MUST-WATCH TV SERIES

BIG is the new beautiful - unless you are in a fat camp.

Seven teens from the brand-new ABC dramedy series, Huge, learn that the hard way. They are sent to a weight-loss camp and are made to lose their blubber.

In the show based on the Sasha Paley book of the same title, the kids are put through a gruelling exercise regime and forced to surrender all food items - including gum, cough drops and, yes, flavoured lip gloss. Talk about extreme.

Now meet Willamina, a tart-mouthed fat crusader determined to buck the system and stay the way she is.

Played by Hairspray's Nikki Blonsky, she is a livewire with her hilarious one-liners and renegade missions.

"Sorry, I'm down with my fat. Me and my fat are like BFF," she deadpans, when made to share her feelings about being overweight.

Later, she cuts up her fellow camp mate's fashion magazine, and pastes images of fat people on her bedframe as "fat-spiration".

"If I see propaganda that I know is destroying girls' brains, it's my duty as an angry feminist to destroy it," she quips, with a gleam in her eye.

While it is initially hard to warm up to her brashness, one grows to admire her for her undying resistance to social conformity.

Still, one wonders if her insistence on remaining fat is based on a true acceptance of her body shape, or really just an excuse for her unhealthy diet (she hides gumballs in shampoo containers and snacks when no one is looking, you know).

Her archenemy is the blonde Amber (Hayley Hasselhoff, daughter of you-knowwho), the thinnest girl in the group but who still sees herself as having too much fat.

Sure, Huge is not the first TV show to focus on plus-sized folk.

The Biggest Loser, Celebrity Fit Club and Dance Your Ass Off are some of the other titles, though most of them are reality- TV shows that promote weightloss programmes tirelessly.

Huge, however, is an unashamed satire, a send-up of the public's disdain for obese people.

Its underlying message is fat acceptance, rooted in an unflinching stand that one should be proud of oneself, no matter what size.

Not surprisingly, the show is controversial, with some critics lambasting it for advocating detrimental life habits.

That got me thinking: Where does one draw the line, really?

When is obesity a serious health problem, and when is it a tool used to crush the self-esteem of teens?

That is something fat-camp instructors need to do their homework on.

joyfang@sph.com.sg

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