Duvet Commits Music Blog Suicide! Or, Hear What Two Grown Men Have No Business Having An Opinion On But Opine They Do! Or, STILL, Shameless Pandering To A Demographic We Have No Business Pandering To! Or, BETTER STILL, WE LIKE ABC FAMILY'S "MAKE IT OR BREAK IT", So Sue US!

We give you the RAWK GIRLS!!

            If music is "What Duvet Said's" bread and butter, then TV is our croissant and Nutella! As some of you may or may not know WDS is not only a rich source of music bric-a-brac but also a thriving podcasting epicenter. In addition to "What Duvet Said...About Music", we also have "The Tank", a weekly podcast devoted to the random musings of two deeply disturbed, disgruntled, and diatribic Pop Culture junkies. As is the way with most drugs, you can't always predict which ones you'll become addicted to, so you simply must try them all! Well, Jason and Rob have drunk the "Kool-Aid" on a relatively under the radar TV show. I give you this post on ABC Family's "Make It Or Break It". With the new season rapidly approaching (premiering Monday March 28th) and my almost being caught up on the previous two seasons on Hulu, I felt compelled to cleanse the musical palette of this blog with the guiltiest of pleasures. That's RIGHT a show about teenage girls pursuing their dream to become Olympic gymnasts! But "Make It Or Break It" is about so much more than sport, as you will understand by reading the list below...Click on the title link or here to take you to their YouTube channel for previews of episodes and then tell me we've got a screw loose!

·      The competitions are genuinely exciting.  Unlike the Rocky movies or other typical sports films, we're never quite sure if the Rock Girls are going to advance.  Payson's literally crippling fall in the end of the first season set a tone of unsurety that we've never quite recovered from; each time Emily lands hard on her back after a vault, or Lauren twists her ankle jumping of the beam, or Kaylie's eyes glaze over from lack of food, we are genuinely concerned that they will not realize their dreams.  There is no guarantee of success in this show!

·      Those actresses can MOVE.  While it may not be Josie Loren each time we see a “leo” clad gymnast flip her way across the extremely clean mat, she can pose and smile like the winner we believe Kaylie Cruz to be.  Take it from us, two veteran high school gymnasts, leaping and swinging on a bar with chalked hands is not as easy as Cassie Cserbo makes it look.  And we dare anyone to give Chelsea Hobbs anything less than a perfect 10 on her "landings."

·      No show on television, network or otherwise, gives a better example of what it's like to be a celebrity and in the public eye.  When these girls have cameras on them or press around, they show what it's genuinely like to be a human being surrounded by photographers and red carpet questions, and then that “The Glamorous Life” is just another face mask treatment in your jammies in a hotel room.  They're smart about it, too, as Lauren saves Kaylie from an embarrassing and possibly career ending front page photo in the tabloids and swimming across a freezing Boulder lake to avoid being hauled away by police from a party.  These kids aren't embracing the spoils of celebrity; they are handling it.  They're making it!

·      Every single adult on the program acts like a 13 year-old child - which is exactly how adults act in real life.  There is no Ozzie and Harriet parent who knows all about being a grownup; the parents are growing up as well, sometimes right before our eyes, sometimes not at all.  Even Peri Gilpin's steady and secure mother, who seems to be the most grounded character of all, broke down in realization that she believed it was her fault that Payson had her accident.  Parents are people, too, and can sometimes be just as petty as a teenager; take a look at Emily's mother, who seems to be the only one on to Lauren's backstabbing ways, yet still is not immune to getting pissy right back at her.

·      While Emily has a chip on her shoulder about being impecunious, none of her friends or peers at The Rock seem to notice or care.  Wealth is just the way it is, nothing to flaunt, nothing to be ashamed of.  Kaylie drives a multiple thousand-dollar car with her multiple hundred-dollar sunglasses without an air of privilege, as Carter tools around in his Humvee.  We don't hate these kids because they're rich because they don't pound it over our heads - it's just the way they are.  Lauren may get a bit pissy about it, but Lauren's pissy about everything.

·      The show has just the right amount of preachiness.  It veers oh so blatantly into lesson-teaching territory every now and then; there are very obvious life lessons being taught and targeted, especially in the last season's focus on Kaylie and her eating.  But like real life, there is so much going on at every moment that there is not judgement being heaped on every aspect of their lives; underage drinking is shown, and is shown to have consequences for some, and not for others.  It is not openly condemned or judged, nor is underage sex, drug use, cutting class, infidelity, teenage pregnancy (in the case of Emily's mother), or any handful of other hot button topics that are often thrown around as "issues."  This show is not about teaching your kids - it's about showing what kids actually do, and allows parents to discuss what they see afterward if they want to.  Or if they don't want to, in their own way.  When the heavy lessons do come out, they are balanced with a good amount of diverging opinion - as much as Summer can tout her love of God and abstinence until marriage, Sasha will be there to roll his eyes at her and smirk, and neither one is seen as the good guy or the bad guy.

·      Emily Kmetko's hair in the past season is reason enough to buy a television in high definition.  All the girls are beauties, and real life beauties, not "TV" beauties. 

·      Any time someone says "please don't tell so-and-so I told you," you know that something that person is absolutely going to tell so-and-so in an episode or two.  This is not Lost, people; no secrets stay secret in MIOBI, and the payoffs to conflict come quickly and satisfyingly.  Just in time for a new wrinkle to cause more drama.

·      Two words: Sasha Belov.  I want him to be my personal Jesus and I may have replaced my dream of playing football for Notre Dame (a la Rudy) with winning a Gold medal at the Olympics in Uneven Bars under Sasha’s careful, stern but fair tutelage.  Payson, you’re in good hands…be the beam!

·      Leos, leos and more leos!  Enough said.

Not sold? We give you Lauren, Emily, Payson, and Kaylie