What I’m Watching: Better Things

Better Things: Season 4, Episode 8 “Father’s Day” (B+)

We see some of Sam’s friends every once and a while on this show, and rarely do we get to see them interact all together. This Father’s Day gathering was an interesting one, which saw them all writing out their emotions based on their experiences with problematic, if not all uniformly terrible, marriages. Chaya was a fun addition to the group as Sam’s most Jewish friend, who was upset with the inability of the others to pronounce her name. Tressa also felt like a bit of an outlier, usually seen only on the other end of a phone call giving Sam bad news that she was somehow trying to couch as something half-decent instead. Tom was not happy when he stopped by and Sam gave him the cold shoulder and he wanted to defend himself since he didn’t believe she truly had the whole story. As usual, we just saw a quick flash of Xander that was enough to indicate that he always managed to disappoint Sam. I appreciated that Frankie wanted to preserve a good image of her father while her grandmother, who freaked out at the Persian waiter after being nice to him a second earlier, just wanted to remind her of the likelihood that he wouldn’t show up for her big multicultural birthday celebration. The three sisters spending time together and telling Sam that they didn’t need her anymore prompted a humorous response from her, one which her daughters chose to ignore as just the latest of her self-deprecating antics.