Single Drunk Female is out to redefine the term "hot mess". After Samantha Fink has a very public breakdown and is fired from her job at Bzzz (an allusion to Buzzfeed not so cryptically hidden) she’s forced to move back home and finally face her addiction head-on.
While the show deals with very serious issues, it’s also a very fun ride thanks to whip-smart cutting dialogue from Simone Finch and team, and an undeniably likable lead in Sofia Black D’Elia as Samantha. Here’re your five screenwriting takeaways from the dramedy Single Drunk Female.
1. Defying the coming of age trope. While this is a coming-of-age story, Samantha already feels world-weary. She’s lived a few drunk lifetimes, but she’s rarely lived a sober one. Tying her superpower of writing to her drinking also adds deeply to her stakes. As Sam finally makes enough progress in recovery to circle back to her gift of being a writer—as she’s up for a new job that could get her out of the small town Boston burbs she’s moved back to—Sam feels at the precipice of adulthood while still living in her childhood bedroom. It’s a clever device that feels fresh and new, yet occasionally embraces the coming-of-age tropes such as awkward love, codependent best friendship, and just the need to get the hell out of a parent’s home.
2. The sitcom joke still works (with a side of darkness). It’s been a minute since there’s been a show with such consistent joke set-up and pay-off as there is in Single Drunk Female, yet because the show never takes shots at its protagonist, it also manages to still feel grounded. Some memorable Sam lines include a quip when she's asked to dance and answers: “I’m gonna ease my way into it. I’m not sure how my body moves without a gin and tonic in its system.” Sam also works at her local grocery for bitingly funny boss Mindy, who constantly comes up with zingers like: “Happy St. Patrick’s Day, or as I call it, The Purge for sober people.” It’s refreshing to see a show that embraces the art of the joke and isn’t afraid to pepper as many in as possible.
3. Scene-stealing supporting characters. Sam’s support network is fantastic even if some of them are still learning how to be supportive. Lily Mae Harrington is a star-in-the-making as Felicia O’Brien, Sam’s life of the party best friend. The pair have to retool their relationship after Sam realizes their main activity in life was going to the local bar and getting trashed, and Felicia still manages to make a fantastic wing-woman sober, drunk, or somewhere in between as she remains Sam’s biggest cheerleader through bad dates, good haircuts, and surviving St. Patrick’s Day.
4. The opposite of a ticking clock. To those in recovery, sober days in life are never forgotten. There is the opposite of a ticking clock in this show. There’s the goal to stay sober. The show often flashes a number on screen: How many days Sam has been sober, usually in contrast with a low moment that would’ve normally driven Sam to drink. It’s a very effective device causing instant anxiety and always leaving the audience wondering, is now the moment that Sam cracks? Meanwhile, milestones are usually marked as well. Just as Sam is honored by her group with a cake for her 30 days sober chip, it feels like her relationship with her best friend is falling apart. The dichotomy of sober life and living life with non-sober people is often thrust in Sam’s face. Like the moment when Sam’s mother, Carol, played by the excellent Ally Sheedy, offers Sam a glass of wine. Sam is in constant peril making a count-up instead of a countdown.
5. A journey to root for. Ultimately, this show is anchored in Sam’s journey and the creators found a champion in Sophia Black D’Elia, who rides the line of hot mess, empathetic yet struggling sober person, and occasional insult comic, with grace and aplomb. Creator Simone Finch was writing about herself and she recently told Collider that part of her process was coming to forgive her drunk self through writing the show. Ultimately, Single Drunk Female is a lovely anthem for recovery and additionally, that forgiveness that has to come along with it.
Final Takeaway: Single Drunk Female isn’t just about recovery. It’s also about the quiet moments of just being a human—the struggles of love and dating, the ups and downs of friendship, the difficulties of relating to a parent. It’s about living, and eventually thriving, and often that’s enough struggle and conflict on its own.