For Simone Finch, the creator and executive producer behind Freeform’s upcoming Single Drunk Female, the comedy starring Sofia Black-D’Elia and Ally Sheedy comes from a deeply personal place.
During the show’s TCA panel on Wednesday Finch shared that Single Drunk Female first originated nearly a decade ago as she struggled with addiction after her father’s death.
“I started writing this in 2021 before I got sober and I got sober and i realized it was about a girl getting sober,”Finch, now seven years and eighteen months sober, stated. “I called it a living script as it sort of evolved as I got more sober.”
To premiere January 20, Single Drunk Femalesee’s Black-D’Elia’s 20-somethign alcoholic Samantha Fink seize the only chance she has to sober up and avoid jail time: moving back home with her overbearing mother, Carol (Sheedy). Samantha is back in Greater Boston. She works at the local supermarket while being surrounded with all the triggers that led her to drink. Samantha confronts the remnants of her former life, including an encounter with her perfect, ex-best friend. Samantha decides to make a change and move on with her life. Kinda.
Rebecca Henderson, Sasha Compère, Lily Mae Harrington and Garrick Bernard also star.
Single Drunk FemaleAlthough the series may be joining a variety of female-led comedy shows about the road to recovery (including others), executive producers Jenni Conner and Daisy Gardner insist that the series is authentic and respects sobriety. Garnder shared that the series enlisted a sobriety consultant to keep the show rooted in the realities of recovery – from explaining how romance fits into the bigger picture of sobriety and more.
“The gratitude and responsibility that people feel towards a program that helps them – we’re incredibly respectful. There’s always a center to it an everything else can be funny, but we want to respect sobriety,”She continued.
Adding to the topic, Black-D’Elia said that she didn’t try to play to her character as a comedy, nor go “for the funny version of sobriety.”
“I just wanted it to feel real,”She said.
The panelists also discussed how the series can be alcoholics’ version of BigOr 13 Going on 30,How male-centric stories adopt a more serious tone.
Single Drunk FemaleThe pilot hails from 20th Television. It was written and directed by Leslye Heland and includes Konner, Daisy Gardner and Phil Traill as executive producers.