Yesterday I watched the first episode of ABC Family’s Huge, and I was really impressed. The second episode, “Letters Home”, aired on Monday night, and the show continued to impress as it delved deeper into the main characters’ family backgrounds and personal issues.

I hadn’t realized in the pilot episode that the curmudgeonly cook was actually camp director Dr. Rand’s father – the one she was meeting at the diner the night Will tried to run away from camp. We learned a little more about Dr. Rand this week – she hadn’t been in communication with her father for what seemed like a very long time, but he contacted her and was in trouble so she offered him a job. She wants to get to know him, but hasn’t yet told her mother that he’s back in her life. We also learned that former fat kid Dr. Rand never (EVER) eats after dinner – a rule she broke for one of her dad’s new muffins. Watching Dr. Rand type and then delete emails to her mother was set up as a foil to her encouraging Will to write a letter to her parents.

We scratched the surface of Will’s sullen demeanor this week while watching her refuse to write a letter home – when she finally did take ink to paper, she revealed how much she resented her parents for making her feel bad about her body and for sending her to Camp Victory, and then she tore up the note. Another undelivered letter was written by Will’s fellow camper and uber-jock Trent to his deceased mother. Two of the campers’ family problems remain quite a bit of a mystery. Chloe, one of Amber’s friends at the camp, is hiding that Alistair is her brother and seemed to be embarrassed of the package her mom sent her. Amber’s own situation seems to be the most complex – she wrote a long letter to her mother and said that they were very close, but a later phone call revealed that the relationship is much more complex. She said cryptic things on the phone like “You can go without me” and “Try to ignore her when she says stuff like that”. Is her mom mentally ill, or do they have a troubled family member? The episode successfully revealed enough about the characters to make us start caring about them, but also kept enough secrets to keep us wanting more.

The crew also briefly met a new camper, Danielle, who suffered from anxiety issues and had a very co-dependent relationship with her family. Her parents and little sister stuck around much longer than normal when they dropped her off at camp, and for Will it was a glimpse into what life with a supportive family would be like. Danielle’s parents even cheered Will on as she scored her first goal in basketball.

Amid all of the emotional issues and family histories, there were still some very funny moments. Amber’s love interest, the hunky counselor George, realized that her name wasn’t actually Sandra (as he’d been calling her). Will’s potential crush Ian implied that he thought Will was gay, only to react nonchalantly when Becca mustered up enough courage to tell him otherwise. And the fake Twilight books called “Phantasma” that the girls were gushing over had me chuckling as well.

Overall, I thought the second episode of Huge was another success, once again striking a good balance between heart and humor. What did you think?