Please adult responsibly
Single Drunk Female is a Sitcom which originally premiered on Freeform (and also was previously available on Disney+ and Hulu) on 20 January 2022, starring Sofia Black-D'Elia as Samantha Fink, a 28-year-old alcoholic who is forced to move back home after hitting rock bottom and has to undergo probation as part of a deal to avoid jail after being accused of assaulting her boss.It was canceled after season two.
Tropes present in Single Drunk Female:
- Affectionate Nickname: Samantha's friends call her "Sam" or "Sammy" pretty often.
- The Alcoholic: Deconstructed. It shows the real-life consequences, and also shows how alcoholism can't always be recovered from.
- Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: Sam, when she's drunk, starts doing very stupid things like trying to drive. She ends up backing into a dumpster and then hits a nearby vehicle.
- All Lesbians Want Kids: Olivia and Stephanie, the show's lesbians (a married couple) are trying to have a baby via IVF in Season 1. It turns out this worked, as Olivia is pregnant by Season 2.
- Amicable Exes: Joel and Britt, who spend the first season engaged and planning their wedding, break up beginning season 2, but are cordial with each other, and when they finally sign their divorce papers even give a "Divorce Party".
- Armor-Piercing Question: When Samantha's former boss (whom she has a history with — her physically attacking him was what got her sent to rehab) happens to have become her current boss at her current job (awkward, of course), she immediately quits the job, and then goes venting to Olivia about the situation. When Olivia then questions Sam quitting her job like this by asking Sam "Were you protecting your sobriety, or were you protecting your ego?"—Sam suddenly becomes much less secure and is visibly shaken (she ends up getting Olivia's point, and returning to her job).
- Bittersweet Ending: At the season 2 end
- Samantha has lost Olivia as a sponsor and doesn't yet get along well with Olivia's successor, Darby—but at least Samantha and Darby seem to be warming up to each other.
- Samantha and Alex have broken up after a nasty fight, but they are acting civil to each other and probably will be able to function as co-workers again.
- Samantha and James are amicable with each other again and probably even romantically interested in each other—but Samantha has just realized she is not ready for a relationship now, and James' sobriety is relatively new, so a romantic relationship between them would be difficult, if even possible.
- Carol has lost her fiance Bob, there was a rift in her relationship with her daughter Samantha, and several people have called her out on her Jerkassness. But she is actively working on improving her relationship with Samantha (even apologising to her), goes to support groups to work on herself, and it's even hinted she might have a new romantic relationship.
- Felicia and her boyfriend's relationship is going well, but now he wants to move to Michigan for work. She has to decide if she wants to move with him (away from all her friends in Malden, and away from the father of her son who recently has gotten back in their son's live), go long-distance relationship with him, break up with him, or ask him to give up a great career opportunity. Whatever she chooses it will be difficult for her.
- Disappeared Dad: In "New York" Sam and her mom both express sorrow at the loss of her dad, who's already dead in the present. "Higher Parent" sees them both scatter her dad's ashes. Sam also has a dream about him and speaks to him in it.
- Hard-Drinking Party Girl: In the past, this was played straight, as Samantha was both an alcoholic and someone who often frequented bars, clubs and parties. By the time the series starts, deconstructed: she has stopped the "hard drinking" part now, but is dealing with the fact that that makes the "party girl" part—which isn't bad for her in itself, unlike the "alcoholic" part—very difficult now, because 1. Partying is a lot less fun when not drunk 2. Partying exposes one to a lot of alcohol consumption by others, which is a thing sober alcoholics try to avoid. A big part of the series is about her finding out how she can still have friends and do fun things, despite the aforementioned.
- Hollywood Atheist: Sam and her mom turn out to both be atheists, which they discuss in a flashback before the shiva (Jewish funeral ritual) for Sam's dad (they're culturally/ethnically Jewish), deciding mentioning this to the rabbi is a bad idea (along with offering non-kosher food). It seems they abide by some Jewish rituals given this, but aren't kosher or religious (neither is too uncommon for American Jews). It's also mentioned when Sam is approaching AA's twelth step as this involves accepting a higher power, and she's not sure what this would be for her, if not God. They're not portrayed as bad for this, but it causes some difficulties.
- I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine: Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy's costar from The Breakfast Club appears as Sam's paternal aunt.
- Inciting Incident: When Samantha Fink turns up to work drunk a few too many times and is fired, this effectively kick-starts the plot.
- Informed Judaism: Sam mentions she was the only Jewish girl in her school growing up, and that her dad had a shiva (a Jewish period of mourning), though other than these few mentions her Jewishness doesn't come up at all, with no sign of her or Sam's mom practicing Judaism otherwise — although Samantha mentions once that, as a kid, she hated that her family did not acknowledge Christmas as a holiday in any way. In Season 2, it's revealed both Sam and her mom are atheistic Jews; they don't keep kosher or do Jewish rituals most of the time.
- Love Confession: James says he loves Sam after falling off the wagon, while she dismisses this as he's drunk.
- Making Love in All the Wrong Places:
- Sam hooks up with Chloe, a woman who she met at a party, in the bathroom due to being very horny (this was less than five minutes after they were introduced as well).
- Also it's revealed that Sam once hooked up with James in another bathroom, but neither remembers doing this at present since they were both drunk at the time. This was apparently something Sam did often, as the owner of the bar she did this in berates her, saying he's told her multiple times not to have sex in the bar's bathroom.
- Mistaken for Toilet: When James and Sam are in New York, she takes him on a tour of all the places she did stupid and embarrassing things while drunk. At one point she passes a familiar bird bath, which reminds her that when you're drunk enough, everything white and porcelain looks like a toilet.
- Moment Killer: In "Sober For the D and V" Sam tries to masturbate with a vibrator while looking at the photo of a hot, muscular guy, but hearing her mom having sex with her boyfriend stops her in disgust.
- No Antagonist: There isn't a villain in this series; the conflict is simply "woman tries to break free from alcoholism as part of a court-order". The closest thing to an antagonist may be people who aren't evil, but just plain unlikable and are bigger jerkasses than Samantha herself.
- Off the Wagon:
- Early on, after Sam is court-ordered to go through AA and has gotten briefly sober she quite soon gets drunk with her friend and runs into a nearby vehicle in her car when driving out, getting her into even more trouble.
- James also later drinks again after over two years of being sober, to Sam's dismay.
- Really Gets Around: Sam was pretty promiscuous during her drinking days, and later she expresses dismay at how many "disgusting" people she'd hooked up with. This also provides the Blink-and-You-Miss-It reveal that she's bisexual, since some of the people are shown to be women (she doesn't explicitly have sex with a woman until later). As an example, she'd had sex with James almost immediately after they just met (while both were drunk, though she does make a point of insuring that he consents, for what it's worth). Even when sober she also has sex with Chloe after they just met though.
- Recovered Addict: Sam along with her fellow alcoholics are trying to achieve this by AA. The first season ends as Sam's achieved one year's sobriety, while James fell Off the Wagon after two years.
- Sexy Discretion Shot: Sam is just about to have sex with James in the bathroom when the scene cuts to afterward as they both pull up their pants. It also happens when they have sex much later when sober.
- Shout-Out: When Felicia compliments her co-worker on her nail-art, the co-worker says "they're the Hobbits", and Felicia then says "O, there's Bilbo!".
- Status Quo Is God: Averted. Although you'd expect a sitcom to have some elements of this, each episode changes the show dramatically and it has a sort of story arc.
- Tomboyish Name: Samantha, who's a bit of a tomboy former party girl and bisexual, is called "Sam" or "Sammy" by friends generally.
- Took a Level in Kindness: This is effectively the Myth Arc of the series, in part, with Sam becoming much nicer when she sobers up after being more of a jerk while drinking. Part of AA involves making amends to people whom you've harmed, which she's shown doing.
- Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Samantha is somewhat a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, and nothing goes right for her. However, she's also unlikable in some ways, though there are far worse characters. Due to the Black Comedy, she becomes this sort of character. In the first season, she's certainly not sympathetic.
- Workout Fanservice: Sam tries to invoke this with James, a fellow alcoholic from AA, by going running with him in her workout clothes and acting enticingly in them before kissing him. Though she's pretty and looks nice while in them, he rejects this as it's not good for recovering alcoholics to be involved.
- Writer's Block: Samantha used to be a writer in the past. In the series, when Samantha meets someone who can offer her a job as a writer, she promises to send him some of her works. Cue Samantha sitting behind her laptop for hours but... not being able to type even a single word. It's Played for Drama, as she discovers alcohol was what facilitated her to write and without it, she can't write anymore.
- Writers Cannot Do Math: In Season 1 Episode 1/2, when in-universe it's near day 0 of her sobriety, Samantha is mentioned to be 28 years old then. In the last episode of the season, 367 days (so more than a year) have passed according to the same sobriety calculator, so a birthday must have occurred—yet she again mentions she's 28 years old. This isn't possible, she should have been 29 at this point. Then in Season 2 Episode 1, she does celebrate her 29th birthday—on day 549 of her sobriety. This should have been her 30th birthday.
