What I’m Watching: Better Things (Season Premiere)

Better Things: Season 2, Episode 1 “September” (B+)

This show is back just in time for star Pamela Adlon to contend for Best Lead Actress in a Comedy Series this weekend at the Emmys. It’s very unlikely that she’ll win, but I think that this premiere is even more evidence that she’s a great actress fully deserving of having her own show. I wasn’t sure if I had missed something since everything was pretty chaotic at the start of this episode, but it was all revealed in due time. Max, referred to by Sam to Frankie as “the shitty one,” dating a thirty-five-year-old man who used to be involved with Lucy Davis’ Macy before meeting and literally falling for Max at her play was not a good situation for anyone to be in, and Sam fending off his younger brother was quite awkward. It was good for Sam to get the victory of Max confiding in her that she couldn’t stand going to parties with forty-year-olds, which in itself is a rather immature statement, and that she got to be the one to tell Arturo to get the hell out. As if Max wasn’t being inappropriate enough with this relationship, it turns out that Duke, the innocent one, has moved into shockingly vulgar territory, making an unfortunate Monopoly-related suggestion during what could have been an innocent game of truth or dare with her friends. When shouting “penis” at the top of your lungs in a house full of people isn’t the worst thing a group of young girls can do, you know that things have gotten bad.