Loudermilk
This review is mostly spoilers. You have been warned.
So I am looking for something to watch as I do work on my laptop. Relax, it is binary work and having something play in the background helps my ADHD brain. I click on Netflix and see that I have the show Loudermilk in my list. Alright I think, watching a recovering addict help other recovering addicts is something I DO want to watch. I like spiritual redemption, which addiction recovery certainly can be. So I start the series.
The first episode had some typical character tropes. The hero, Sam Loudermilk, played by Ron Livingston, is a not very nice, brusque guy who does have depth and yes can express himself. There are nice nuances under the trope and I think Ron Livingston does a fine acting job. I especially enjoyed the priest who can put Loudermilk in his place.
The first episode has Loudermilk agree to help a new widow deal with her heroin addicted daughter, Claire Wilkes, played by Anja Savcic. They recently lost their husband/father and the grief is driving the young woman to use. Loudermilk does not sugar-coat his words with her, or any of the other addicts, and that is good. Eventually he helps the young woman start her clean and sober journey.
However.
Halfway through the second episode, Loudermilk and his roommate, Ben Burns played by Will Sasso, decide to take Wilkes to nature and they stop in what looks like a dense and quite beautiful forest. Loudermilk walks Wilkes into the woods and tells her to breathe deep and smell the trees. It is quite a beautiful moment and I figured Loudermilk was helping Wilkes focus on something other than heroin. Then he pulls a serious dick move. He runs away from her and with Burns behind the wheel, laugh at her and abandon her in the woods.
It was at that moment I though “Wow. Only a man would think it was ok to leave a woman abandoned in the woods where she could get kidnapped, raped, murdered, or all three.” In this moment Loudermilk showed that he had no compassion, or as I find in many men, the ability to comprehend the danger women often experience.
Now do men get kidnapped, raped, and murdered? Yes they do. And an addict abandoned in the woods is terrible. Period. My husband often said that ment were overly confident and did not worry about their safety. In Loudermilk, he also did not worry about someone else’s. I guess the writer’s didn’t either.
Abandoning someone in the woods is just plain nasty.
I didn’t finish the episode. I stopped it and went on to watch Tomb Raider.
Won’t watch this show ever again. If you like it, great. I hope you keep enjoying it.
Yup. This was a short review.
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