Well after week-before-last's bombshell of Maddie on the bottom of
the pyramid, and weeping in the audience, this week promised to the "the
episode in the previews". Technically, only one part of that was a
bombshell, since of all the kids told to "go home and cry in their
pillows", Maddie cries more than any other kid on the show. So that's
not really a shocker.
Last week, we saw Maddie, again, at the bottom of the pyramid. So accustomed to having her face virtually flashed in neon above Abby Lee's studio door, Maddie & sneaky-snake mom Melissa seem blown away that Maddie doesn't shart diamonds. Abby is magnanimous enough to put Chloe at the top of the pyramid. But before you worry the Mayans might be onto something with the whole 2012 thing, Abby reminds us the world is NOT, in fact, coming to an end as she picks up her wheedling slack by setting in on Chloe for missing class the night before. Christi tells Abby she did, fortunately, get a doctor's note. Exciting stuff so far.
Melissa smirks her way through several interviews, blows her horn about how much Abby's clients miss her working there, blah blah blah, before going four-alarm serpentine, tattling to Abby at one point that Christi took Chloe to the movies rather than the doctor. Well sure! Didn't you know movie theater attendants now dispense doctors' notes at the concession stand? Melissa throws 11-year-old Chloe under the proverbial bus for "eye-rolling" in class...of which apparently the camera crew have never captured footage. Let us not fail to mention that this interlude between Melissa & Abby should have been accompanied by the world's smallest violin, as Melissa tearfully bemoans to her plump pal the mean things said about her by "those women". It "hurts her heart". Oh, and it hurts Maddie's, too, although you wouldn't know it by the kid's "geez, Mom, gahhhh" expression as she quickly exits from the shot in embarrassment.
Without doubt the climax of the episode is Abby berating Paige for Kelly's failure to have Paige's prop ready. Of course, Kelly has spent her time getting costumes together...hold on a sec, don't these people pay the studio to do things like that??? Anyway...the spit-spat culminates in Kelly telling Abby she, a customer, shouldn't be doing this costume crap while the dance instructor/studio owner is stuffing her face. Abby: "blah blah blah, you're stupid, you're useless, blah blah blah". Kelly: "Stop eating! That's why you're fat!"
Skip to competition time. Moaning Maddie is told she won't be doing a solo, her mom Machiavellian Melissa puts her up to asking Abby "like an adult" (which Abby falls for) if she can do her solo, and naturally, Maddie's little magic works its charm. Kelly flips out - which the other mothers, besides Melissa, seem to understand - that the rules are being bent for Little Miss Can't Do Wrong. Did we mention the Golden Child was given a private for her solo the night before? So once again, we see Chloe give a beautiful performance completely devoid of choreographic difficulty, and Maddie giving a herky-jerky performance of superior choreography. Chloe: 3rd place. Maddie: 2nd place.
So it will be no surprise to see Maddie on top of the pyramid for the next episode. Since this show is so obviously scripted, a plot twist now & again might be nice. But if the rumors are true that Melissa was boffing & is now married to a producer, the favoritism makes sense...and doesn't seem like it will go anywhere for awhile. Sigh.
Last week, we saw Maddie, again, at the bottom of the pyramid. So accustomed to having her face virtually flashed in neon above Abby Lee's studio door, Maddie & sneaky-snake mom Melissa seem blown away that Maddie doesn't shart diamonds. Abby is magnanimous enough to put Chloe at the top of the pyramid. But before you worry the Mayans might be onto something with the whole 2012 thing, Abby reminds us the world is NOT, in fact, coming to an end as she picks up her wheedling slack by setting in on Chloe for missing class the night before. Christi tells Abby she did, fortunately, get a doctor's note. Exciting stuff so far.
Melissa smirks her way through several interviews, blows her horn about how much Abby's clients miss her working there, blah blah blah, before going four-alarm serpentine, tattling to Abby at one point that Christi took Chloe to the movies rather than the doctor. Well sure! Didn't you know movie theater attendants now dispense doctors' notes at the concession stand? Melissa throws 11-year-old Chloe under the proverbial bus for "eye-rolling" in class...of which apparently the camera crew have never captured footage. Let us not fail to mention that this interlude between Melissa & Abby should have been accompanied by the world's smallest violin, as Melissa tearfully bemoans to her plump pal the mean things said about her by "those women". It "hurts her heart". Oh, and it hurts Maddie's, too, although you wouldn't know it by the kid's "geez, Mom, gahhhh" expression as she quickly exits from the shot in embarrassment.
Without doubt the climax of the episode is Abby berating Paige for Kelly's failure to have Paige's prop ready. Of course, Kelly has spent her time getting costumes together...hold on a sec, don't these people pay the studio to do things like that??? Anyway...the spit-spat culminates in Kelly telling Abby she, a customer, shouldn't be doing this costume crap while the dance instructor/studio owner is stuffing her face. Abby: "blah blah blah, you're stupid, you're useless, blah blah blah". Kelly: "Stop eating! That's why you're fat!"
Skip to competition time. Moaning Maddie is told she won't be doing a solo, her mom Machiavellian Melissa puts her up to asking Abby "like an adult" (which Abby falls for) if she can do her solo, and naturally, Maddie's little magic works its charm. Kelly flips out - which the other mothers, besides Melissa, seem to understand - that the rules are being bent for Little Miss Can't Do Wrong. Did we mention the Golden Child was given a private for her solo the night before? So once again, we see Chloe give a beautiful performance completely devoid of choreographic difficulty, and Maddie giving a herky-jerky performance of superior choreography. Chloe: 3rd place. Maddie: 2nd place.
So it will be no surprise to see Maddie on top of the pyramid for the next episode. Since this show is so obviously scripted, a plot twist now & again might be nice. But if the rumors are true that Melissa was boffing & is now married to a producer, the favoritism makes sense...and doesn't seem like it will go anywhere for awhile. Sigh.
