Single Drunk Female Review: James (Season 1 Episode 8)

Single Drunk Female Season 1 Episode 8, “James,” switches up the game focus and format-wise. While Sam (the single drunk female) is usually the center of the show, we get the chance to explore James’s story and his own sobriety journey.

While I’m glad this show is finding ways to expand and to switch things up, I find Single Drunk Female Season 1 Episode 8 to be very cringey… which is fine! It makes sense for an episode about someone hitting their rock bottom to be difficult to watch.

As we learned on Single Drunk Female Season 1 Episodes 1 and 2, Sam and James had a brief tryst years before they met at Sam’s AA meeting. With how far Sam’s personal sobriety has come and their resolves crumbling, we finally get the 411 on what happened that day.

That day just happened to be Thanksgiving a few years prior. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like we have any better understanding of the “why” James started drinking after this episode. But we do kind of know why he kept drinking.

It’s probably a mix of a few things, but right off the bat, we realize that he has a lot of pressure coming at him from his family and his career. The James we know in the future has a thriving career, just having sold his app.

Drunk James still seems to have a thriving career, just as a coder at MIT. I’m not a tech person, so that goes way over my head, but it sounds impressive?

He’s his family’s golden child, which causes resentment from his older brother Lucas. All of this boils over at Thanksgiving when James shows up drunk, Lucas calls him out on it, and their parents are in denial. There’s so much second-hand awkwardness just watching the exchange.

Regardless, it’s when he flees the awkward family gathering that he actually meets Sam, who is moonlighting as Katrina at the local dive bar. It’s not surprising that the pair hits it off right away. They’re the only single, young, hot people in a local dive bar on Thanksgiving day. I mean the pickings were slim.

It’s a dumpster fire from the moment it starts with drunk Sam and drunk James.

First, they get kicked out of the dive bar after having sex in the dirty bathroom. A series of events later, they get kicked out of a drive-thru line for not driving through. Frankly, I’m surprised they were never arrested for public intoxication with the way they were swaying up and down the main street.

We don’t get much more on Sam’s background on Single Drunk Female Season 1 Episode 8. She’s avoiding her mother, as usual. And she admits to James that her father has already passed so we have a rough timeframe.

But, and I’m just as surprised as you are, drunk James makes Sam look like a saint. Garrick Bernard plays drunk James very differently than Sofia Black D’Elia. I’m curious as to what direction they each received, and how it relates to their characters’ storylines

Samantha was an asshole drunk, she’s said it herself. I would consider her to be fairly functional when inebriated. James, on the other hand, is just a mess. 

Drunk James is wobbly, has poor judgment, and kind of has a death wish. It’s a much bleaker picture of alcoholism than we saw with Sam. Drunk Sam sucked, but she wasn’t actively trying to hurt herself in the way that drunk James was.

And knowing now just how their first meeting went, I’m not shocked at the hesitancy James has about starting a relationship with Sam. I’m honestly surprised they even remembered meeting that night.

It doesn’t seem like that was rock bottom for him, unless I’m reading the title cards wrong. It’s possible that their meeting was 2 years prior to the rest of Single Drunk Female. Or it’s possible that he had been struggling for 2 years, and the next day was day 0 for him.

Whatever the case, I do think that Thanksgiving that year was a real low for James and did influence his decision to get sober.

The support his older brother shows him makes me particularly happy, as does Olivia’s ill-chosen hairstyle back when James was an AA newbie.

And now that we’ve gone back in time to revisit the beginning of their relationship, I’m curious what’s next for #Jam. There are only two episodes left for Single Drunk Female Season 1, and things are bound to start wrapping up or building towards a potential Season 2.

Stray Thoughts

• “Jesus, my boy. My guy.” is an A+ prayer starter and definitely how I would start a prayer if I was drunk.
• I feel for James and the weight of his parental pressure. I hope we see more of that dynamic.
• “Pony” by Ginuwine is such a mood-boosting song and 100% the song that will spark alcohol-induced dancing.
• Sofia Black D’Elia plays Sam as a fun drunk, like the girl you meet in the bar bathroom and immediately become friends with.
• I appreciate her commitment to stressing the New England accent when Sam is drunk.
• Big A Star is Born vibes from James and Sam’s gas station parking lot convo. I’m sure it was partially alcohol-induced, but I like that they got deep, fast.
• Their conversation about cults is such a millennial type of conversation. I know we’ve all had that same convo with our friends before.
• “I had so much fun, except for the end bit which was terrible.” Well, at least Sam isn’t one to shy away from her true feelings.

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

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Single Drunk Female airs Thursdays at 10:30/9:30c on Freeform.

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