Honest, funny, heartbreaking drama
Afriend showed me the first two seasons of Better Things a few years ago. She had them on a data stick from someone in the US. Which seems almost quaint now. The show was first launched as a collaboration between writer and star Pamela Adlon and writer Louis CK. Adlon based the premise partly on her own life, as a jobbing Hollywood actor and working single mother.
Adlon’s Sam is a
‘‘successful’’ actor, but by no means a star. She doesn’t have the luxury of turning down many roles, even if the work is demeaning or flat-out embarrassing to contemplate her three growing daughters one day watching.
Sam’s relationship with the three girls is terrific and absolutely believable, by which we mean that it often degrades into arguments, tears, shouting matches and walk outs, but the absolute and complete love and loyalty between these women is still the most obvious engine of the show.
Sam’s ageing mother lives across the road, slowly surrendering to gin and dementia, but never played for cheap laughs. A great selection of ex-partners, best friends and workmates come and go. Often played by extremely recognisable faces, quite often as themselves.
Over four series, Better Things has looked to me like just about the most honest, funny, heartbreaking involving and relatable family drama I have ever seen. All of which occasionally makes it tough to watch.
This is a gritty show and teenage daughters are capable of being pretty monstrous to their mothers. By the end of season three, I wasn’t even sure I ever wanted to watch another 20-ish minute episode. But – persist – Better Things might just be the best written show on TV.
As Sam, Adlon has created a character so real and nuanced, the show feels like documentary at times. Just one that is also perfectly paced and regularly funny in a way that life seldom is.
The departure of Louis CK between the second and third series – and Adlon’s anger at his duplicity – perhaps only strengthened and focused the writing. Asking whether Better Things is a ‘‘feminist’’ show will only earn you scorn or sympathy. The kaupapa here is so deeply ingrained and truthfully expressed that labels become patronising and meaningless.
With the great Celia Imrie as Sam’s mum – and recurring roles for Matthew Broderick, Kevin Pollak and many others, Better Things is not short of star power.
But the hero here is the writing and its honesty. If you like Better Things at all, then you will probably love it.
The first four seasons of Better Things are now available to stream on Disney+.