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"Your mother is perhaps the greatest mother in the world," Marion, her brother, Marion (Kevin Pollak), tells her younger daughter in the middle of FX's new season. Better things (Thursdays at 10 pm ET) "She's crazy, her ass hurt and annoying, but she loves you and she would do anything for you. And the most important thing in the world – the most important thing – is that it's there. You wake up, she's here. You are going to sleep, she is here. You need her, she's here. You do not need her, she's here. Even when she's not here, she's here. She will always be there. And that's all that matters. "
Sam Fox is played by Pamela Adlon, who co-created Better things and based her life and career on herself. Like Sam, Adlon has three daughters, is not really famous but recognizable and earns a lot of money in voice (in the new season, a fan tells Sam how much he loved her inChing of the mill "). And like Sam, Adlon is apparently still there, actor since his adolescence in the eighties. The series covers many topics, including motherhood, friendship, aging, and messy relationships, but emphasizing all of these topics is a central theme: the value and challenge of simply presenting oneself. Sam is there for his children Max (Mikey Madison), Frankie (Hannah Alligood) and Duke (Olivia Edward), for his friends, his co-stars and his imperious and inappropriate mother, Phil (Celia Imrie), even though these people You do not like it – even when it's exhausting. And each time, this dramatic comedy absolutely marvelously observed, sincere and sincere illustrates how much her mere presence ends up counting, even though Sam herself is a disaster that often ruins the rest of her life.
You can choose to define the new season by an absence because it was done without Better things"The disgraced co-creator Louis C.K., who wrote or co-wrote almost all the episodes of the previous two years. But Adlon – who continues to direct each episode and has at least a shared writing credit for most of the season's scripts – is still there and remains a thinly veiled version of her own life. His constant presence informs not only the stories, but also the warm but sarcastic tone of the series.
Season 3 is a little more serialized than the show: Sam plays the lead role in a potential blockbuster in the summer (and hates every minute because playing is just a job for her, and the director of the film is awful to handle people); Max goes to college; Phil continues to age with less grace. Sam asks Matthew Broderick for advice (and Adlon presents him with his most relaxed and confident performance ever). But each episode looks like a fascinating new one, or a collection of thematic tales, alternating deep and juvenile subjects. (Sam is getting ready for a colonoscopy with a night in the toilet, then tackling her mortality while waiting for the results.) And the atmosphere is so vivid and inviting, even when the girls are awful, which is most often the case. time – that this new emphasis on the plot feels like a bonus to be able to spend time in Sam's company.
When Max prepares to leave his mother to party with her new college friends, Sam says, "I want my grand This is us-Milestone-moment goodbye hug. "But Better things feels so much smarter than even a very good family network drama that we do not need that hug to really appreciate how his mother and daughter feel.
Since almost every scene presents Sam or characters are talking about it, the series risks becoming the Adlon love letter for itself. But Adlon gives his fictitious substitute clear and observable imperfections. And if she just wanted the show to be a celebration of her own genius, well, that's pretty awesome for her to get that right.
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