Recovery Road: Maddie Finally Comes Face to Face with the Dark Side of Addiction
Getting sober has been anything but a walk in the park for Maddie (Jessica Sula) on Recovery Road, but in the Freeform drama's first two episodes she's mostly had to do battle with only her own demons.
Wes (Sebastian De Souza) and Craig (David Witts) take Maddie on a 12-step visit to try and save Wes' ex Harper (Aubrey Peeples), who claims she's finally ready to get sober too.
When the trio arrives at Harper's drug den Maddie realizes that battling addiction isn't just sharing feelings in group therapy or adhering to a chore chart.
Instead of getting a chance to breathe, Maddie finds a grungy room covered in blood with heroin needles littering the floor.
The focus of the episode was less about making the content appropriate for a tween audience, but instead making sure it was truly representative of real life.
When you're talking about really serious subjects you want to be really delicate with those things and portraying everything correctly, Peeple says.
According to the producers, the episode, and the show in general, are attempting to remove the shame associated with asking for help.