When the Carlin family move from small town Ohio to LA, the only one who (superficially at least) seems to make the adjustment easily is eldest son Greg. He storms his way onto the starting basketball line-up, and snares a hot, albeit high maintenance, new girlfriend.
Meanwhile the parents are having relationship issues; adopted son Clay, who is African American, finds himself confronted with his own insulation from the experience of being black in America; and daughter Spencer is confronting the conundrum of her own sexuality, as she begins to process the fact that while she can find guys attractive, she prefers women.
Both helping and confusing Spencer in this process is new friend Ashley, a bisexual wild child with absentee parents and a habit of pulling Spencer toward her and then pushing her away. Also of making impulsive decisions in general.
South of Nowhere attracted controversy when it came out (pun not intended, but I certainly wasn't going to delete it after I wrote it) for being a teen-oriented show that foregrounded questions of bi/homosexuality. On the whole I think it does a decent job with the arc. Making it about two conventionally attractive young women was probably a very conservative/safe choice, but the writers don't shy away from tackling the challenges and difficulties of teen life in general and of Spencer's journey of self-discovery in particular.
If you do choose to watch this show, be aware that the camera hops around like a ferret on amphetamines for the first 10 minutes of the opening episode, which I found quite irritating. It stops after that, though, so if you find it as off-putting as I did, rest assured it's not an ongoing problem.
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