I Feel Bad
The what: Don’t let the name fool you. I Feel Bad is a bit of an inside joke for its lead character, Emet, as she realizes the idea of “having it all” is about as attainable as a unicorn. Like every mother in the world, she wrestles with her own guilt about working, having a social life, and doing things for herself, while she tries her best to be there for her three kids.
Instead of hiring a full-time nanny, she recruits her mother to watch her children, and their relationship is fraught with so many of the landmines adult daughters face with their mothers. So much of the humor of the series comes from this relationship and I’ve never related more.
The feels: This show just gets it, somehow. It’s so hard to articulate the tug of war mothers face when it comes to striking a work/home balance. When you’re home, you feel like you should be doing better at work; when you’re at work, you want to be home mothering your children. It’s an impossible dichotomy to navigate, and this character handles it with a fun mix of zealous overreactions, zany hijinks, and a self-aware voiceover.
The deets: Its first season is still airing on NBC, and you can definitely watch the episodes on their website and OnDemand. Hulu has the episodes too, and depending on your package details, you can watch them without commercials. Emet is played by Sarayu Rao, and she is downright funny. Sometimes we’re laughing with her because she’s having “one of those” mom moments, and others we’re laughing at her because she’s devolved into a mom-shaped mess we can all understand. Paul Adelstein plays her husband, and Madhur Jaffrey brings us the mother drama.