Believe it or not, Mom is the best new sitcom. To be honest, I didn’t have high hopes for the show and really thought it would be cancelled at this point. Well, I was wrong. Shows that I had much higher hopes for, such as We Are Men and The Michael J. Fox Show, have either crashed and burned or their cancellation is only a matter of time. Mom has improved. Stepping back from the show and not reviewing it for a week has made me see that.

In “Loathing and Tube Socks,” Christy comes to terms with the fact that she is the problem in her life, which is only slightly the case. Christy’s attitude doesn’t help matters, but how would you feel if your teenage daughter was pregnant and your mother would make you her fall guy? Granted, Bonnie only made her daughter the fall guy in Christy’s dream, which had them smuggling drugs from Mexico. However, it was clearly a little too real for Christy. Christy even called her mother to yell at her. Bonnie didn’t take to well to this, but Bonnie has little more than a superficial love for her daughter and thinks she’s a crazy person.

Christy’s luck with her kids isn’t much better. Her daughter, Violet, doesn’t understand that she needs new jeans because she’s pregnant, not because she’s getting fat. Christy tells her as much, but Violet still expects her to pay for “fat pants.” Christy wants Violet to take responsibility and pay for her own stuff, since Violet’s life will change dramatically once the baby is born. The problem is Violet is still very much an irresponsible teenager with a boyfriend/baby daddy who isn’t very bright.

At least, Violet’s boyfriend, Luke, is showing signs of having a brain. When Christy and Violet get into a fight, he takes Christy’s side because it makes more sense. Naturally, Violet gets upset, but Luke says that there are not sides because they’re family, which is a circle. Violet’s probably shocked that Luke stood up to her because his advice on how to be a good boyfriend comes from TV, so usually says is “yes, dear” and does whatever Violet requests to keep her happy.

As for Christy’s son, Roscoe appears to be neglected a little. Christy tries her best to be a good parent, but she has a tendency to forget to do things for Roscoe. In “Loathing and Tube Socks,” Roscoe had no clean underwear, so he decided to wear a dirty pair. Christy opts to buy him a new pair at the dollar store, have him change there, and send him off to school. Unfortunately, it didn’t have a bathroom for public use, so Christy threatens to have Roscoe change in the middle of the aisle, behind a towel. She does go back to the dollar store and apologize to the employee she gave a hard time.

Christy may not be the best parent, but she does make sure to stay sober. Despite her terrible day, Christy does go to her Alcoholics Anonymous. At the meeting, she meets Marjorie, who points out that if you think everyone else is the problem, the problem is you. While Christy isn’t too thrilled with the advice, she does realize that a lot of her problems are caused by being angry at her mother. Then again, once Marjorie found out Bonnie was Christy’s mother, she understood why Christy drank. 

While Mom is worth watching, the show can cut out the restaurant scenes. They don’t add anything. Viewers understand that everything in Christy’s life is a mess. We don’t need to see her workplace for confirmation that she takes it out on customers. That goes without saying. Christy doesn’t cope with things well. Frankly, if you lived her life, you probably wouldn’t either.

If Christy stopped seeing her mother practically everyday, she wouldn’t have so many bad days. Every episode has her dealing with her mother’s aloofness, which just makes everything worse, especially since Bonnie cares more about her granddaughter than Christy. On Mom, no one is ever going to learn, except maybe Christy, but you can’t help feeling bad that she hasn’t to put up with so many self-centered people and is constantly worn out.