Is Better Things one of the best TV series?

In Better Things, Sam Fox (Pamela Adlon) is an overstretched, slightly frazzled, somewhat cynical but incredibly big-hearted single mother raising three teen and tween daughters in LA.

Better Things is one of the Broad’s favourite TV shows of all time. There’s been nothing quite like it in the way it takes the everyday, seemingly small, mundane moments of life and mines them for the rich humour, frustrations and tender moments. If you get to the universal through the specific, this is the very definition of that, where in the mostly ordinary, everyday events we can find a common resonance for most of us.

As a 40-something woman, Sam blends honesty, weariness, humour and unwavering love in a character rarely seen on screen. A former child actor and the voice of a much-loved cartoon characters, she is still a jobbing actor, who is still well connected in Hollywood, while probably better known for her early roles.

It’s life, but just like we know it

The comedy-drama expertly fits into the ‘stuff of life’ TV category, but this is no Alex Keaton and Family Ties. It’s sharp, while being very funny but also very black as it charts Sam daily agonies of raising kids alone with a loving but somewhat batty and gaslighting mother who lives across the way.

There are the small tender moments with her daughters right up to the full spectrum of big emotion conflicts and the micro-humiliations of being an actor. It’s all washed down with a stiff drink and a feast of delicious home-cooked food for the tribe that includes her girlfriends and her gay bestie, Rich (Diedrich Bader).

When life inspires art

Drawn closely from Pamela Adlon’s own life, across five series Sam spends her time ferrying kids around, making food and in the domestic hearth of her kitchen, navigating the crises that come with parenting teens in today’s world, going through the trails and tribulations of her own friend’s lives while trying to garner acting jobs to fund everything. Her girls go through their own dramas, growing up as Sam navigates the choppy waters of perimenopause, dating, and on-off relationships and MIA ex-husband. And then there’s her mother, who also happens to be her neighbour.

She has a close but fraught relationship mother Phil, played by Celia Imrie, who’s by turns loving, infuriating, highly critical, vague and occasionally supportive, she’s the foil to Sam’s pragmatism.

With her gay best friend, which is anything but the clique it could have been, the pair are as close as any two people can be, being the stable, long-term rock and loving partner that neither of them really has for their own reasons.

Hard to find anything that comes close to this series on TV and my great hope is that right now there’s something being cooked up by the likes of Pamela Adlon that takes the baton and goes where few shows have gone — into the 50s and beyond, showing women who are still kicking ass as sexy, cynical and relevant into the next decade with the same dry humour and relatable authenticity.

If you’re looking for some shows in a similar vein, here are several that might be worth checking out.

Looking for something similar?

Survival of the Thickest is the honest, humorous take on life, relationships and identity created by Michelle Buteau.
Broad City created by and starring Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson is the comedy-drama about two girls navigating New York city.
Fleabag is the boundary-pushing drama created by and starring Phoebe Waller-Bridge about a 40-something English woman trying and sort of failing at life.
Girls is Lena Dunham’s raw, unfiltered drama about a group of friends living in New York city
The Letdown is the local comedy about the early months of motherhood and parenthood.
Shrill is based on Lindy West’s memoir, starring Aidy Bryant, is a sharp comedy about a young writer making her way in life.
Workin’ Moms follows the ups and downs of a group of women juggling early parenthood, jobs and relationships.

If you’ve watched Better Things or just want to make a suggestion for a similar TV series, add your idea on the comments below.