30 Days-7/20/05-"Binge Drinking Mom"
 

I thought that this was the weakest of all of the episodes if only because it wasn't a particularly fresh treatment of a well worn topic. Nor were the conclusions particularly startling, alcohol will make you sick, etc(gee Morgan did you ever hear of something called.. Prohibition???). I liked the human growth hormone episode more, if only because I had no idea that people were doing that to themselves. That episode wasn't particularly well executed, but it was something that I didn't know anything about it.

Still I really hope FX brings the series back. On the FX chat boards, people are coming up with topics for next season, someone suggested having a healthy person use a wheelchair(sounds like that great Seinfeld episode...).

My episode ranking

1. Muslims and America(really outstanding)
2. Straight/Gay(fresh take on an old topic, though the Simpsons probably did it better)
3. Off the Grid(worth it just for Cecil the hippie!)
4. Anti-Aging(good topic, weak show)
5. Minimum Wage(a little artificial, Spurlock grandstanding)
6. Binge Drinking Mom

I agree, definitely the weakest of the episodes. I had several problems with the setup and some of the messages. The episode was meant to point out harmful effects of college binge-drinking, but they didn't really prove anything. The only harmful effects of this woman's binge drinking arose out of the fact that she was not situated quite like most college students (college students situated like her--I think most people would agree--should not be binge-drinking).

Binge-drinking is a product of age, total lack of responsibility, and social atmosphere. A person of her age is also more seriously affected by hangovers. Hell, I'm 26, and I am more affected by hangovers than I used to be. An older soccer mom with an eight year old child to take care of also has too much responsibility to be binge drinking; its just pathetic. Drinking despite serious responsibility is the domain of the alcoholic, not the college binge-drinker. Most sorority girls don't have kids to take care of, and they make sure not to schedule early classes so that they can sleep in and recoup. They aren't getting up at 6:00 am to feed their kids. The girl in this episode only had classes two nights a week!

I also groaned when they kept illustrating how she is falling behind on her house-cleaning duties because no college kid cleans up, and its not because of drinking. Kids just don't clean. She also seemed shocked that when she had four drinks at lunch, she wouldn't be able to go out running. Drinking during the day makes you tired! And while perhaps they should be running, college kids often don't, so the general laziness associated with drinking doesn't really affect their lifestyle that way. If they do want to run, they make sure not to have four drinks right before that...just a little planning they do.

The episode also recreated one of the worst aspects of Super Size Me, which was the fact that Morgan forced himself to eat when he was full enough to want to vomit. People who eat an extra value meal have worked themselves up to the point where they want to eat the whole thing. Of course the effects will be worse when you are starting from zero and trying to fire on all cylinders. She started to get into the groove mid way through, and then she seemed to have a lot less of a problem with the hangovers, etc. Her tolerance at first was like mine when I was in the 9th grade, and I did NOT force myself to drink that much at first.

Its true that there are harmful effects of binge-drinking even for a college student without any responsibilities. Blackouts are one of them. Most of us don't blackout; many puke and pass out before they have any memory loss. The possibility of addiction is there. Gotta be a little careful there, and its true that her daughter (if she really does blackout all the time) could be on track for that. But thats kind of an unusual situation to be in. Her social group also seemed to drink more than a lot of college kids. Maybe this episode was really more of a portrait of sorority life than anything else. I don't doubt that her daughter was at risk, I just don't think they can really universalize a lot of her situation.

Maybe a good rule of thumb if you are really worried about your kid drinking, you should try to make sure your daughter/son doesn't join a sorority/frat. That way they will be more likely to binge-drink on a lesser level. If her kid is like most, she'll just gradually tone it down as she gets more responsibility in life.

I just had two thoughts on this episode.

Last time I checked, 21 was the national, legal drinking age. Is the law on vacation, or are college students allowed to break it?

Also, I don't remember if it was mentioned, but who is paying the bills for the daughter to go to college? If it's the parents and they don't like the way she is behaving (breaking the law even), there is a REAL simple solution. Of course, the parents didn't appear to be the sharpest tools in the shed.

The Real World this year in Austin is the same way. Half of the cast is under 21 but they are all drinking in the local bars.

Didn't sound like she was a particularly good parent to begin with. I can't imagine telling my parents how much I drank in college. She said she let her daughter get away with anything before college. What did she expect? Also, kids binge drink in college. Always have, always will, particularly if you set the legal age at 21.

I really don't know what the mom expected to accomplish. Unless she planned on getting trashed continually in front of her daughter, how could she expect her daughter to change.


As for the series as a whole, I thought the Muslim episode was the only standout. The minimum wage one was okay. The rest were pretty lame.

I wasn't a big fan of the episode either.
First, aside from the main aspect of the mother, they made it seem that every college kid who drinks drinks to the point of blacking out. I drank a pretty good deal in college, but usually only on the weekends. I'd get drunk (maybe like 10 beers or so a night) but I'd never blackout, puke, etc. Sometimes I'd be hungover sometimes I wouldn't. I know many people who drink and get loaded but still do it semi responsibly. I think they failed to illustrate this point. They made it seem like there are two sides, don't drink or "binge" drink.
Second, I thought that having her drink hard liqour so much was a mistake. I'm not even 25 yet and I can tell you that hard liqour hits me much harder now than it used to. Of the two or three times I've completely forgotten the nights events, hard liqour was involved in all but one of them (the other was just a ton of beer). Even now, I find that hard liqour has the effect of like 2 beers on me. I think had she had drank just beer a few times she wouldn't have been quite as hungover.
I dunno, overall I just thought it was a bad execution of what could've been a cool topic.
I definitely hope 30 days returns. Cool concept that hits the mark most of the time.

Also, it didn't look like the daughter worked. Where does she get money for all that alcohol? Mom should cut her funds just to the essentials, and if she needs more, she can get a job - and then she won't be able to drink as much, since she'll have to work - problem solved.

She's an attractive chick - she could still find a way to get plenty of booze. Most of her drinking likely takes place at frat houses anyway.

Well, they never mentioned her grades - if she was getting poor grades the parents could threaten to take away her collage funding, so she would either have to party less and study more, or take a job and put herself through school - either way, she'd have to binge-drink a lot less. Still, more than anything, her problem is her lax mom - the little son seemed like he had the right idea, but then, he has a dad to put his foot down - the daughter doesn't.

He was the kid actually exposed to the mom's binge drinking, so this should not be surprising. This is the problem I had with the mom's tactics - she hardly ever drank in front of her daughter so how could she expect her to change her ways.

I agree. When I saw the promos for this episode, I thought the mother would be going to parties with the daughter, and was very dissapointed that she was just getting loaded at home. I guess they couldn't have her drink with the daughter from a legal standpoint, because if an adult was present, she could be prosecuted for distributing alcohol to minors. At least that's the way it is in PA. If I were asleep upstairs in my house while my underage sister was in the basement drinking with her friends unbeknownst to me, I'm still liable.

I also have to say that I love the conclusion they drew at the end. "The daughter's fucked and beyond saving, ah well, there's still the son."

Also, when this kid gets to college, his buddies are gonna have a ball discovering this gem and busting it out at parties. "Guys! wanna see Braden's mom get wrecked and watch him cry like a p*ssy?!"

Doc

I did not care for this episode either, and as said the daughter hardly saw it, and when she did she thought it was funny.
My wife kept asking throughout the episoe "Who would do this?" "Why is she doing this?" "What is she trying to proce?"

This was my least favorite episode, it just didn't come together like some of the other episodes, no profound conclusions or opened eyes. Unless the Mom actually did some drunk driving, got sexually assaulted due to the drinking, or as the daughter said, died, how could she expect to change her daughters attitude. Just being worn out from drinking too much isn't going to have any affect on her daughter. And there really weren't any short term effects shown at the end, what happened to her health checkups?

Her daughter had no respect for her either, the last scene between them was painful to watch. From the daughter telling her mom she had no idea what she was talking about, to telling her she wanted to end the conversation, and then taking a phone call in the middle of a serious discussion, the mom obviously has no control over her daughter. Drinking seemed to be the only thing the daughter was proud of, she just seemed to be a spoiled brat. The mom may need to tighten the purse strings.

I agree almost completely with the above post. This was, far and away, my least favorite episode of the series. I just didn't see the point in it, except they maybe wanted 45 minutes of a mother acting stupid, which really didn't happen either. Did the daughter change? No, big surprise. I imagine they didn't do as much with the health checks because her health probably didn't deteriorate all that much during the time. The daughter was a spoiled, stupid little brat. Anyone who can sit there and say that they black out almost every night and continues to drink is either a hopeless alcoholic, stupid or an absolutely clueless person with no sense of self-esteem or self-worth who feels the need to follow the crowd in order to feel like she can fit in. Or maybe all of the above.

I felt sorry for the mom in a lot of ways. The daughter I wanted to beat senseless with a large blunt object. She may be the most annoying person I've ever seen in my life. And I saw Carrot Top once.

I didn't feel sorry for her mom one bit. She a product of how she was raised and it was evident she never got any discipline. You can tell the step dad was peeved and either didn't want to get involved on camera or stays out of the mix for the most part because he's the step father.

Hell it seems that the step-brother gets peeved.