Gymnastics series shows good balance

I know a new family-friendly show is doing its job if my kids beg me to play the pilot when their friends are over.”Make It or Break It” is a series about gymnasts, and what a relief that is. A combination of beauty and strength, gymnastics is one of the few sports that requires its athletes to compete as a team but also against each other, which makes it a perfect venue for teen angst.

Beyond that, “Make It or Break It” is, in some ways, maddeningly familiar: scruffy but cool new kid disrupts streamlined cliquish girl world. In this case, that world revolves around the Rock, where a trio of stars is about to be ranked for state finals. There’s top-ranked Payson (Ayla Kell), who’s driven but still nice; pretty and romantically distracted Kaylee (Josie Loren) and spoiled rich girl Lauren (Cassie Scerbo), whose father just happens to be the primary financial support of the Rock.

Enter Emily (Chelsea Hobbs), a gangly talent discovered, Lauren notes snootily, on “a playground.” She’s here on scholarship because, as her clothing makes instantly clear, she’s, well, poor. At least in comparison to her McMansioned peers.

There are many familiar tropes in “Make It or Break It,” the most obvious being Lauren, who is not only rich but also blond. (When will this stereotype die?) Scerbo dutifully flounces, spits out sarcastic comments and appeals to Daddy, but to her credit, also projects an insecurity and occasional naked fear that allows Lauren to be a real girl.

That, along with the great shots of gymnastics, is what lifts “Make It or Break It,” written by Holly Sorenson, from the many girl-power, collective-touting message shows that fill the various kid-friendly venues. Even within the confines of their assigned stereotypes, each of the girls seems naturally complicated. Hobbs’ Emily is all angles and bangs and nail-bitten determination. But watching her hang on to one slim possibility —- that she could be a gymnast —- is to see that moment in every adolescent when the hope of an identity dawns.

No doubt there will be many lessons about the importance of pulling together and being true to oneself, etc., but “Make It or Break It” seems prepared to take on not only the obvious Life Lessons but also the crucial undercurrents that move so many lives well into adulthood. And that, as much as the graceful wonder of gymnastics, will make it worth watching.

On TV

“Make It or Break It” airs Mondays on ABC Family.