Sorry For Your Loss – Review

Genre: Drama
Cast: Eilzabeth Olsen, Kelly Marie Tran, Janet McTeer, Mamoudou Athie, Jovan Adepo
Sorry for Your Loss is a TV show that airs on Facebook (you can find this show by typing its title into the search bar at the top of your Facebook homepage.) The entire point of the show is that grief can fade, but it never truly goes away.
The series stars Elizabeth Olsen as a grieving young widow, Leigh, whose husband Matt (Mamoudou Athie) died three months ago. Avoiding the apartment where they lived, she’s moved back in with her mother Amy (Janet McTeer) and her sister Jules (Kelly Marie Tran), both of whom she also works with at a fitness studio called Beautiful Beast. As Leigh goes through the motions of teaching classes and going to group therapy, she’s constantly reminded of her life with Matt, as she tries to figure out how to live without him.
The main component that sets Sorry For Your Loss are the performances, especially that of Elizabeth Olsen. Leigh isn’t always easy to like — she’s sharp, sarcastic, and overwhelmed by her sadness — but she’s easy to care about. As the episodes continue, the dynamic among the three women in the house becomes clearer, with Jules as the recovering alcoholic working hard to reestablish trust with her mother and sister, and Amy as the hippy-earth-mother who is also trying to succeed as a businesswoman. All of these actresses are outstanding, and like Olsen, give both the depth and the necessary lightness to such a difficult piece.
Leigh’s sister and mother clearly loved her husband and they’re grieving, too, but they’re forced to hide it out of fear of seeming selfish or inattentive to Leigh’s feelings. Jules’ brotherly love for Matt is exponential, but she’s unable to express her grief without criticism. However, her ferocious attempt to be positive and helpful are beyond endearing, making her the most likable character in the series.
The characters in the show, suffering in different ways, are all struggling to communicate with the people in their lives. As part of that, the person who challenges Leigh the most during this time is Matt’s brother Danny (Jovan Adepo), who irritates her, but who is also the only other person who can start to understand the depth of her loss — and how much others irritate then with their attempts at condolences. Through him, she also starts to realize that there are many things about Matt that she didn’t know.
The episodes strike a good balance between the present, when characters spend a lot of time crying and shouting at one another, and flashbacks in which their behavior can be cute, funny and romantic. The series doesn’t pretend that Leigh and Matt had a perfect marriage, and its most honest aspect might be the way it shows fights or periods of estrangement even on the “happy” side of the story.
This wonderful drama will not only resonate with those who have experienced great loss, but to those who have tried to sympathise with those who have experienced it.
> Mar Martínez