Single Drunk Female Review: I’m Sorry, But… (Season 1 Episode 3)

After a two-episode, hour-long premiere, Single Drunk Female Season 1 Episode 3, “‘I’m Sorry, But…'” settles into its regular, half-hour, time slot with a whimper, not a bang. 

That’s not to say the episode’s premise isn’t good — it’s just a more subdued episode than the series’ premiere. There are fewer antics and more relationship building.

Since Sam is on (at least) a year-long sober journey, it makes sense that Single Drunk Female jumps around in time a little bit. When the episode opens, Sam is 28 days sober, almost a month into her program.

She hasn’t quite figured out how to make things easier on herself though.

Sam is a true sadist it seems and has relegated herself to spending time at her favorite dive bar to hang out with Felicia, staring temptation in the face and sometimes wearing it spilled on her shirt.

One of my desires for the season after watching the premiere was to go more in-depth into Sam’s relationships with her hometown friends, and this episode did just that.

Sam’s best friend Felicia takes more of a starring role in Single Drunk Female Season 1 Episode 3, and we get to see the duo work through some of the changes in their dynamic now that alcohol is out of the picture.

It’s an interesting take on how sobriety affects your relationships, even those that aren’t necessarily in a bad place because you were abusing alcohol.

Often, in stories about sobriety we see characters focus on mending relationships that were negatively impacted by their drinking (don’t worry, that still happens here), but we don’t always see how the friendships that are still positive in their lives are forced to change.

Female friendships are so important, especially when we’re at our lowest, and so seeing Sam finally realize how her relationship with alcohol was affecting her relationship with her best friend was a nice treat. It’s also sweet to see Sam interacting with her Godson Zach, even if she’s not a great babysitter yet.

Singing Miley Cyrus’s “The Climb” at Karaoke to make amends is a bonus; belting it out the way Sam and Felicia did is just a typical Girls Night Out.

Side Note: our girl Lily Mae Harrington can sing!!!

While Sam was able to process her relationship with Felicia relatively quickly, her strained relationships with her ex-bff and ex-boyfriend are still not in a good place.

I’m not sure if Single Drunk Female is following the exact “steps” of AA, but there is a quick reference to them when Sam receives her 30-day sobriety chip. That being said, I’m also no expert on if the steps need to be done in order, but it seems as though Sam might be trying to rush the process and skip right to the “make amends” part.

“I’m sorry is like jumping over a puddle. Amends is building a bridge.”

The episode provides a nice reminder that “making amends” isn’t just a quick apology, and an apology isn’t a “Sorry, but…” statement.

I said it in the premiere, but I’m really hoping Single Drunk Female gives us some flashbacks for more insight on what went wrong between Sam and Brit. There’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment when Sam is “apologizing” to her ex-friend where we learn that Brit helped care for Sam’s dad while he was sick and she was living in New York.

Now that’s something I want more insight into.

The other main plot in Single Drunk Female Season 1 Episode 3 goes back to Sam’s mom Carol, and how she’s coping with having her daughter back home. Carol is still frustrating me, being pretty unsupportive of her daughter’s recovery.

She’s still perpetuating the stigma that sobriety should be hush-hush, and is particularly embarrassed to admit to her book club what Sam’s true reason for being home is.

I understand not wanting to tell relative strangers about personal details of her life, especially since to Carol “they’re [her] book club, not friends.”

I just think her relationship with Sam is going to blow up at some point, and if I had to guess (and if the Single Drunk Female writers are looking towards a Season 2), it will test Sam’s sobriety.

There was a nice appearance from Sam’s probation officer Gail in this episode, though it was a strange dynamic they inserted her in, crashing Carol’s book club meeting and bonding with Bob. It served to help Carol process her anger at the situation, but was just a little odd.

Gail and Bob were nice comedic relief in an otherwise toned-down, serious episode.

Like Sam’s journey, Single Drunk Female is experiencing its own growing pains, trying to flesh out its characters in a half-hour comedy. We’re moving in the right direction, but thus far, what has worked best is Sam’s relationship with her fellow sober buddies.

There were zero appearances from Sam’s boss Mindy or her flirty friend James, which is a shame since those two really brought some of the charm in the series premiere. I hope to see more of them in the future.

Stray Thoughts:

• Have I been saying “make amends” wrong this whole time? Is it really “making an amends”? 
• Everything is funnier on roller skates. Even Sam just walking over to talk to Britt or Felicia and awkwardly clomping on wheels was funny.
• I hope we hear more singing from Lily Mae Harrington in this series, girlie can belt it!!
• It pained me to see Carol fling her charcuterie board in anger, that was good cheese and meats!
• I was glad we got an actual appearance from Felicia’s son Zach, and hope we get more back story there.
• You know Sam really loves Felicia if she was willing to do Karaoke sober, you couldn’t pay me to do that without a drink in hand.

What did you think of this episode of Single Drunk Female? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Critic Rating:

User Rating:

 

Single Drunk Female airs Thursdays at 10:30 pm ET/9:30 CT on Freeform.

 Follow us on Twitter and on Instagram!

Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!

What to Stream in February: Pam & Tommy, Inventing Anna, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel