Single Drunk Female is an anathema to TV’s love affair with alcohol

Paste Magazine

The Sofia Black-D’Elia-led Freeform comedy showing the consequences of alcoholism "has just one flaw: it’s not nearly long enough. At least, its episodes aren’t," says Allison Keene. But she says leaving you wanting more is a good problem to have. "Single Drunk Female is also an anathema to TV’s love affair with alcohol," says Keene. "From Cougar Town to Scandal, women in particular are often shown guzzling wine glasses the size of fish bowls as a 'way to unwind,' without consequence. Most shows that feature characters regularly getting drunk do so for comedic effect, either as a one-off or simply a way of life (like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, for instance). Or, in a drama series, a character suddenly develops a 'problem,' it’s dispatched of quickly: there’s an intervention within an episode or two, or perhaps they’re dramatically killed off. Or maybe a sober character goes on a bender before they are set back to rights. Whatever the scenario, it’s extremely rare for a series to actually focus in on the issues with drinking culture and the consequences of it outside of, say, a flame-out on a lonely road. In particular, there are almost no series that make sobriety their key trait. Where Single Drunk Female stands out even further is in how it translates this difficult subject (of waking up to your addiction and choosing sobriety in a sea of triggers) into a comedy. Granted, it’s loosely a comedy in any traditional sense, but the sets are bright and the dialogue is snappy."

ALSO:

• Ally Sheedy didn't realize the parallels between her and her Single Drunk Female character until filming began: “I wasn’t at the moment thinking about myself, except myself at 59 as opposed to 29, right?" says Sheedy. "But then later I thought, wow, it’s so interesting—because yeah, 30 years younger for Ally, for me as a person in the TV-film world, actually has another angle into it,” she says. “I’ve been asked about the scene a few times by people, and I feel ‘oh, it reverberated.’ But it only did because Jenni (Konner) wrote it, and then Travon let me do it that way instead of it being a throwaway line.”
• Executive producer Jenni Konner on the Season 1 finale: “It’s great. Who wants to write words? They’re so much work,” Konner joked. “It’s a really lucky thing to be able to do a show where we’re allowed to do that, where we just put them in their childlike positions, the way they grew up playing video games. That really does say a lot, and I think we’re all really excited to be able to do that whenever we can.”