I've pretty much reserved judgement on the TV show 'Huge' up until now. Mainly because Life (with the Big 'L') seen fit to make sure I've got less and less time to actually sit down and write anything these days and, well, I guess you could say I've been a little gun shy about it.
See, I'm one cynical son-of-a-bitch. Show me a cloud with a sliver lining and I'll start asking how it could carry something so much heavier than water vapor. Gift Horse? Open wide so I can get a good look at those molars.
So, when I become aware of something as potentially awesome as a show that seems to portray fat folk with much the same kinds of feelings, passions, thoughts, and failings as other human beings (Cause, ya know, that's what we are). A smart TV show that seems to get it. I tend to start looking for the construction crane that's about to drop a whole shoe store on my head. I just didn't want to start hollering about falling sky because, well, it is quite a nice sky and we all know what happened to the last guy that did. Still, is that what appears to be happening with 'Huge'? At this point, it takes an actual, conscience, effort for me to believe that it MIGHT not be. Considering how, frustratingly, often this has happend in the past we, as fat people, would have to be idiots not to think, 'Here it comes again'. And despite what some True Believers in the 'Healthist' Camp might think (with their dogmatic creed's about what is and isn't healthy), we are not idiots.
Hope is generally a positive failing though. It can and has been argued that, without it, the entire species would have joined dinosaurs on the 'Nice Try. NEXT!' list a long time ago. As such, I can hope that this is, maybe, a blip. Just some exec at the Network insisting that the writers let people know that being fat is, yah know, bad (OMGZ!1!!1! Why didn't anybody TELL us?!7!). I can hope that, as potentially ruinous as Network/Exec Interference can be, it isn't the actual writers (Winnie Holzman [Exec Prod/Write] and daughter Savannah Dooley [Prod/Write], of whom I've heard so many good things) trying to inject the standard 'Weight loss=The-Only-Way-To-Health' rhetoric.
So far the show has demonstrated a fairly insightful awareness of the fact that there is NOTHING simple about being fat in this society (ie; the calories in/calories out crap-spiel and associated garbage). It's shown a unique vision in depicting fat people as more than objects of humor or scorn, and, so far mostly, resisted the almost auto-reflexive messages of 'your not good enough until you lose weight/are trying desperately to lose weight' or the ever patronizing 'Love yourself! But lose the weight 'cause fat's not healthy' *insert: Waggling Finger of Disapproval*. If 'Huge' does start sliding down either of those slippery slopes or any of the numerous other 'Just lose weight, Fatty!' excuses used to try and denigrate fat people into becoming unfat, then it'll just be par for the course. A very disappointing slice on a course where all the greens are covered by sand-traps and holes have been plugged with concrete. I can only hope that the Network / Execs can be convinced of the unique opportunity they have here and that the writers / producers don't get hooked on Obesity EpiPanic Cool Aid.
But right now, I've got the next Fairway on my mind. Just in case this one ends up turning into the Same, Old, Game.
Muzak Therapy:
Pink Floyd / A Pillow of Winds
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