Fab Five: The Texas Cheerleader Scandal
Fab Five: The Texas Cheerleader Scandal is a Lifetime television movie that first aired in 2008. It was directed by Tom McLoughlin. It stars Ashley Benson, Jenna Dewan, and Tatum O'Neal. This movie is Based on a True Story that occurred at McKinney North High School in McKinney, Texas with five cheerleaders in 2006.This movie provides examples of:
- Adults Are Useless:
- This is justified, as the teachers cannot punish any of the Fab Five girls due to being at risk of termination.
- This is deconstructed with Principal Tippett, however. While she plays this straight by not punishing her jerkass daughter whenever she screws up, it causes the school to have serious issues with teaching the Fab Five about consequences. It took Ms. Tippett getting suspended from her position to learn the errors of her ways.
- Big Bad: Brooke, the ringleader of the Fab Five.
- Character Development: Ashley goes through this. She goes from being mean, catty and disrespectful towards Coach Carr and Megan to seeing the error of hers and the Fab Five's ways to making friends with Megan and Cindy and helping them do a routine.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Ashley and Cindy. When the Fab Four are barred from cheerleading, Ashley and Cindy continue to cheer for the school. Coach Carr may not have gotten her job back, but she is able to witness the girls cheer for the school without worrying about the Fab Four terrorizing them and anyone else.
- Flipping the Bird: Brooke does this twice in the film: first at the beginning of the film when a teacher tries to discipline her due to loud talking in class and again at the end of it at Coach Carr after she and the other are finally expelled and her mother gets suspended.
- Former Friend of Alpha Bitch: Ashley is eventually kicked out of the Fab Five group and is subjected to a lot of the bullying by her classmates that she was a part of, which drove her to tears.
- Gang of Bullies: The eponymous cheerleaders, of course.
- Grew a Spine: Principal Tippett towards her daughter Brooke and her fellow friends. Too bad it took her getting suspended from her position for her to finally grow it.
- Heel–Face Turn: Ashley ends up doing this when she is kicked out of the Fab Five.
- Ignored Epiphany: Brooke does this when Coach Carr tries to get the former to learn the error of her ways.
- Jerkass: The cheerleaders, but Brooke is the worst one out of the five.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: The girls were able to get away with their bad behavior until a video of them in an X-rated store with their cheerleading uniforms on goes viral. That’s when the school takes action for good.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Brooke gets pulled out of school at the end of the movie while the other three girls are kicked out of the cheerleading squad. Also, Principal Tippett (and the other employees) rightfully gets suspended from her job.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Poor Ashley suffers this at the hands of Jeri when the latter's boyfriend makes moves towards Ashley without Ashley's consent.
- "Not So Different" Remark: When Ashley vents to Megan about how she was never as cruel as Brooke, Megan is the one who calmly points out to Ashley that she was.
- Pushover Parents: Principal Tippett towards her daughter Brooke, who she refuses to punish. Naturally, Brooke exploits this due to her lack of respect for her mother.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Attempted by Coach Carr after her firing (which even then was moreso leaning towards a softer Disappointed in You speech), but immediately shut down by Brooke who cut her off and told her to shut up.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Coach Carr stops at nothing to stand up for the Fab Five. She gets fired for it, but at least the rest of the other girls respect her for it.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Why Brooke and her fellow monstrous cheerleaders friends consistently got away with their bullying and other bad behavior: her mother was the school principal.
- Spoiled Brat: Brooke takes this up to eleven.
- Teens Are Monsters: Between the bullying, lack of respect for authority figures, illegal activities, spreading a false rumor about two teachers having an affair and repeatedly getting away with it all, what's not to love?
- Tough Love: When Ashley runs to the bathroom crying about being bullied, she vents to Megan about how she was never as mean as Brooke. Megan calmly tells Ashley that she was, indeed, as cruel as Brooke. This prompts Ashley to change her ways for good, leading to some Character Development and a well deserved happy ending.
