What I’m Watching: Better Things

Better Things: Season 1, Episode 4 “Woman is the Something of the Something” (B+)

This show just keeps getting better and better. This installment was really about Sam and her grasp on being a mother, which comes with occasionally sleeping in her minivan and kicking her kicks out of the car when they’re being impossible and making them take the bus home. Trying to get the smoke detector to stop beeping and ending up with a blaring alarm was a simple annoyance that became a much bigger problem, and I love that Max just casually came out of her room with about a dozen friends and pretended it was no big deal. The summary of Sam’s life as a single mother was best represented by her screaming at her daughters that she was more than capable of talking to firefighters on her own. Getting a facelift and a necklift isn’t what she needs, especially for nearly $100,000, even more so if two young showrunners like Danny Pudi and Zach Woods want to cast her as the lead of their new pilot. The way that show came about and then instantly passed her over was interesting, but what’s best about it is that it didn’t even matter since it meant that Sam was free to show her daughter that sometimes she can show up. Their conversation about how Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi, and Mother Teresa were all terrible people was absurd, but it’s good to know that this show just wants to put it all out of there. Its lack of concern with being guided by plot is refreshing, and I’m glad to see this show going great places.