This past Monday ABC Family premiered a new original series starring Hairspray’s Nikki Blonsky called Huge. The show is about a rebellious overweight teen sent to fat camp to lose weight. If you’ve ever seen the movie Heavyweights, there are some very subtle references to the movie, but the basic plot of the show is very different. For one, there isn’t an ego tripping exercise fanatic trying to force his weight loss training on a group a young kids which may possibly torture them for life, but who in turn rebel and return the camp to its original setup. This show is nothing like that.
Nikki Blonsky plays Whilamina (“Whil”), the rebellious teen who firmly believes that big is beautiful and that she shouldn’t have to change just because her parents are ashamed of how she looks. Then there is Amber (played by Haley Hasselhoff), a very gorgeous, but not obviously overweight teen, who has been overweight since she was 10 and been dieting ever since. Bring in Dorothy Rand or “Rand” as she’s known by the campers. Rand is the current owner and operator of the camp and a previous camper herself. George is the camp’s new assistant workout training coach who was never overweight himself, but is deaf in one ear which helps him relate to the other campers who deal with teasing and ridicule and overall issues of being different.
As previously stated, the show has subtle references to the movie Heavyweights, but sets itself apart from the movie by dealing with the sensitive issues that people who are overweight deal with their entire lives. As someone who has never been a size 2 or 4, but isn’t a size 18 either, I struggle with shows like these sometimes because I really feel like it plays into the typical stereotype of what overweight people look and feel like. I really feel like the show did a good job of holding my attention and helping me to relate to at least one character, which would be Whilamina. Why should you have to change just because someone else doesn’t like the way you look? You have to live your own life, not them. I do have to say I didn’t appreciate that they had the “mean girls” in the show. I’ve moved around a lot in my life and been to over 8 schools; high school is nowhere near the level of teasing and torture that is portrayed in TV and I think it should be rethought when people are writing the scripts for future movies and TV.
Overall, the show was decent. I’m not sure how much more of it I will watch since it should take more than one character to hold my attention, but we shall see.
Tune into ABC Family Mondays at 9pm to see more!
