More 'Break It' than 'Make It'

Following tonight's season premiere of "Secret Life of the American Teenager," ABC Family's latest series, "Make It or Break It" (9 p.m.) is not its greatest.

There are elements of a decent show here but they're buried deep beneath an ever-growing pile of cliched characters, relationships and events.

Last week I wrote about how the oddball messiness of "Secret Life" distinguished it from most other mainstream shows on TV. "Make It" is one of those shows where events transpire in a generally predictable fashion.

New-to-town Emily (Chelsea Hobbs) arrives at "The Rock," a training facility for gymnasts, where her high degree of skill is immediately resented by competitor Lauren (Cassie Scerbo).

All the rivalries and training scenes are pretty pat and uninteresting. The show's most notable scenes involve Emily and her mom (Susan Ward), who's less responsible than her daughter. It's a potentially interesting dynamic.

Peri Gilpin, who played Roz on "Frasier," turns up as the mother of the most driven gymnast, Payson (Ayla Kell), and that story also holds some promise if producers explore why Payson is so driven and the damage that can do to a child. The pilot hints that there may be more on that to come.

A couple of notes about visuals on the show: In the early going it's difficult to tell the leotard-clad stars apart. Once their limited personalities start to come through -- the Driven Overachiever, the Nice Girl, the Mean Girl -- it gets a little easier.

One thing that doesn't ever get explained is the look of Emily's pizza shop co-worker, a guy who's clearly being introduced as a potential love interest. For the longest time I thought he had a black eye and that it might be explained. But it wasn't so I can only conclude someone in makeup (or lighting) did a lousy job concealing the bags under one eye.

Yeah, it's a weird thing to notice but also indicative of problems with the show: If I'm noticing such peculiarities then I'm not drawn in by the show.