The Expanding Universe of Ashley Garcia: A "Family-Friendly" Show "For the Entire Family"

The Expanding Universe of Ashley Garcia  is a teencom straight out of Nickelodeon or the Disney Channel, a mashup of Hannah Montana and ICarly: a girl with absent parents lives in an impossibly lavish house with a goofy "big brother"; she is trying to live a "normal" life in spite of being special, so she hangs out with two best friends, a with-it girl and a nerdy boy (who may have a crush on her).

In this case, Ashley has just received a double doctorate at age 15, and is starting a new job at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena (maybe she'll run into Sheldon Cooper).  She lives in an impossibly lavish house with her Tio Victor (Jencarlos Canela), a famous former football player turned high school coach, who never seems to attend any practices or games.

Jencarlos, by the way, is famous in Latin America, with starring roles in such telenovelas as Pasion Prohibita  and Pecados Ajenos.














In spite of her high-tech job designing robots for the Mars rover, Ashley wants to live a "normal" teenage life (with "kiss a boy" on her bucket list), so she hangs out at an impossibly lavish burger place run by Mario Lopez (sigh), who is also the producer.

I don't get it.  This guy hasn't aged a day since he played Slater on Saved by the Bell thirty years ago.  He even points it out on the show: "not aging is kind of my thing."









Ashley's best friend is social media influencer Brooke (Bella Poderas channeling Ashley Tisdale on The Suite Life of Zack and Cody).

Her nerd friend is Stick (Reed Horstmann, who has only two previous acting credits).  I thought Stick was gay because of his multiple rings, but he dates Brooke and has a crush on Ashley.

I couldn't find any shirtless photos of Reed, but I did find this one where he's very chummy with another guy. I'm guessing gay in real life.



The other major cast member is the captain of the football team, dreamy-but-stupid Tad (Conor Husting).

I couldn't find any shirtless pics of Conor, either, except one where he's water-skiing.

I assumed that there would be canonical gay characters somewhere, or gay references, or something.

But in 8 episodes, not a word.  Every boy is girl-crazy.  Every girl is boy-crazy.  The school dance consists entirely of male-female couples.  Uncle Victor has a girlfriend. Tad has a girlfriend.  Stick keeps striking out with girls.

Mario tells us that it's a "universal, family-friendly story." Jencarlos reiterates: "It's for the entire family." In other words, no homos allowed.

Gay Inclusivity: F-

In Episode 13, which hasn't aired yet, Nacho Tambuting plays someone named Blaine St. Claire.  Sounds like a gay-coded name.  Maybe he'll be an androgynous villain that no one ever says is gay. like Neville Papperman on ICarly.