Audiences and critics alike are gaga for the new hit TV show The Family You Choose, a heartwarming, hour-long drama revolving around a group of regular-sized friends and their one plus-sized friend. No, that isn’t a typo: This show has an honest-to-God plus-sized woman in it, and she has been given the chance of a lifetime to cry on a scale on television.
“I wanted realism,” says creator and showrunner Jesse Granger. “And for us, realism meant a bunch of models who are best friends and their one fat friend. At first they brought us size eight actresses but I said, ‘Damn it, get me a real fat woman and we’ll have her cry on a scale, because that’s truth!’ Everyone in the room started clapping.”
Granger found his perfect overweight woman in the form of 37-year-old actress Dana Cole. He offered her the role of Nancy immediately upon seeing her, because “…she was exactly fat enough for the part.”
“I’m really happy to have the work,” says Cole. “It’s hard out here for any woman who doesn’t meet traditional standards of beauty. But like, I do wonder why Nancy cries on the scale two to three times per episode. I’m happy with how I look. Also, why is her last name Blump? Anyway, yeah I guess I’m supposed to be grateful.”
Cole’s character’s arc revolves mostly around scale-crying, but she will reportedly also get to eat brownies and cry, sob on a treadmill and have a full on breakdown in an Urban Outifitters fitting room. But Cole will certainly get to have some fun, too.
“She’s also the comedic relief of the show,” adds Granger. “We’re going to see her doing some really funny falls, breaking some chairs, and getting her body stuck in spaces that are too small for her.”
But The Family You Choose is breaking some serious TV ground as well because, as fans were thrilled to learn, a love story is in the works for Blump! Don’t get too excited though, Blumpkins! There won’t be any sex scenes because the character will avoid physical intimacy out of shame about her body. Her love interest will of course be played by a thin actor in a fat suit, to aid his later storyline in which he loses weight and leaves her, sending her right back to that scale for a good cry.
All we can say is “wow” to Mr. Granger and his revolutionary show for shattering the weight ceiling in television, and showing us it’s okay to just be human – even a plus-sized human, as long you’re very upset about it and it’s your singular personality trait.
