South of Nowhere

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South Of Nowhere is an award-winning teen-oriented TV series about a family who moves from Ohio to Los Angeles. It is the first such show conceived with a lesbian character at the outset.

The story revolves around the Carlin family, who move to LA when mother Paula (Maeve Quinlan) is transferred to a hospital there. While there, father Arthur (Rob Moran) specializes in relationship counseling, and the three kids complete their high school education.

At school, oldest natural child Glenn (Chris Hunter) endeavors to make the pro-basketball circuit, which brings him to rivalry with Aiden Dennison (Matt Cohen). Meanwhile the younger natural Carlin, Spencer (Gabrielle Christian) is questioning whether or not she should pursue a relationship with Aiden's ex-girlfriend, Ashley Davies (Mandy Musgrave). And while that is happening, the Carlins' adopted son Clay (Danso Gordon) is finding out what it means to be black in a mostly-white world. Meanwhile, Aiden's other ex, Madison Duarte (Valery Ortiz), moves onto Glen when Aiden starts showing interest in Spencer.

Season 1 ends with Glen messing up his knee on a pick-up game and Paula almost buckling under the strain her job put on her marriage, while Spencer and Ashley finally hook up.

Season 2 opens on the morning after. The season introduces Kyla Woods (Eileen April Boylan), Ashley's half-sister, who moves in with her after the death of their father (played by CC DeVille from Poison). Kyla ends up hooking up with Aiden. Meanwhile, Spencer comes out, Glen becomes addicted to painkillers and Clay faces the ultimate test when his girlfriend, Chelsea Lewis (Aasha Davies), announces that she is pregnant to him. Clay dies during a drive-by shooting on Prom Night.

Season 3, the final season opens three months later, with Spencer and Glen starting a new school year. Ashley and Kyla's inheritance comes through, and they decide to get their GEDs and move out on their own. Spencer breaks up with Ashley and enters into a rebound relationship with Carmen (Brooke Vallone), a rebellious artist-type who later moves in with Ashley and Kyla. Chelsea loses the baby in a car crash. Meanwhile, Paula struggles to come to terms with Spencer's orientation.

Sadly, the series was canceled by The N. The last half of Season 3 has then took a bloody long time to air in the US--at which point it had already been properly aired in France. Screwed by the Network much?

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Tropes used in South of Nowhere include:

• All Abusers Are Male: Averted with Carmen.
• Alpha Bitch: Madison.
  • Girl Posse
• Ambiguously Brown: Carmen. Her name is a commonly Hispanic name while she is played by a white actress of Italian and Russian descent. Writers are often confused about her nationality. The fact that has no last name doesn't help.
• Ambiguously Jewish: Aiden. He's played a Jewish actor and maybe have a Jewish last name but no references to his religion are ever made.
• Am I Just a Toy to You?: Aiden to Ashley, "You're straight when you want me around, you're gay when it's convenient for you!" She tells him it's so not like that except that she is dating him but as a picture of Spencer on her dresser.
• Beach Episode
• Break the Cutie
• Broken Bird: Ashley.
• But Not Too Gay: The lesbian content was toned down in Season 2.
• Can't Hold Her Liquor: Spencer.
• Character Development
• Coming Out Story: The Coming Out Story.
• Convenient Miscarriage: Chelsea.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Clay's death in Season 2 via drive by shooting.
• Dysfunction Junction
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Kelly, the girl Spencer inadvertently goes out with in "Put Out or Get Out" is quite popular in the fandom despite never appearing again. Her line "You wanna go topless?" followed by her starting to strip is very synonymous to her character (for context she was driving a convertible and Spencer asked if they could "lose the top").
• First Girl Wins: Three other girls show interest in Spencer and one (Carmen) even dates her but ultimately Ashley, the first girl to befriend her, gets with her.
• Gayngst
• Girl-On-Girl Is Hot
• Girls Love: One of the biggest plot lines in the show.
• Green-Eyed Monster
• Intertwined Fingers: Spencer and Ashley.
• Jerk Jock: Glen.
• Killed Off for Real: Clay; also an example of Black Dude Dies First and McLeaned.
• Law of Inverse Fertility
• Lingerie Scene
• Lipstick Lesbian
• The Loins Sleep Tonight
• Love Dodecahedron
• Naive Everygirl: Spencer.
• No Bisexuals: Subverted by Ashley, who refuses to conform to labels, but sleeps with both Aiden and Spencer.
• No Going Steady: Aiden sure gets around a lot, having been paired with as many as four girls. Others, not so much--although by the midway point of Season 3, only Chelsea is left over.
  • Five actually: Spencer, Ashley, Madison, Kyla, and the aforementioned Sasha
• Open-Minded Parent: Spencer's father is not even slightly phased by his daughter's homosexuality despite being married to a very conservative woman. Somehow despite the fact that they were high school sweethearts, this difference of opinion surrounding homosexuality never came up.
• Paintball Episode
• Poisonous Friend: Jake.
• Positive Discrimination: The three most well adjusted and wholesome characters on the show are Chelsea (black woman), Clay (black man), and Spencer (lesbian).
• Queer Romance
• Rich Idiot With No Day Job: Kyla and Ashley in Season 3. Subverted kind of when they start to do things with their music.
• Schoolgirl Lesbians: Spencer, Carmen.
• Sexy Coat Flashing
• Shirtless Scene
• Tall, Dark and Bishoujo: Ashley.
• Teen Idol
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Ashley and Spencer, respectively.
• Two-Teacher School
• Visible Boom Mic: To the point that the fans declared "Boomy" to be a character on the show.
• Vomit Discretion Shot
• Will They or Won't They?: Spencer and Ashley.