We’ve been seeing addiction portrayed in movies and television a lot these days, and the popular comedy Mom is a sitcom that also deals with addiction and recovery.
As Variety reports, Gemma Baker, who co-created the show was tired of the clichés of addiction she saw on TV. And indeed, as she says, For most people in recovery, getting sober isn’t the end of the story –it’s the beginning of the story.”
Baker adds that when the show Mom began, she was happy to start the show with the daughter of the show, Christy, played by Anna Faris, at the beginning of her journey to sobriety. Baker wanted the show to “tell the story of her turning her life around and all the wins and losses of trying to become a better version of herself. I love that we get to portray people with long-term recovery living full, vibrant lives and who choose to stay sober in the face of heartbreak by rallying around each other.”
And of course, even when a show the positive turnaround a person can make when sober, it still deals with sobriety in a realistic way, showing that life isn’t perfect when you clean up your act. While Mom is a comedy, it still strives to show sobriety, and the struggles to maintain it, realistically. Chuck Lorre, who co-created Mom and is in recovery as well, says, “It’s important to stay honest and true to what these issues are really about, not to make things up necessarily. That would be unfair – that would be like cheating. We’re trying to maintain some honesty when we’re dealing with these issues.”
