What I’m Watching: Better Things

Better Things: Season 4, Episode 7 “High Man. Bye Man.” (B+)

There are many plotlines this show only rarely addresses, and Sam’s family is one of them. We see her mother and daughters all the time, but we haven’t spent much time recently with her brother Marion. Greeting his sister as Samuel was actually the most natural and least awkward part of the whole encounter at their lavish LA home. Marion telling Caroline that her work didn’t actually bring her there and correcting the way she was tapping on the glass to call for a toast were signs of their fractured marriage, and Phyl made things infinitely worse by insulting her fancy international cheese and requesting a “blood” picture that meant that only Caroline had to get up and leave. Sam expressed genuine concern for her brother and he responded with a biting comment about how some people actually try to stay and make things work, to which she lobbed back an accusation that everything he said sounded like it was coming out of Caroline’s mouth. It was fitting that the rest of the episode would find Sam freaking out after a trip to the dispensary, forcing her daughters to all go to the bathroom together because she didn’t want to be apart from any of them. Aside from Duke calling her hypocritical and irresponsible, there was one sweet moment of seriousness in there with Frankie telling Sam – through a pillow – that she had lost her virginity just to get it over with, something that was properly transferred in the best way possible given Sam’s likely sober reaction.