What Shapes a Life—A Look at ABC’s HUGE

When I first wrote about HUGE I was focused on HUGE—

As In HUGE People…

I worried that people may not be ready for a show like this—

even if we had asked producers to step out of their

ordinarily small area of focus and create it.

HUGE - A NEW ABC FAMILY ORIGINAL SERIES

In my last HUGE blog post I wrote:

“As a member of the Actionist Network® a community of professionals committed to creating a nation of confident women and girls, I am dedicated to, among other things, finding media sources that represent life…

REAL life that is. What’s a “Pseudo Life?” you may be thinking. Of course all lives are real.

But more times than not what is depicted for us as viewers of Television and Big Screen is a small view. Kind of like looking into a telescope backward? Things get narrow and really far away.”

HUGE has aired twice and candidly I think ABC might actually be on to something thought provoking—beyond the hugeness of the campers.

In episode one, we were introduced to the cast of characters—we learned that each person had arrived at a weight loss camp and their reasons for being there were as different as their personalities.

As viewers my own children and I were left with a primary impression—regardless of body size—all people respond to new situations and stress in multiple ways. The more we related to a personality as a viewer the less we saw what a person looked like on the outside and empathized with what they were experiencing on the inside.

In episode two a number of themes emerged but as a family we connected with two in particular.

Theme number one—how is a person’s belief in them-self shaped? Theme number two—what does it mean to live a HUGE life?

In order to answer the question in theme number one I contend we need to examine first—the family.

“One could surmise that there are an infinite number of ways to define family just based on the knowledge of our world population alone. Family, I have turned this word over and over again and it never looks the same. For some, family is a form of incarceration; for others, it is the inception of freedom, confidence, and liberation.”

–an excerpt from Tornado Warning

Families truly can build us up or tear us down. It takes a great deal of confidence to rewind and reconstruct messages from our past that have rendered us shamed and lacking self-esteem. Add being a teenager and that rewinding process can feel insurmountable.

The main character Will feels she doesn’t measure up with her parents—literally and figuratively. She refers to their swapped knowing glances when she chooses dessert, she states that she is unwilling to let them take credit for the glimmer of happiness she is experiencing at camp, and worst of all she writes that she won’t ever tell them how she feels, and with that rips up her letter.

Amber calls home only to be reminded that her own mothers’ needs come before her own, thus robbing her of her right to be a child with needs. She feels pressure to be a “best friend” versus simply being allowed to be a daughter.

Chloe and Alistair are brother and sister. We learn this by watching them meet in secret—sadly Alistair attempts to remind her of their relationship but Chloe, perhaps embarrassed of her brother, blows him off.

Trent—writes to his deceased mother, a letter that in his mind is overdue but in it he is reaching for praise that she is no longer available to provide.

Dr. Dorothy Rand, a former camper turned staffer has her own relationship struggle with her mother. A woman whose control runs so deep that even as an adult Dorothy is not at liberty to be honest about her desire to have a relationship with her own father.

Damage comes to mind; the incredible damage that can occur when negative messages are given by parents—all of these vignettes are subtle reminders that as parents we need to provide encouragement and support.

When does support and encouragement cross the line and become crippling? Enter the Dobson Family. Although well intentioned their hovering sends a message to their daughter that without them she will not be alright. Helicopter parenting is just what it sounds like: while hovering above a child, helicopter parents are so loud one needs to shout to be heard, one must duck for fear of decapitation, and standing upright becomes nearly impossible due to the strength of the wind created from the props—not really the image one wants in association with a parenting style.

It seems to me that HUGE is sending subliminal messages about how teenagers respond to their parents—particularly when they are not seen for who they have become. This is a HUGE win provided we get to see some lessons unfolding for all parties involved.

One of our favorite aspects to the show HUGE comes from theme number two–the emphasis on living a HUGE life; a life that is filled with your own dreams being cultivated and nurtured—all of which is HUGELY important.