After airing only half of its first season (the second half premieres Friday, January 13, 2006), South of Nowhere has become a hit for The N network. Heroine Spencer Carlin is questioning both her sexuality and her conventional upbringing as her relationship with her rebellious best friend Ashley intensifies. Spencer’s brother Clay is learning the hard way what it means to be black in Los Angeles, and her popular brother Glen is not pleased with her choice of friends and how it could reflect on him at King High School.
And now that the show has been picked up for a second season, the show’s producers can delve even more deeply into the lives of these engrossing characters that we are just beginning to know.
The success of the show doesn’t come as a big surprise to Executive Producer Nancylee Myatt. She predicted that the heart and quality of the show would prevail and connect with viewers despite whatever initial concerns network executives might have had about presenting a gay storyline on a predominantly teen network.
She recently told AfterEllen, “Early on The N asked us to share focus and develop storylines which highlighted the other characters and aspects of the ‘Identity Journey.’ But I knew that if we could just get the show on the air–and tell stories that all teenagers can relate to, straight or gay, that the audience would find us and tell us what they want.”
Myatt has always taken risks. Mentored by TV innovator Norman Lear (All in the Family, Good Times), she once wrote an episode for his show The Powers That Be, which landed her on a “dangerous” list from the Christian Right. She told AfterEllen, “Norman just laughed and welcomed me to the club. And he said, ‘If they’re hating you, they’re watching you.’ Or at least letting the rest of the country know that you’re making some noise that’s worth checking out.”
Myatt aims to make a difference with South of Nowhere. She told us, “My experience with prime time shows on broadcast versus cable is that broadcast only uses gay storylines for sweeps and numbers. A girl-kiss here and there, a two-episode arc just to titillate but never to create characters or share gay stories of substance. Unless of course, it’s a comedy, then the gay folks are welcome in our living rooms. I guess funny gay people are less threatening than dramatic gay people…I would encourage other creators to continue to factor in gay characters just as they consider the multi-ethnic mix on a show.” Perhaps the growing popularity and success of SON will provide the incentive.
While AfterEllen has lauded SON from its debut–even awarding the show an AfterEllen.com visibility award for Best Scripted TV Series in 2005–the mainstream press hasn’t yet caught on. Considering the high quality and interesting (some would say “controversial”) content of the show, the show has not yet received a great deal of publicity. And initial mainstream press reviews have focused more on SON ‘s style than its considerable substance.
In a brief November 2005 review, Variety noted that South of Nowhere was evidence that the new network “wasn’t screwing around.” But they found the cast too pretty to be taken seriously (“looking like they just stumbled out of the Abercrombie & Fitch catalog”) and classified the subject matter as “soapy antics.” The Hollywood Reporter (November, 2005) was only briefly distracted by the “super cool and hip look” of the show and the “political correctness” of its multi-ethnic and queer characters before acknowledging its “fundamental substance” and excellent character development. The reviewer ultimately decides, “It’s solid and worthy of teenagers taking more than just a look.”
The initial minimal hype about SON in the mainstream media is due at least in part to the fact that it’s a cable program on a relatively new network. But it also represents the general tendency of the culture?no matter how “youth obsessed” it seems to be–to diminish and dismiss the depth and importance of the emotional lives of children and teenagers. And the fact that queer content is not banished to the realm of gimmicky subplot on SON (as it is in the exploitive, media-darling The O.C.) means that the gay and lesbian press is expected to?and likely will?care more about the show and cover it more completely than the mainstream. (That is, until it’s acknowledged as a hit.)
So where is the love? Try the internet.
The N hosts a message board that functions as much as a support group for its teen fans as a platform for them to speculate about the show. Sure, participants discuss which SON character they most like to be or to kiss, but there are also discussions of more serious topics like coming out to parents or being forbidden to watch the show because of its gay content. SON is one of the few shows currently on television that could be having a significant positive impact on young queer viewers. (And a common refrain among older queer fans is that they wish there had been a show like South of Nowhere for them to watch when they were coming of age and coming out.)
And just about any web search engine will deliver multiple references to the show on general fansites and fanfiction sites. While there are scattered Aiden, Clay, and Glen devotees, the online focus is largely on Spencer and Ashley and their budding lesbian relationship. It’s a surprising divergence from typical fansites that highlight the pin-up appeal of favorite stars, as well as tabloid-inspired hunger to know more about the personal lives of the celebrities in question. South of Nowhere fansites, particularly those devoted to Spencer and Ashley as a couple, are more concerned with the lives and relationships of the characters.
This is particularly obvious when reading the sizeable amount of fanfiction already written about a relatively new show. Writers of all ages are creating their own plot developments, imagining couplings that we haven’t seen on the show, and throwing the spotlight to favorite characters that aren’t always in the on-air foreground (such as Madison). And fans impatient for the Spashley “hook-up” to finally happen are expediting the process with some NC-17-rated fiction!
There are also online “roleplay” sites in which South of Nowhere fans can log in as their favorite character and basically improvise scenes with other fans/characters. If the show had not been picked up for a second season, it’s clear that fanfiction writers and role-players would have kept the SON characters and their stories alive and thriving.
The online press is also backing South of Nowhere. In a December 9, 2005 article, “High School Homos and the TV Viewers Who Love Them,” Slate.com lauded The N’s pro-gay programming?DeGrassi:The Next Generation and SON?and depictions of queer teens as well-adjusted and popular. Of both shows, the reviewer wrote, “Yes, it’s a different take on real life?or should I say a real take on real life. And bravo to The N for taking the shot and the chance.”
It’s only a matter of time before the mainstream press and wider audiences jump on the South of Nowhere bandwagon, and when they do it will be because the young fan base for the show has led them there. It won’t be the first time that teens have prospected pop-culture gold right under the noses of parents and older critics alike. Or the last.
Find SON articles, interviews and recaps in our South of Nowhere section or at the official website.
