Better Things

Sam Fox (Pamela Adlon) is an older Hollywood actress struggling with work and raising three daughters, Max, Frankie, and Duke, by herself. She has been a working actor since childhood. On top of that, there's her unstable mother across the street.

Pamela Adlon is this character. This is a semi-autobiographic show and Adlon is brilliantly realistic. These are compelling characters. There is some fun and plenty of poignancy. This show does have one giant elephant in the room and his name is Louis C. K. Louis is a producer and helped Pamela develop the show. In the end, she is the one and only voice that matters. That helps one ignore Louis' name in the credits. Maybe he'll salvage his career in the future. For now, this is a great personal show on its own and it's worthwhile TV.

I love that this show is centered on a working mom in her 40s/50s. So much raw, relatable content. It doesn't glamorize the inner workings of day to day family life. But, and it's a big BUT, the oldest children are spoiled and entitled. Sure, that makes for conflict and drama. But it's becoming unwatchable the way she portrays herself as this martyr for enduring her own two older children's behavior. It's beginning to make her an unlikable character for me. It is not endearing to watch her ALLOW her children to be monsters. Aside from that, there's plenty of good stuff there.

Pamela Adlon offers much richer characterizations for her trio of young co-stars this year, and it's hard to think of another tv series since Malcolm in the Middle that has had such an ingenious representation of the youngest-middle-oldest sibling dynamic. The writing is indelibly sharp too, as just like Louie the show is as precious as it is hilarious, and it's captured in a way that's simply beautiful on every level. In a year with no new seasons for Atlanta or Louie, FX subscribers that appreciate more subversive comedies with a knack for subtlety will find all they desire here, in Better Things.

I find much of Better Things quite amusing, and very realistic, but -- familiar as I am with the volatile nature of the adolescent female -- I still find some of the dialogue written for the girls to be shocking. If I'd ever said to either of my parents even half of what spews out of the character of Frankie, I'd've awakened in the hospital being fed through a tube. There definitely are episodes which make it clear that there is an overload of undiluted estrogen in that house.

Strangely, I like this show but I can't stand the daughters.