Friday at 7, set your TiVos

I love Cheerleader Nation not just because documentary-type shows about human obssessions are fascinating. And not just because I wasn't a teenager that long ago, and I can relate. And not even because KG won't be a teenager herself that long from now and I can't help but be wary of what I'm in for. Mostly I love Cheerleader Nation because it turned out very different from what I expected. I thought orginally it would be similar to those shows about the Pageant People. The creepy pageant toddlers with their fake teeth, artificially tanned skin, and Glamour Shots-style makeup. And the creepy matching moms who all insist it's the little baby girls who loooove pageants and are obessed with winning, it's not the mothers at all. Mm hmmm. (Although I would still probably loved CN if it had turned out like the Pageant People Shows, just in a more horrified way.)

Cheerleader Nation takes place in Kentucky and chronicles the national champion high school varsity team, Dunbar. They're trying for their third consecutive 1st-place win this year, and the show focuses on their training, their public performances and other team events, with a dose of their home life thrown in as well. Featured are about 8 girls, as well as the coaches; the rest of the team appears, too, but in a more sidelined way.

The South, of course, also has quite the reputation for its obsession with cheerleading; like how many Lifetime movies are there, all based on true stories, about mothers offing their daughters' biggest competition, just so their daughters can make the team. Murdering, for a sport. It's crazy.

Cheerleader Nation, however, is really not. These girls and their coaches and their moms and dads are dead serious about their cheerleading, it's true, and sometimes it does get a little silly. Some of the mothers seem to live vicariously through their daughters, which is a bit much. For the most part, however, the girls themselves seem so...normal. They're not even the bitchy stereotypical cheerleaders--though popular, they're all relatively cute in a relatable way, rather than Barbie-dollish. They don't talk about how they're the coolest kids in school, or all the name-brand "stuff" they have. Yes, they are on the affluent side; they're the kind of kids who get their brand-new car on their 16th birthday. Mostly, though, their problems are so typical: one girl's struggling to keep her grades up, another's got body-image issues, another feels overshadowed by her big sister, and another's drifting from her best friend. They do all have a chip on their shoulders in the way teenagers do, but it somehow makes them even more endearing. I sort of love the girls of Dunbar.

I'm not saying we would have ever hung out, if I were a teenager right now at Dunbar High School. I certainly wouldn't have tried out for the squad, because look out, these girls can do some freaking gymnastics. The routines are tight; it truly is a sport. But ah, Friday nights on Lifetime. It's like the best thing since reruns of Golden Girls.