SYNOPSIS:

Season One of Coping opens with a glimpse of future Sophie’s success at the end of the series and her breakdown at the end of the season. Everyone in Sophie’s life is coping with something different and relies on her for support. Sophie navigates health insurance providers and claims, ineffective and overworked therapists, and people who are insensitive, judgmental, and just plain mistaken about mental illness and a society seemingly designed to make it difficult to find help. While her mother is incapacitated by depression, Sophie’s oldest daughter, Annabelle, sarcastic, and quick-witted, takes on the role of parent and is the victim of cyber bullying. Middle daughter, Violet is the “girl with the curl in the middle of her forehead.” When she is good, she is very good. When she is bad, she is horrid. She is a popular cheerleader whose sweet public face is very different from the self-centered and mean persona she takes on at home. Artistic and funny 9-year-old, Piper is often the peacemaker between her constantly bickering older sisters and becomes obsessed with death, in a strange and funny way, as she tries to make sense of her grandmother’s passing and a concept she does not yet understand. Rounding out the cast are Sophie’s three best friends, Aria, Lucian and Goldie. Aria deals with infertility and with the guilt at the end of the season as she revels in the joy of finally conceiving successfully while her best friend is falling apart. Goldie’s perfect happy homemaker façade begins to crumble after her husband is arrested and Lucian, Sophie’s oldest friend who often takes his best friend’s struggles with a grain of salt, secretly believing that Sophie draws drama, copes with wins and losses in his fight for gay rights. Sophie begins a downward spiral after her selfish aunt hosts her mom’s memorial at a Sizzler and Sophie’s father marries a much younger woman who, it is obvious to everyone but him, is only after his money. A suicide attempt brought on by grief and stress leads Sophie to reevaluate her life, take control, and create opportunities for her ultimate success as an actress and writer. The ensemble of complex but relatable characters show that with or without labels or diagnoses, we all do what we must to face challenges and survive tragedy. We all have something with which we are…coping.