Sam, a writer for an online news website, is a raging alcoholic and after destroying most of NY city is forced to move back to where she grew up and take up lodging with her recently widowed mother. She is forced to pick up the pieces of the relationships she had with her school friends, some more in tatters than others.
The portrayal of Sam as an alcoholic battling to stay sober is completely inaccurate and unrealistic. Alcoholism is a demon of a disease and one does not simply shrug it off like an old coat. That said Ally Sheedy is brilliant as the less than enthusiastic mother and Sophia Black-De'Elia is likeable enough as the rebel Sam. It is however Ian Gomez as the mother's boyfriend Bob that steels the show for me. He is quirky and inept in social situations yet has these moments of sharing wisdom and caring for his new family that is very endearing.
The casting is ridiculously diverse, so are the social situations the characters find themselves in. You have everything from mixed raced marriages, lesbian marriages, man hating lesbians, bisexual relationships, transsexual characters, Jewish characters, overweight hairdressers and a whole melting pot of other oddities all thrown together to the point that it borders in the bizarre.
Oddly enough, there was enough like-ability in the storyline and characters to keep me watching.
The portrayal of Sam as an alcoholic battling to stay sober is completely inaccurate and unrealistic. Alcoholism is a demon of a disease and one does not simply shrug it off like an old coat. That said Ally Sheedy is brilliant as the less than enthusiastic mother and Sophia Black-De'Elia is likeable enough as the rebel Sam. It is however Ian Gomez as the mother's boyfriend Bob that steels the show for me. He is quirky and inept in social situations yet has these moments of sharing wisdom and caring for his new family that is very endearing.
The casting is ridiculously diverse, so are the social situations the characters find themselves in. You have everything from mixed raced marriages, lesbian marriages, man hating lesbians, bisexual relationships, transsexual characters, Jewish characters, overweight hairdressers and a whole melting pot of other oddities all thrown together to the point that it borders in the bizarre.
Oddly enough, there was enough like-ability in the storyline and characters to keep me watching.