What I don't get is why, if everything else is fake and staged, why then should it be true that Ami has terminal cancer? Lots of actors get written off shows by dying.
I think of ABP as a soap opera, EdTV, Hunger Games, Prince of Bel Air - (Billy) I looked at my kingdom I was finally there, to sit on my cush as King of the Bush
IMO ABP could even be obliquely compared to a boy band, complete with fans, characterizations, rumors+gossip, etc.
I want to be optimistic and go on innocently enjoying the laughs the show gives me as couch entertainment, but by no means in the face of a REAL tragedy.
But you never know, maybe they have no material because they did have to stop filming for awhile, for personal reasoms of the family, and the storyline will take a big jump when it's back?
That all the flashbacks are commemorating Ami?