The Roush Review

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Better Things

Pamela Adlon’s edgy comedy serves raw humor with its slices of life

SEASON PREMIERE

Monday, Feb. 28, 10/9c, FX

WILL THE REAL Pamela Adlon please stand up? It’s never easy distinguishing this accomplished auteur—writer, director, star—from her fictionalized alter ego, Sam Fox, the embattled mother and daughter whose hectic life is depicted in FX’s Peabody-winning Better Things, of which there are few better things on TV.

Now in its fifth and (tell me it’s not so) final season, this terrific semi-autobiographical series blurs the line further when Sam. As scandalous skeletons tumble from the family tree, much as occurred in real life, Sam takes heart: “That makes me feel like we’re a part of a greater chain of history and humanity…. It gives me confidence, somehow.”