Make It Up As We Go Along or Break It?

At the start of the New Year, I wrote about my not so secret but very guilty pleasure- the ABC Family show, Make It Or Break It, which chronicles the travails, both athletic and romantic, of gymnasts supposedly en route to the Olympics in 2012. In that post, I acknowledged that the show was lackluster on nearly every level- from the writing to the acting and even the gymnastics, which any true gym fan knows wouldn't be rewarded with an NCAA scholarship, much less an Olympic medal.

On the International Gymnast website, Dwight Normile is similarly critical of the show. He cites not just the level of the gymnastics but the paucity of it- just 20 seconds in a recent episode- and the reliance on implausible soap opera plots to sustain the show.

Now while I don't disagree with any of Mr. Normile's critiques, I do have a bit of a bone to pick with him. He's been the editor of arguably the best gymnastics magazine in the world for several years. I received my subscription for the magazine as a bat mitzvah gift from my therapist (yes, you read that right) at the age of 12 and continued to receive it until the end of college. It was also one of the first places where my writing was published (0utside of my high school newspaper that is). Missing this monthly bulletin, I signed up for a subscription last year, which I have since let lapse a few months ago. I don't plan to renew.

Why? Because the quality of the magazine has gone down over the years. Where I once used to pore over every word, I stopped reading and just looked at the photos. The writers have remained largely the same and the way in which they present the sport and the athletes has not changed either. Perhaps it's time to invigorate the magazine with new writers and perspectives. Because it is rather rich of Mr. Normile to fault the show for trafficking in gymnastics cliches when his own magazine has been telling the same exact stories year after year. If a publication devoted to the sport can't find new stories or ideas within gymnastics, how can one possibly demand that a bunch of producers and writers, most of whom possess little knowledge the marquee Olympic event to do any better? If IG can't make life in the gym seem interesting by writing about something other than the devoted, hardworking gymnast, then why shouldn't MIOBI strain believability by sending the girls to LA. At least that adds a dash of excitement.

I know that in Ecclesiastes it is written,"There is nothing new under the sun," and that all content is derivative, etc. but it should be possible to tell tweak the formula to tell seemingly new stories or at least more interesting stories.