The girl is meant to be a younger version of Bridgette, the show’s single-mom antihero played by SMILF creator Frankie Shaw, and the scene might sound heavier handed than it actually is. Young Bridgette is in a therapist’s office, accompanied by her handwringing mother Tutu (the brilliant Rosie O’Donnell), calling up everyone she’s ever known to tell them about her father’s molestation of her as a matter of working through her trauma. As Bridgette happily chats with her friend about her birthday party, only to punctuate the call with “my dad touched my vagina,” Tutu leans into the shrink: “Lizzie’s seven, are you sure this is a good idea?” The therapist: “Having abuse victims tell their stories is the best way for them to recover and lead a normal life.” Cut to credits, still in the Manhattan font, scored by George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” the clarinet jam that opens Allen’s best known movie.
The season finale of SMILF, Showtime’s sweet, thoughtful new show about single motherhood, opens with credits in the font from Manhattan and a Woody Allen quote: “The heart wants what it wants. There’s no logic to those things.” Before the quote can dissipate, a young girl’s voice wafts in. She says, “Hey grandma? My dad touched my vagina.”