Bigger Bottles! –
July 24, 2018 – There’s a scene in the first episode of HBO’s Sharp Objects that hits a little close to home: Camille Preaker, played by Amy Adams, makes her way to her car from a dive bar. Not ready to call it a night just yet—who ever is?—she cranks up the Led Zeppelin while idling in the parking lot and thrashes her head in demonstration of her booze-induced euphoria. The camera zooms in on her long hair as she whips it back and forth, wild and unencumbered, and then smash cut to: morning, when she startles awake in the front seat. Whoops. Passed out in the middle of her kick-ass freedom … The road to the strong female TV character has been paved with many empties. Back when Carrie Bradshaw and company clinked their Cosmos, drinking signaled a thrilling new world order where women could have the kinds of adventures long reserved for men. Lately alcohol is practically a co-sponsor of reality TV, where disinhibition and drama reign supreme among vicious housewives and bachelorettes in satin dresses, and glasses of wine have become a hallmark of prestige dramas like The Good Wife, House of Cards, and Scandal. The cocktail sipped in solitude at day’s end is a way to capture the stress and anxiety of being a female power player—how hard (actually: impossible) it is to have it all.
