![Now, I am not in the TV-show recapping business, which is maybe the only sector in which jobs are currently being created. Seriously, when I see those repurposed-socialist-slogan Levi’s ads that say things like “made strong for the new work,” I think, is the butt extra-reinforced for hours of sitting watching and then recapping TV shows?
However, I can’t keep silent about Huge any longer.
Did you see the “summer finale” of Huge last night? Maybe not, because it’s a show on ABC Family about fat camp. Here’s a list of reasons why you should download the first season.
1. It’s written by Winnie Holzman (My So Called Life, Wicked) and her daughter Savannah Dooley, who turns 25 today. In this interview Dooley talks about how her queer identity informs her writing, and what it’s like to work with her mom, and what it’s like to have a mom who wrote MSCL. Amazing.
2. Hayley Hasselhoff (above) as Amber, the skinniest and poorest girl — she’s paying her own way! — at fat camp. This character could easily devolve into mean-girl cliche, but Hasselhoff’s performance and the writing combine to give Amber so much nuance. Her forbidden romance plotline is thrilling and heartbreaking, but not as heartbreaking as her relationship with her emotionally manipulative, messed-up child of a mom, Teal. Teal is a little bit like a younger version of Rayanne Graff’s mom, if you replace pot with meth and Stevie Nicksness with Kim Mathersness. Rayanne’s mom’s name, come to think of it, is also Amber! At one point, Teal addresses the stripper-name issue directly: “My sister’s name is [something else ridiculous and gemstoney], my name is Teal, and I named my baby Amber. I’m colorful.” Her overdefensive tone is perfect; you can tell she’s said this before (a lot.) I am always a sucker for plotlines about people’s fucked-up parents. And on that note:
3. This might be the only show on TV — certainly the only one explicitly aimed at teens — that honestly addresses this truth: every family has problems. Most TV shows, even fairly subtle and sophisticated ones — actually? let me enlarge that to most cultural products — separate families into two piles: happy and “dysfunctional.” It might reassure everyone who, you know, has a family to know that this is actually not a meaningful distinction. Every family is the latter and very lucky families are sometimes both, is my experience.
4. This is how the show handles class stuff:
Will (Nikki Blonksy’s character):I hate that my parents sent me this expensive tracksuit that’s like 11 sizes too small. I’m gonna burn it.
Amber: (Gasps) You can’t do that!
Will: I’ve burned stuff they’ve given me before.
Amber (Also I should note that during this scene they have broken into the kitchen to steal low-fat brownies, which Amber is chewing then spitting out into a napkin very discreetly): But it must have cost hundreds of dollars!
Will: Money doesn’t matter to them. They’re rich.
Amber: You mean you’re rich.
5. General shades of MSCL-iness. It’s probably selling the show short to draw these parallels but it’s almost impossible not to. Dr. Rand — the neurotic means-well camp director who’s struggling with her own food and family issues — is so Patty Chase-ish that they even have the same dad! Well, or he is played by the same actor, whom Bennett informs me is Winnie Holzman’s husband and Savannah’s father IRL. There is a gay character whose Rickyishness can’t actually be fronted about, though he’s about 500% less tragic than Ricky. When a dude kisses him on a dare, he very politely says he’s interested in someone else. I loved that moment. There’s also a subplot about a friend breakup — one of the friends has become cool while the other has remained a nerd — that is reminiscent of what happened between Angela and Sharon Cherski, and also what happened between everyone and a friend at some point in their teenaged lives. Whichever of these people you were — and some people have been both, at different times — the experience is sad in a very specific way and Holzman is a master at evoking this particular feeling. CONFIDENTIAL TO WINNIE AND SAVANNAH, I know this book you might want to develop into a TV show next, it’s called And The Heart Says Whatever, anyway, just mentioning this.
Also confidential to ABC Family: don’t even THINK about not renewing this show.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l80ziv9mSg1qz9bjro1_500.png)
Now, I am not in the TV-show recapping business, which is maybe the only sector in which jobs are currently being created. Seriously, when I see those repurposed-socialist-slogan Levi’s ads that say things like “made strong for the new work,” I think, is the butt extra-reinforced for hours of sitting watching and then recapping TV shows?
However, I can’t keep silent about Huge any longer.
Did you see the “summer finale” of Huge last night? Maybe not, because it’s a show on ABC Family about fat camp. Here’s a list of reasons why you should download the first season.
1. It’s written by Winnie Holzman (My So Called Life, Wicked) and her daughter Savannah Dooley, who turns 25 today. In this interview Dooley talks about how her queer identity informs her writing, and what it’s like to work with her mom, and what it’s like to have a mom who wrote MSCL. Amazing.
2. Hayley Hasselhoff (above) as Amber, the skinniest and poorest girl — she’s paying her own way! — at fat camp. This character could easily devolve into mean-girl cliche, but Hasselhoff’s performance and the writing combine to give Amber so much nuance. Her forbidden romance plotline is thrilling and heartbreaking, but not as heartbreaking as her relationship with her emotionally manipulative, messed-up child of a mom, Teal. Teal is a little bit like a younger version of Rayanne Graff’s mom, if you replace pot with meth and Stevie Nicksness with Kim Mathersness. Rayanne’s mom’s name, come to think of it, is also Amber! At one point, Teal addresses the stripper-name issue directly: “My sister’s name is [something else ridiculous and gemstoney], my name is Teal, and I named my baby Amber. I’m colorful.” Her overdefensive tone is perfect; you can tell she’s said this before (a lot.) I am always a sucker for plotlines about people’s fucked-up parents. And on that note:
3. This might be the only show on TV — certainly the only one explicitly aimed at teens — that honestly addresses this truth: every family has problems. Most TV shows, even fairly subtle and sophisticated ones — actually? let me enlarge that to most cultural products — separate families into two piles: happy and “dysfunctional.” It might reassure everyone who, you know, has a family to know that this is actually not a meaningful distinction. Every family is the latter and very lucky families are sometimes both, is my experience.
4. This is how the show handles class stuff:
Will (Nikki Blonksy’s character):I hate that my parents sent me this expensive tracksuit that’s like 11 sizes too small. I’m gonna burn it.
Amber: (Gasps) You can’t do that!
Will: I’ve burned stuff they’ve given me before.
Amber (Also I should note that during this scene they have broken into the kitchen to steal low-fat brownies, which Amber is chewing then spitting out into a napkin very discreetly): But it must have cost hundreds of dollars!
Will: Money doesn’t matter to them. They’re rich.
Amber: You mean you’re rich.
5. General shades of MSCL-iness. It’s probably selling the show short to draw these parallels but it’s almost impossible not to. Dr. Rand — the neurotic means-well camp director who’s struggling with her own food and family issues — is so Patty Chase-ish that they even have the same dad! Well, or he is played by the same actor, whom Bennett informs me is Winnie Holzman’s husband and Savannah’s father IRL. There is a gay character whose Rickyishness can’t actually be fronted about, though he’s about 500% less tragic than Ricky. When a dude kisses him on a dare, he very politely says he’s interested in someone else. I loved that moment. There’s also a subplot about a friend breakup — one of the friends has become cool while the other has remained a nerd — that is reminiscent of what happened between Angela and Sharon Cherski, and also what happened between everyone and a friend at some point in their teenaged lives. Whichever of these people you were — and some people have been both, at different times — the experience is sad in a very specific way and Holzman is a master at evoking this particular feeling. CONFIDENTIAL TO WINNIE AND SAVANNAH, I know this book you might want to develop into a TV show next, it’s called And The Heart Says Whatever, anyway, just mentioning this.
Also confidential to ABC Family: don’t even THINK about not renewing this show.
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