Andrea learns that a teacher's aide at Amelia's school is being cheated on and debates whether to tell her. When Amelia spends the night at her grandfather's place, Andrea is forced to have an uncomfortable conversation.
In 2018, there were 495 scripted shows airing amongst the linear channels and streaming services. The way people are consuming content now is so different than it used to be. It happens according to one's own schedule. As such, there is less necessity to provide ample coverage of each specific episode in any given season from a show. Moreover, it is simply impossible to watch everything. As such, this site is making the move to shorter episodic reviews in order to cover as many shows as possible. Premieres and finales may feature longer reviews. With all of that being said, here are my thoughts on the next episode of TruTV's I'm Sorry.
"The Small of My Back" was written by Joey Slamon and directed by Alex Reid
The main story of Andrea trying to figure out whether she should tell someone their spouse is cheating on them feels very familiar for a cringe-based comedy. Andrea doesn't know the person being cheated on all that well. Elizabeth just happens to be the teacher's aide for Amelia's kindergarten class. Andrea believes she can just get the ball rolling and allow Elizabeth to come to the conclusion on her own. Instead, Andrea actually has to spell out exactly what she saw at the movie theater in order for Elizabeth to get it. However, there is no big twist to this story whatsoever. It's mostly about the internal struggle Andrea feels while trying to rationalize everything and continue to talk to Elizabeth about it. Everything is exactly as she perceived it to be. Elizabeth's husband was at the movie theater while she was out of town. He has actually been cheating on her for a year. There isn't some other explanation for his behavior - like it actually not being her husband at all. That could have been a distinct possibility considering Andrea doesn't know Elizabeth all that well. But again, it's mostly about the awkwardness that Amelia is feeling in this particular moment. She tries to share some of the burden with Mike and Brian. But she's the one who ultimately keeps having to talk with Elizabeth over and over again. Mike isn't at the school enough for it to come up in conversation. Brian may be better friends with Elizabeth but he wasn't there at the movie theater to tell her what was happening while she was out of town. As such, it always had to be Andrea. She feels that pressure to get it right. It doesn't matter that she isn't friends with Elizabeth. It's the right thing to do in this situation. Elizabeth and her family no longer have to make significant commitments to this man because of his despicable behavior. Andrea can't allow that to continue. She wants to give Elizabeth's freedom back. All of this will also shade the relationship they have moving forward though. Andrea will forever be known as the woman who told Elizabeth that her husband was cheating on her. But again, that has to be good enough considering the circumstances. It's also not something that needs to be spread around the parent social circle either. That too just comes at Andrea's expense because Brian instead has to talk about the sex dream that she had with Mr. Castellotti. That too is very random and not something that she would realistically do. And yet, it happened nevertheless. That is also what occurs in the subplot with Amelia. An innocent sleepover at her grandfather's house turns traumatic when she walks in on him having sex with Bonnie. In turn, that forces Andrea to have the sex talk with Amelia way younger than she was expecting or wanting. That also makes her come to a realization that sexual education comes in two forms. The first explains the procreation of it all. The second delves into the recreational aspects. This is something that is mostly done for fun that also has the possibility of creating new life. Amelia doesn't understand the difference. That just creates a lot of awkward but amusing situations for Andrea as she is trying to find the right way of handling all of this. It's not great. Everyone properly teases her for it as well. But again, the blame has to belong on Martin as well because he thought it was a good idea to have Bonnie over in the first place without also making sure the door was locked. However, there is the overall understanding that everyone will be able to move past this relatively quickly as well.
