What I’m Watching: Better Things

Better Things: Season 3, Episode 8 “Easter” (B+)

If I had to name one show that I’m watching right now which is impossible to predict, it’s this one. I know the general gist of what’s going to happen thematically, with Sam’s daughters giving her hell and Phil doing odd things that suggest a decline in her mental fitness, but the specific events do seem relatively random. Max was typically ungrateful to her mother for driving her to this motel, paying for it, bringing snacks and sanitary objects, eager only for her to leave so that they could do their photography in piece. I liked that Sam engaged in a conversation with a man who thought she was a prostitute and accepted his relatively straightforward analysis of what a night with her might cost. Back at the house, she relinquished quality time with Duke so that she could accompany Phil, which was the most bizarre field trip of the episode. Phil knocking a kid into the pool while rushing along with Duke’s basket after she got a cut from looking for the eggs was probably the most memorable moment before her son arrived. Kevin Pollak, who continues to simultaneously appear on “Billions” in a less enthusiastic role, finally got to speak his mind in the way that Sam sometimes does, demanding an apology from his mother before leaving her. The best scene was the one in the car with Duke, when he explained to her that her father isn’t a nice guy but that you don’t get to choose your parents, a very apt finding given what he had just experienced with his own mother.