Wanna learn how to adult like a champ? You should be watching truTV's I'm Sorry (created by and starring Andrea Savage). Each episode is filled with little moments of everyday absurdity recognizable to anyone brave enough to balance the trappings of adulthood: work, marriage, child-rearing, neighbors. In other words, it's a master class in pulling off (or not pulling off) the charade of being a grown-up.
In the irreverent and playful Andrea Warren, we have a protagonist who tends toward the silly, raunchy, and less conventionally mature. She has all the things an adult has on paper — a loving husband (played by Tom Everett Scott), a lovely child (Olive Pertucci), a home, and a great career. Sure, as a comedy writer, interacting with the conservative laypeople may have its complications. As it happens, keeping her unpretentious inner child in tow seems to be her key to maintaining sanity.
The Season 2 premiere of I'm Sorry is right around the corner (premiering tonight at 10/9c on truTV). If you need a quick refresher on Season 1, or if — lucky you — you’re new to the show, read on to learn how to win at adulting, Andrea Warren style.
1. Everything's Better Without Pants
Let’s say, hypothetically, you’re a working comedy writer, mom, happily married, professionally satisfied, personally fulfilled.And let’s say, for the first time since the birth of your kindergarten-aged daughter, you have the house to yourself for a weekend. Naturally, you’d treat the weekend like any other. You’d raid the refrigerator, you’d lay on the sofa, and you’d take a spin on the treadmill. And you’d do it all without pants! When Andrea finds herself in this very situation, that's exactly what she does. After all, dropping trou in the privacy of an empty house is, of course, one of adulthood's most distinct pleasures.
2. Know The Demon Lurking In Your Produce
Lesson one of adulting: always research potential kitchen hazards before you start cooking. In one of the season’s most hilarious set pieces, Andrea suffers from a real-life malady called “jalapeño hands” after preparing Mexican food for a dinner party. She makes the rookie mistake of dicing a huge amount of jalapeños without gloves on. This causes an extreme burning sensation, which wakes her in the night and disables her fingers from performing a quick online search for treatment. Forced to call Kyle (her writing partner, played by Jason Mantzoukas) for help, she is at his mercy and desperate for relief. I won’t give away the very — adult? — solution Kyle gives her after soap and water, yogurt, and bleach don’t do the trick. That you will have to see for yourself!
3. Be Careful Who You Match Your Friends With
When Kyle reveals that he’s finally ready to settle down and start a family, Andrea decides to do a good deed and play matchmaker. She sets him up with her daughter Amelia’s teacher, a kind and sweet young woman who seems the husband-and-kids kind. Turns out, Amelia's teacher is not quite as innocent as Andrea first suspected. But on the upside, Andrea does learns a neat new trick involving ice cubes. (And Kyle doesn’t seem any worse for the wear.)
4. When It Comes To Finding Your Inner Goddess, Lean In
Soon after Andrea’s friend Jennifer announces her divorce, Andrea reluctantly agrees to throw her a “goddess party.” Andrea is so embarrassed about it that she can’t even say the name of the party without laughing. It's meant to celebrate and honor Jennifer’s inner goddess, specifically by channeling the positive energy of Jennifer’s best girlfriends through healing crystals given to Jennifer at the party. Andrea blows her first shot at sincerely infusing her own crystal with affection when she’s caught unprepared in the sharing circle. By the end of the night, Andrea learns, and thereby teaches us, that when it comes to providing friends with sorely needed gestures of affection, it’s best to check your sarcasm—temporarily—and give it your whole heart.
5. Find Your Love Language
When Andrea learns from the other parents at her daughter's school about “love languages,” she decides that she and her husband Mike need to do some work on their marriage. As Andrea sees it, they’re happily married, but certainly they could spice things up. For her, this means acknowledging that what she really appreciates from Mike are “acts of service,” aka little gestures that show that he understands her needs. This bit of knowledge goes a long way toward explaining the strength of their marriage and Andrea’s low-key but covetable level of contentedness.
6. Live Vicariously Through Your Friends
When Jennifer decides to dip her toes back into the dating pool, Andrea is right there with her. As it turns out, Andrea has been harboring elaborate fantasies about being a divorcée (or widow, even better!), so she's enthusiastic to help Jennifer create a profile on some dating apps (equipped with one-liners that would stun any man into submission). She even plans a ladies’ night out at the bar for the two of them. Granted, the ladies’ night does end in the emergency room. Party! Jennifer may not be as enthusiastic about the whole dating-as-a-divorcée endeavor as Andrea is, but Andrea teaches us a valuable lesson: every friend’s crisis is a new opportunity for self-discovery.
7. Parent Your Parents
One of the strangest—and most delightful—subplots of Season 1 is the "will they/won’t they?" storyline between Andrea’s divorced parents. Her mom, while happily remarried to second husband Leon—but who knows how long he has left—delights in her ex-husband’s flirtations, and Andrea’s dad makes no secret of his attraction. Andrea is constantly pulled into the drama of her parents’ lives, individually and collectively, but she always manages to find a way to teach them the lessons they need to learn (e.g., don’t take ecstasy at a family barbecue with children present).
This article is sponsored by I'm Sorry. Catch Season 2 Wednesdays at 10/9c on truTV.
