Make It or Break It

ABC Family’s television drama series, Make It or Break It, is a story about the lives of four gymnasts whose goal in life is to make it to the 2012 Olympics.  These four gymnasts are: Payson, Lauren, Kaylie, and Emily.  Each of these girls live very different lives and have problems of their own, but they all have gymnastics in common.

Payson is the most focused and determined athlete at “The Rock”, which is the (fictional) elite gym that they train at.  Because of this reason, she is the best female gymnast in the gym.  Payson had a back injury in the past and after practicing for Nationals, it flared up.  But since she her determination dominates her, she ignores it and keeps training.  When she competes at Nationals, Payson falls and injures her back. This back injury is very serious and she was told that she couldn’t do gymnastics anymore. Payson has to deal with this career changing news and figure out a way to be the same gymnast she was.

Lauren is a two-faced liar and the one that stirs up all the drama between the girls. She does many things to make the other girls hate her. In the beginning of the season, she betrays all of the athletes in the gym because she goes to another gym with their head coach before competition.  This is very bad because without a head coach, the gym and the athletes are a mess.  Also, she stabs Kaylie in the back because she sleeps with Kaylie’s boyfriend, Carter, which they both fight over throughout the first season.  Even though Lauren acts out and hurts many people, she is the most vulnerable character on the show.  The reason for this is because her mother leaves her at a very young age.

Kaylie is the National Champion.  She would not have achieved this if it weren’t for Payson’s back injury, but since she was runner up, she won.  When Kaylie won, everyone thought her luck was the reason why she won and not because she was a good athlete.  This brought the most pressure for Kaylie because she believed that they were right.  Having to live up to the title when everyone thinks you don’t deserve it brings a lot of pressure and this pressure pushes Kaylie to work harder to beat the best athlete in the world on the China team.  Kaylie has to deal her relationship issues with Carter, as well as her parent’s divorce.

Emily is the new comer and the outcast of the show.  Since “The Rock” is an elite gym, it would be very expensive to train there. The reason why she can even train at “The Rock” is because she earns a scholarship from them. Emily has this scholarship because her family is economically challenged and this hurts her gymnastics career in many ways.  First, it is one of the rules at “The Rock” that the athletes aren’t allowed to have jobs.  Second, she has to worry about her family members and if the electric bill has been paid. Finally, if they want to take their career far, as their coach says “you need to eat, breathe, sleep gymnastics”, meaning they can’t have any other distractions. Having this job wears her out and distracts her from her gymnastics career. Emily’s job at the Pizza Shack soon hurts her and is used against her to take her scholarship away. Another issue that she has to deal with is her experience.  She has only trained at the YMCA in a small town in California.  This isn’t enough and doesn’t compare to the other girls who have been training at “The Rock” for most of their lives.  Training at “The Rock” is a big opportunity for her because that’s the only way that she can become a serious and well known athlete.

This TV show is one of my favorites out of the many TV shows that I watch, so I totally recommend that you try the Pilot.  If you just watch one episode, you’ll be hooked like I was. J

Vampire Diaries

The Vampire Diaries is a supernatural drama-horror TV show that is based on the book series by the author, L. J. Smith. This series is about the Elena Gilbert.  Due to her parents dying in a Car crash, Elena isn’t the same person she was before the accident. She becomes unhappy and distant like anybody who loses both their parents.  But everything changes when a new guy comes to Mystic Falls. Stefan Salvatore comes back to his hometown after 145 years. Now, you probably are thinking that I wrote the wrong number of years right? It’s not possible that someone can live for more than 145 years.  Well, in this case, it’s possible.  Stefan Salvatore is a vampire. Elena soon falls for Stefan and their lives become more and more complicated when Stefan’s vampire brother, Damon comes into town.  Damon is a totally different person from Stefan. Vampires need blood to survive. Stefan denies himself blood to avoid killing, while Damon doesn’t care about anyone and who he kills.  Both brothers begin to show affection towards Elena, but this isn’t some coincidence.  145 years ago when Damon and Stefan were in Mystic Falls and both human, there was a girl named Katherine.  They both fall in love with Katherine, but this turns around when she turns them into vampires.  She ends up leaving them and breaking their hearts.  Since Katherine looks exactly like Elena, history repeats. The main focus of this series is the love triangle between them and the vampire problems they bring to Elena’s world. 

Glee

The musical comedy-drama TV show, Glee finally comes back next week! This show is about a high school’s glee club, located in Ohio, trying to stay alive and not get kicked out by the cheerleading coach, Sue Sylvester.  Will Schuester is the Spanish teacher at the school. He has always liked to sing and dance like the kids in this glee club.  Throughout the show, Will is passionate about the kid’s talent and wants them to succeed in Sectionals. Sue Sylvester is the coach of the cheerleading squad and does everything in her power to try to kick the glee club out.  Will and Sue are always in a battle.  The kids on the other hand, have problems of their own.  In high school, being in the glee club isn’t really an honor or something to be proud of like when you’re on a varsity team, but every high school student thinks it’s a joke.  The high school students show this by dumping slurpy drinks on the kids from the glee club.  But despite everyone having a negative opinion on this idea, the glee club kids stay in glee club.  They sing and dance to songs that are popular in today’s music, but they make the song their own.  Later, these songs are released on iTunes and are a big hit.  I’ve also like a lot of the songs that came out and if you haven’t heard them, go to iTunes right now.  They have a variety of different genres and songs that everyone will enjoy.  

Hellcats

Are you a fan of Bring It On! or Step Up 2? If you are, then this is the show for you! This comedy-drama series is about Marti (Alyson Michalka), who is a lawyer student at a college called Lancer; Lancer is located in Memphis, Tennessee. Marti is a serious student that wants to be successful and graduate college, but she looses her scholarship which is what is keeping her in school. Marti must now find a new way to stay in college, which she does by entering cheerleading tryouts for the school’s cheerleading team, Hellcats. If she makes the cheerleading team, then she gets a new scholarship and stays in school. Of course Marti makes it and she is introduced into a totally different world: Cheertown!

I like the characters in this show. In the beginning, I thought that my favorite character would be Marti, but she turned out to be a very big cliche character. The character that I ended up liking most is Savannah (Ashley Tisdale). Savannah is the cheerleading captain of the Hellcats. In the beginning of the series, Savannah looks like she would be the snobby queen-bee, but she turned out to be the complete opposite. She has a bubbly personality and is loyal to her teammates. Savannah’s actions really surprise me because she’s very benevolent. There was an event in the story where the Hellcats had to compete against the Volleyball team to prove that they are athletes too. Marti couldn’t attend this competition because her academic class had a trip which was very important for her education. Knowing that Marti is only using cheerleading to get a scholorship in her education and is choosing the success in herself rather than the team, Savannah doesn’t reveal this to the team. This shows her loyalty to Marti and how she understands Marti’s situation. Not only does this show have unique characters, but it’s very entertaining to watch the world of cheerleading and their routines. I totally recommend this TV show! :)

The Biggest Loser

The Biggest Loser is a reality television series that targets people that are obese.  The contestants have to battle against each other to lose as much weight as they possibly can. Whoever loses the highest percent of weight will be crowned “The Biggest Loser”. Now, being crowned “The Biggest Loser” doesn’t necessarily mean that the competitor is the worst loser; being the biggest loser is a good thing. If the contestant beats everybody that they are playing against, they will win a large amount of money. In the USA version of The Biggest Loser, the contestant wins $100,000. But the biggest prize of all is turning into a person with a healthier lifestyle. Winning isn’t just handed over to the contestants; it takes hard and painful work that will not have an affect overnight. The show lasts for twelve weeks so the competitor has to compete for a long term. 

Stop and think about how it would feel to be in one of the competitor’s shoes, weighing double your weight and having everybody staring at you. Not a good feeling right? There’s no wonder why many people want to compete in this show. Not only is it easier once they are in at the camp where everybody else is like them, but there are trainers there to help guide you through the process. Since this is a big issue in the United States, there are many people of different ages inspired to work on their own bodies while watching this show. This TV show has a positive effect world-wide because many people can relate to this issue. It shows people more information about their diet, nutrition, and also what different ways you can exercise. 

Charlie St. Cloud

Charlie St. Cloud is a romantic drama movie based on the book called The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud by Ben Sherwood. The story is about the life of a young man who’s name is Charlie St. Cloud (Zac Efron). Charlie grieves over the death of his younger brother, Sam, who dies in a tragic car accident. Before the car accident, Charlie makes a deal with Sam; he would practice playing baseball with him every day at Sunset Cannons. Five years after the accident, Charlie continues practicing baseball with him; this is the only way that Charlie can see Sam. Aside from Charlie’s life with Sam, a new person comes into his life, Tess. Tess is a young women who was a classmate of his when they went to high school. Charlie and Tess become more and more involved in each other's life. The more that Charlie spends time with Tess, the less he gets to see Sam. He has to choose between grieving the past and getting to see his brother or having a future and living his life with the person he loves. 

The first thing that comes to mind when the name Zac Efron appears, is the movie High School Musical. Now that he has acted in a very different, more mature movie, I think that he now has a big career ahead of him. I thought he nailed the role and it really shows that he has talent. In my opinion, he is a better actor than a singer/dancer. He has done musicals in the past where he seemed like he hadn’t decided whether he wanted to be an actor or an artist. Now that he has done this movie, he has proved that acting is his strength and he wants pursue his acting career. Overall, I was astonished with Zac’s acting and I can’t wait for more of his movies to premiere. 

American Idol!

American Idol is a reality TV show where people from across American come to compete against each other. The point of this competition is to find a new artist that has a singing talent. The winner of the show is determined by the people watching each performance. Everybody can either call in or text to vote for the person they think is the best. 

I absolutely cannot wait until American Idol starts off. Just the other day, I was listening to a previous American Idol winner, then the idea popped up in my mind. I hadn’t heard anybody talking about it or I didn’t see any new singles come out on iTunes. It turns out that it had not even started yet! I still can’t believe that it comes back in January! That has never happened before. In the past, American Idol usually comes back on in the Fall season, but not this year. It will be worth it though. I love it when we get to see everybody audition, especially when I watch it with my friends. We have a lot of fun making fun of the people that stand out from the crowd. Overall, my favorite part of American Idol is picking the person that I think is the best and routing them for the whole season. I find it fun to listen to their version of the single that they covered. Many people have different styles and voices so it’s really interesting how much people can change the original song.