Three days before her 30th birthday, an astrologer asked Patti Clark a question that made her whole body burn with shame. The movies had taught her that alcoholics were derelicts, weaklings, or doomed outlaws. Then she walked into her first AA meeting in Tucson and found out Hollywood had it wrong.
In the final installment of this Nashville series, Lane Kennedy looks at Seasons 5 and 6 through the lens of grief, recovery, nervous system collapse, and the long work of rebuilding a life. From Juliette Barnes’ treatment and spiritual searching to Will Lexington’s body dysmorphia, Deacon Claybourne’s physical consequences of alcoholism, and the emotional aftershock of Rayna Jaymes’ death, Lane explores how Nashville becomes less about fame and more about survival, identity, and staying emotionally alive after everything falls apart.
The ’80s brought us more than just big hair; it gave us movies that dared to show addiction without the glam. But did they really get it right? Dive into a sober rewatch and discover what these films missed.
In Part 2 of her Nashville series, Lane Kennedy examines Seasons 3 and 4 as the show moves beyond overt addiction storylines and into a deeper exploration of emotional capacity. Through Deacon’s long-term sobriety, Gunnar’s relationship patterns, Avery’s Al-Anon-like exhaustion, Juliette’s nervous system collapse, and the emotional weather surrounding Maddie and Daphne, Lane shows how Nashville captures the hidden cost of functioning long after the body and spirit have exceeded their limits.
Senior Sober Curator Patti Clark revisits Days of Wine and Roses, the classic film starring Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick, through the lens of childhood grief, family alcoholism, and long-term recovery. In this deeply personal reflection, Patty explores how the film’s unflinching portrayal of addiction mirrored her own experience watching her mother’s alcoholism unfold, and why its message about love, recovery, and the painful limits of saving someone still resonates decades later.
Sober Curator Contributor Sarah Alaimo reviews the third and final season of Euphoria through a sober lens, unpacking its five-year time jump, Rue’s darker trajectory, Ali’s grounded recovery wisdom, and the show’s clearest argument yet: everyone is addicted to something.
I sat down at 8 p.m. and did not move until the credits rolled at 3 a.m. Apple TV’s Imperfect Women is a glossy, knotty thriller about three women, one murder, and everyone quietly addicted to something. The critics shrugged. I lost a whole Saturday night and regret nothing.
There is a bit in Hacks season three where a DJ (Daughter of Deborah Vance) deadpans that she got sober…
There is a version of sober content that is essentially homework. A reading list of recovery memoirs. A podcast subscription…
When I got sober in the 1990s, addiction was still largely treated as a private failure. It wasn’t something people…
The book that’s been living rent-free in our Addiction Fiction section for two years just became Apple TV+’s most anticipated…
When Brent Ogburn joined us on The Sober Curator podcast, he talked openly about channeling his personal recovery journey into…
Dearest Sober Reader, If you’re searching for a salacious distraction to carry you through the winter months, I should think…
The Dark Side of Addiction … and the Light at the End of the Tunnel I started writing this piece…
There’s a moment in this conversation when filmmaker Benjamin Flaherty describes parents walking out of his documentary screenings with tears in their eyes…
Television loves addiction. It loves the chaos, the spirals, the late-night benders framed as genius fuel or tragic poetry. What…
I somehow missed “Being Charlie” when it came out in 2016. That was a year of transition for me, the…
“Once you can laugh at yourself, that’s when true healing can begin.” Brent Ogburn doesn’t present it as a mantra…
I just finished the 5-hour Billy Joel documentary, “And So it Goes.” I’m left with the sadness of what a…
“Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot” is a moving portrait of recovery that avoids Hollywood clichés. Director Gus…
It’s ok to indulge in a good TV series binge from time to time, as long as you do so…
