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IT’S NOT LIKE THAT: Episode 1.1

“Navigating Single Parenthood with Faith and Community”

Family Content: -1 Caution advised for older children, including teenagers, and sensitive adults.

Entertainment Quality:

None Light Moderate Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

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What You Need To Know:

Prime Video’s new series IT’S NOT LIKE THAT’s premiere introduces viewers to Malcolm, a widowed pastor, and Lori, a mom struggling with the breakdown of her marriage. The pair are friends and lean on each other while parenting their children through school, grief, anger, and crises of faith. In Episode 1, Malcolm feels helpless steering his three children through their own grief. Lori is blindsided by how easily her ex-husband is taking to single life. Meanwhile, their children struggle with their own problems. 

 Episode 1 of IT’S NOT LIKE THAT does a good job introducing a large cast of characters and their individual problems while keeping the action moving. As Malcolm and Lori, Scott Foley and Erinn Hayes give excellent, moving performances, and the cast of younger actors are impressive. Episode 1 of IT’S NOT LIKE THAT has a strong Christian, moral, pro-family worldview. People discuss their faith, attend church, and give or listen to sermons. There is, however, one light obscenity, a reference to a past incident about a sexual question at a bar, and some scenes about bullying, lying and divorce. 

 

Content:

(CC, BB, L, V, S, A, M): 

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

  Strong Christian, moral, pro-family worldview where people discuss their faith, attend church, and give or listen to sermons in many scenes, and episode stresses family, with the two lead characters being devoted parents, and pastor asks his church congregation to support him, which they readily agree to do;

Foul Language:

  One “a” word obscenity;

Violence:

  Some scenes feature wrestling, as two teenagers are on the school wrestling team, and a scene shows a bully pushing a boy’s face into a plate of food;

Sex:

  Two people discuss a conversation one had with a woman at a bar, who asked him if he wanted to sleep with her, and two people go to a hotel room with the implication that they’re going to sleep together, but nothing is shown;

Nudity:

  No nudity;

Alcohol Use:

  No alcohol use ;

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

  No smoking or drugs; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

  One character is an absent father following his divorce, another character is disrespectful to his mother because he blames her for his parents’ divorce, one character sees her friend bullying someone but says nothing and even lies to adults when they ask her if she knows who’s behind a bad anonymous video, thought she later confesses. 

 

More Detail:

The premiere episode of IT’S NOT LIKE THAT, streaming on Prime Video, introduces viewers to Malcolm, a pastor, and Lori, two friends who unexpectedly became single parents, Malcolm when his wife died, and Lori when her husband asked for a divorce, and their children, all of whom are struggling with adolescence. 

As the episode opens, Malcolm and Lori are struggling. Malcolm, a pastor and father of three, is still reeling from his wife’s death and feels helpless steering his two daughters and son through their own grief. Meanwhile, Lori still feels blindsided by her divorce, and by how easily her ex-husband is taking to single life. 

 The two adults lean on each other, encouraging and supporting each other as they try to be the best parents they can be. Also, their children are struggling with their own problems. 

 For example, Lori’s son, Merritt, still feels angry about his parents’ divorce, while his sister, Casey, deals with mean girls. Malcolm’s children have their own problems. His daughter, Penelope, is freezing out former friend, Lori’s daughter Casey, and trying to deal with her new friendship with a mean girl at school. Meanwhile, Penelope’s sister, Flora, is drowning in grief and anger about her mother’s death. She’s also struggling with her faith. Meanwhile, their brother, Justin, just feels lost in the shuffle. 

Episode 1 of IT’S NOT LIKE THAT does a good job introducing a large cast of characters, as well as their individual problems, while still keeping the action moving. As Malcolm and Lori, Scott Foley and Erinn Hayes give excellent, moving performances, and the cast of younger actors are impressive. The episode sets up plenty of drama and questions that will have viewers anxious to watch the next episode. 

 Even better, Episode 1 of IT’S NOT LIKE THAT has a strong Christian, moral, pro-family worldview. People discuss their faith, attend church, and give or listen to sermons. Malcolm asks his church congregation to support him, which they readily agree to do. The episode also stresses family. There is, however, one light obscenity, a reference to a past incident about a sexual question at a bar, and some scenes about bullying, lying and divorce. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for older children.