There’s a Little Bit of Loudermilk in Every Writer — Take my Word for it — and Watch the 3-Season Series of the Same Name

The Peter Farrelly (There’s Something About MaryMe, Myself, and Irene) and Bobby Mort led (Comedy JamDead Man Walking) comedy-drama has been around since 2017. Still, the themes of addiction, redemption, and finding purpose are more relevant than ever and brimming with countless funny jokes.

     Clockwise: Will Sasso as Ben, Ron Livingston as Loudermilk, and Anja Savcic as Claire;
                   Photo: Courtesy of Amazon Prime.

The series follows Sam Loudermilk (Ron Livingston, Office Space, Sex and the City), a former music critic for Rolling Stone and recovering alcoholic who counsels a support group in a church called Immaculate Heart in Seattle, managed by a no-nonsense, truth-telling priest ready to call out Loudermilk’s potty-mouthed approach to keeping members sober and motivated. When the priest gives Loudermilk an ultimatum: help a drunk, meth-addicted 19-year-old whose mother is a vital donor or lose the location for the support group, he’s at a standstill. With an arduous task ahead, Loudermilk brings the teen to live with him and Ben (Will Sasso, Mad TV, Young Sheldon), his best friend and sponsor. The troubled teen, Claire (Anja Savcic, Big Sky, Nancy Drew), is a mess.

Yes, placing a teen in the care of two recovering male addicts may seem strange, but in this series, it isn’t. The common bond of addiction and the road to recovery is what makes their living situation work. Not to mention, Ben, who looks like a big teddy bear (and sometimes acts like one), provides a pleasant mix of snark and clever retorts to the environment. Loudermilk is just as snarky and clever, only he never laughs. He’s had it with people’s behavior. If Larry David is known as the “social assassin” on Curb Your Enthusiasm, Loudermilk tops him as the social terrorist. He’s called an asshole by most people he encounters and knows he’s one. Providing his unsolicited thoughts on people’s actions and mocking their idiocy and, at times, their bad grammar is Loudermilk’s trademark.

    L to R: Jackie Flynn (There’s Something About Mary) and Tyler Layton-Olson (The Man in the High Castle) in Loudermilk; Photo: Courtesy of Amazon Prime.

Throughout Season One, we meet an oddball mix of young, middle-aged, and old regulars that attend the support group — from the 19-year-old Derek Jeter lookalike who’s trying to figure out his ancestry to the older man who shacks up with a blow-up doll to a bookie by trade, who’s given up one addiction for another — you’ll recognize from other Farrelly films. Their narratives are anything but dull. Then Loudermilk Senior makes an appearance, a womanizing, irresponsible 70+ man, living the life of a twenty-something who pays for his careless, irresponsible antics in a later season.

The rotten apple doesn’t fall far from the rotten tree. We can see similar traits of the older Loudermilk in the younger. But that doesn’t make him unlikeable. Loudermilk commits to becoming a better person and writer, leaving his dead-end job cleaning floors in a bank and resuscitating his once-thriving writing career. He’s crude — an acquired taste, but if you dig deep, he’s good-hearted and loves first-class music and literature. Amazon Prime hasn’t greenlit a fourth season of Loudermilk, but you can now catch the first three sensational seasons on Prime Video and Netflix.