---
title: "Better Things"
year: 2016
kind: "series"
canonical: "https://film.one/tv/better-things-2016"
fi1m_score: 84
critics_score: 85
critics_reviews: 9
published: "2026-09-17T04:32:15.659635+00:00"
updated: "2026-09-17T04:32:16.044550+00:00"
region: "US"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Better Things (2016)

Created by Pamela Adlon, Louis C.K. · 23m · MPA TV-MA · Comedy, Drama

**Fi1m score: 84** · Critics 85 from 9 reviews

*In a sentence:* Half an hour, no plot, a house full of shouting, and by the end we would have stayed for dinner

> Pamela Adlon’s series about a working actress raising three daughters in Los Angeles is loose, plotless and closer to life than almost anything else on television. Some episodes stop rather than end, and the Hollywood scenes are thinner than the ones at home.

## Synopsis

Los Angeles, now. Sam Fox (Pamela Adlon) is a working actress and a single mother to three daughters: the eldest (Mikey Madison), a teenager who wants Sam to buy her cannabis; Frankie (Hannah Alligood), the middle child, watchful and contrary; and Duke (Olivia Edward), the youngest. Sam’s own mother, Phil (Celia Imrie), lives across the road and lets herself in. The first episode opens in a shopping centre with Duke in tears and Sam on her phone while a stranger stares. Sam wants ten minutes to herself. In the way is everyone she loves, along with her brother Marion (Kevin Pollak), her friend Lenny (Cree Summer) and a career that rings at the wrong moments.

## Review

Pamela Adlon made her name as a voice, and *Better Things* is what happened when she was given a face and a camera as well. She created it with Louis C.K., and it began on 8 September 2016 as a half-hour comedy about Sam Fox, a working actress in Los Angeles raising three daughters on her own, with her mother across the road. It is Adlon’s own life with the names changed, and she does not pretend otherwise. It ran for five seasons and fifty-two episodes. It is one of the best things made for television about a family in the last decade, and it has real faults, which we will get to.

The episodes are twenty-three minutes long and most of them have no plot. A scene starts in a kitchen, moves to a car, ends in a bathroom, and the next scene has nothing to do with it. Adlon had acted in *Louie*, and the first season borrows its shape: short pieces, cut hard, filmed as if nobody had told the actors where the camera was. Louis C.K. wrote and directed a good deal of that first year. Adlon went on without him, and the series got looser, slower and better. By the later seasons she was directing most of the episodes herself, and it shows in how long she lets a shot run.

Nancy Schreiber, Michael Alden Lloyd and Paul Koestner shoot it in the light Los Angeles actually has: flat white at noon, orange through blinds at six, the yellow of a fridge opened in the dark. The camera is handheld and close and it does not tidy anyone up. Nate Jones, Amy Danger and Ryan Berg fill Sam’s house until you can smell it; there are photographs on every surface, a kitchen table where everything happens, and a front door that Phil treats as her own. Mynka Draper dresses Sam in vests, jeans and boots she has owned for years, and Phil in scarves and layers arranged for effect. Jay Gruska is credited with the music, but what you remember is the records, and John Lennon’s *Mother* over the titles is fair warning of what is coming.

Adlon is small, hoarse and tired, and she plays Sam as a woman who loves her children so much she can hardly stand them. Celia Imrie’s Phil is the finest thing in it: English, vain, forgetful, occasionally cruel, and funnier than anyone else on screen. Mikey Madison plays the eldest daughter as a teenager who has decided her mother is an embarrassment and is not yet sure she believes it. Hannah Alligood’s Frankie is watchful and contrary, and Olivia Edward’s Duke is small enough to still want to be held. The girls fight like real sisters, over the bathroom and the front seat of the car.

The first episode opens in a shopping centre. Duke is howling for earrings, Sam is looking at her phone, and a woman at the next counter is staring at her with the face of someone composing a letter. Sam turns and tells her to buy the earrings herself. We laughed, and then felt caught out, because for a moment we had been the woman at the counter. The series does that often. It puts you on the side of the person judging Sam and then shows you the morning she has had.

The faults come from the way it is made. Some episodes stop rather than end, and you can feel the writers reaching for a last image and settling for one. The Hollywood strand, the auditions and the phone calls with Tressa (Rebecca Metz), who looks after Sam’s career, is thinner than the home one, and it is where the jokes go when the family runs out. In the later seasons the daughters’ stories are picked up and put down with less care than they deserve, and one or two episodes turn into pleasant walks around a city with the camera following. We were never bored. We were sometimes aware that nothing had been decided.

Set against the run of comedies made by comedians about themselves, it is unusual in caring less about the career than about who is downstairs. It sits with [*Catastrophe*](https://film.one/tv/catastrophe-2015) and [*Fleabag*](https://film.one/tv/fleabag) in its willingness to be unkind about people it loves, and it is warmer than either. Watch it two or three episodes at a time, not in a weekend, because it is built from pieces and pieces need air between them. And if you have a mother who lives too near, do not watch it with her.

*Fi1m score 84, published 17 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

Nine reviews, all of them positive, and the praise lands in the same place: Pamela Adlon’s voice. Most critics treat the series as an autobiographical portrait of single motherhood that is frank about the indignities of parenting and funny about them without softening anything. Several note the debt to Louie, and most agree the show improves on that model rather than copying it, largely because Adlon’s own performance carries the material. The daughters, sharp and smart-alecky, draw repeated mention, as does the show’s willingness to give a middle-aged woman flaws and depth rarely allowed on television.

The spread is narrow. The nearest thing to a reservation comes from Variety, which finds the strand about Hollywood indignities merely serviceable next to the family material. Reviews of the later seasons are, if anything, warmer: The Telegraph calls the latest run the show’s best, and The Guardian says it will be sorely missed. Nobody is dissenting.

### Reviews we read (9)

- **IndieWire**, Ben Travers (A): Pamela Adlon's debut series as creator stands strongly on its own, improving on the style of 'Louie' with a frank perspective on single motherhood. The critic praises its authentic voice and Adlon's performance in bringing the autobiographical elements to life. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/shows/better-things-review-pamela-adlon-season-1-louie-louis-ck-1201724117/)
- **The AV Club**, Danette Chavez (A): The 'New Orleans' episode of season four is a refreshing, beautifully shot love letter to the city and a highlight of the series' later seasons. It captures Sam Fox's mindset perfectly while noting social realities, delivering exuberant and heartfelt television. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/on-an-exuberant-better-things-the-good-times-are-still-1842654573)
- **The Guardian** (90/100, inferred): Pamela Adlon’s autobiographical dramedy about a single mother is creatively confident and gripping entertainment that will be sorely missed. The critic praises its authentic, hectic storytelling that captures the chaos and small joys of motherhood and family life. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/jul/17/better-things-series-five-review-a-life-affirming-final-outing-that-will-leave-a-gaping-hole-in-tv-comedy)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, Tim Goodman (90/100, inferred): The critic praises Adlon's distinctive voice and hard-won truths in a finely tuned, real and funny portrait of single motherhood that builds on her work from Louie without being derivative. It is a necessary show with a burgeoning triumph at its center. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-reviews/fxs-better-things-tv-review-926658/)
- **The Telegraph** (90/100, inferred): The latest season of Pamela Adlon’s semi-autobiographical comedy-drama is its best yet, slyly touching on ageing, love and loss with caustic wisecracks, farcical set pieces and moments of tenderness. Adlon’s authorial voice has grown stronger since going solo. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/better-things-series-5-review-american-tvs-best-kept-secret/)
- **Variety**, Sonia Saraiya (70/100, inferred): The critic finds the series unmatched in depicting the bittersweet indignities of parenting through sharp, smart-alecky daughters and a bemused single mother. It stands out for its truthful take on middle-age family life despite some serviceable elements on Hollywood indignities. [Read](https://variety.com/2016/tv/reviews/tv-review-fx-atlanta-better-things-donald-glover-pamela-adlon-1201850453/)
- **Den of Geek**, Joe Matar (4/5): The critic finds the series a fresh yet familiar slice-of-life comedy about a middle-aged single mother and working actress, praising its honest portrayal of everyday parenting and industry struggles as groundbreaking for the demographic. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/better-things-review/)
- **The Ringer**, Alison Herman (80/100, inferred): The critic finds that Better Things stands out among comedian-centric shows by focusing on single motherhood and family dynamics rather than just the entertainment industry. She praises its portrayal of a fully realized middle-aged woman character with depth, flaws, and dimensionality rarely afforded on television. [Read](https://www.theringer.com/2016/09/08/tv/better-things-is-more-than-a-comedy-about-comedians-10a8052de243)
- **Paste**, Whitney Friedlander (9.7): The critic praises the series' focus on the positive aspects of family, friendships, and parenting across its run, highlighting non-linear storytelling and authentic character moments in the final season. She singles out a poignant line from the finale about appreciating a mother's way of bringing people together as summing up the show's essence. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/tv/better-things/better-things-season-5-review)

## Details

- **Created by:** Pamela Adlon, Louis C.K.
- **Creator:** Pamela Adlon, Louis C.K.
- **Director:** Pamela Adlon, Nisha Ganatra, Lance Bangs, Louis C.K.
- **Writer:** Pamela Adlon, Louis C.K., Joe Hortua, Ira Parker, Sarah Gubbins, R. Eric Thomas, Robin Ruzan, Ryan Raimann, Judy Gold, Patricia Resnick, Ariel Leve, Cree Summer, Cindy Chupack, Gina Fattore
- **Story:** Pamela Adlon, Louis C.K.
- **Teleplay:** Louis C.K.
- **Cinematography:** Paul Koestner, Nancy Schreiber, Michael Alden Lloyd
- **Editor:** Debra Simone, Gina Sansom, Annie Eifrig, Sarah Lucky, Annette Davey, Debra F. Simone, Susan Mandel, Janet Weinberg, Matthew D. Horn, Shannon Mitchell, Louis C.K., Emily Merriman
- **Music:** Jay Gruska
- **Production design:** Nate Jones, Ryan Berg, Amy Danger
- **Costume design:** Mynka Draper
- **Producer:** Joanne Toll, Sally Sue Beisel, Liz Newman
- **Cast:** Pamela Adlon as Sam Fox; Celia Imrie as Phil; Mikey Madison as Max; Hannah Alligood as Frankie; Olivia Edward as Duke; Cree Summer as Lenny; Kevin Pollak as Marion; Zach Woods as Zach
- **Runtime:** 23m
- **Certificate (MPA):** TV-MA
- **Release (the US):** 8 September 2016
- **Genres:** Comedy, Drama
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQ8olaETfnI

## Where to watch in the US

- Hulu: streaming, hd
- Disney+: add-on, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: buy, hd
- Apple TV: buy, hd

*Checked 2026-09-17.*

Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, GB, GR, HR, IE, IS, IT, JP, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PL, PT, RO, RS, SI, TR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *Mum* (2016): Lesley Manville outlasting her family in a Hertfordshire kitchen; the same patience, worse weather.
- *Catastrophe* (2015): Two people who like each other being horrible about it; the unkinder cousin.
- *Somebody Somewhere* (2022), Fi1m 85: Kansas, grief and karaoke; another half-hour that trusts faces more than plots. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/somebody-somewhere.md)
- *Enlightened* (2011), Fi1m 84: Laura Dern trying to be better and exhausting everyone; pained, funny and short. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/enlightened.md)
- *35 Shots of Rum* (2008): Claire Denis on a father and daughter in Paris; almost no plot, all attention.

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/better-things-2016