulted after watching this trainwreck.
I 100% agree with your estimation this ‘Make It or Break It’ season finale is probably the worst season finale ever made. I don’t know if I will keep watching next season and that’s a shame, cause the first half of the season was very good (although even then not everything was perfect).
PS: I do have one question that perhaps anyone can help me with? It is my understanding Make It or Break It airs on a channel called ABC Family, which is a different channel from ABC. I am not familiar with this channel, so I was wondering if this sort of degradation in quality between two halves of a season is something that’s common for this channel?
*POST AUTHOR*
Perfect example of the terrible writing. Plus, how does it help his daughter for Alex to just one-line the committee woman?
ABC Family is to ABC what HBO Family is to HBO — just a separate entity that airs more family-friendly shows. Having said that, Greek, which airs on ABC Family, is generally uneven between season halves, but I don’t know if that’s inherent to the network.
My understanding is that the word “Family” must be kept in the channel name as one of the original stipulations of a series of deals that led The Family Channel to become Fox Family and later ABC Family. It’s not necessarily that the content is more family-friendly than the broadcast network.
Kyle XY was another ABC Family show that started with astutely-written family and conspiracy drama and devolved into meaningless teenage romance angst, though that was between seasons rather than within a single one. Since I’ve not seen widespread dissent with In Plain Sight on this or other television boards, your reference might not hold the desired meaning for those readers that haven’t been participating in this debate.
I was watching closely, and there is a single cut of the other three or four girls on the team applauding Kaylie’s rallying speech. Prior to that, we only saw the main characters.
I think what’s being presented is that Payson’s completely recovered and that the simple routine presented no danger to her, unless you were referring to the possibility that she might embarrass Sasha. Her performance raised their morale and created a lot of spectator and press buzz, so it paid off. I even honestly believed that Kelly Parker was touched by the scene.
Many people on the show and in the home audience believe with absolute certainty that Payson would have taken the gold, but as been pointed out by the characters, it’s something we will never know. Additionally, it was not a bolt-from-the-blue fluke, but the culmination of Payson’s growing back problems from pushing herself too hard and competing too often. Those are decisions she made for herself, and we can’t know what her ability would have been if she’d restrained her performance to prevent the injury. Now that Kaylie has beaten Kelly Parker, who seemed to be competing at Payson’s level last year, I would begrudgingly call her championship warranted.
*POST AUTHOR*
Interesting; I didn’t know that about the network ownership. It does seem to me, though, that the programming is skewed younger, maybe not family per say, but definitely younger. Either way…. The In Plain Sight jab was special just for you. :)
Okay, so one cut to the others. I think the intentional editing was done rather poorly though.
I’ve gotten a different sense from the last few episodes. I see that Payson’s been cleared medically to start training, not that she’s completely recovered physically (yet to be determined), or psychologically (not even looked into yet). Whatever her routine may or may not have done for her or the team, I think it was reckless for Sasha to send her up there, for Payson to go, and for Kim to sit idly by. What would the argument be if she’d froze while flipping in the air, missed her catch, landed on her head and been paralyzed. “Oh, but she was ready!”?
I guess what I have trouble seeing is how Kaylie won in the first place. We know how she had the opportunity to surpass Payson – she was injured. But Kelly Parker? It was all too weird. Day one she’s struggling. Day two she’s the champion. Maybe I feel like she has yet to prove to me that she’s a champion? I don’t know. And that’s my problem, but the show’s fault.
Definitely younger; that seems to be their brand identity as distinct from the mothership. Also why most of their programming seems not suited to my taste, unless there’s psychic powers, gymnastics, or Larry Miller.
Far be it from me to defend the show’s editing; I don’t fault anyone for missing that one quick cut.
It would have been fair to hold her back, but at some point Payson’s got to jump back in and sink or swim. The decision was Sasha and hers, and you could definitely call them both reckless, but it paid off for them both.
See, if there was actually time to show the gymnastics storylines I want, we would have seen Kaylie’s development in the gym over the last half season, not just “you have to master this one move to make you better than Kelly Parker.” It’s definitely the show’s fault for not explicitly illustrating the point for the audience, and spending all its time on romantic troubles instead.
*POST AUTHOR*
Gymnastics is definitely an area Make It or Break It should consider exploring next season. ;)