[Warning: This story contains spoilers from the series finale of FX’s Better Things.]
Sniff.
When FX and Pamela Adlon announced in October that the fifth season of better things would be the last in the series, the writer-director-comedy star said, “It’s going to be a wrap on Sam Fox (for now).”
Fans of the series may be keeping their fingers crossed on the “for now” part of the equation, hoping that Sam, Max (Mikey Madison), Frankie (Hannah Riley) and Duke (Olivia Edward) might come back to our TVs sooner than later, but if Monday’s (April 25) series finale was truly the end of the Fox clan, it was a thoroughly satisfying conclusion.
We had another fantastic pre-credit music video, Sam got new artwork for his upstairs landing and there was a wedding that brought back many of the show’s beloved supporting characters. for another celebration and some Monty Python. Then, at the end, Sam envisioned his place both in the social universe of his family and friends “village” and in the universe as a whole, with shooting stars, northern lights and, if you hold on to ‘at the end, a very unusual and inexplicable event.
Adlon joined The Hollywood Reporterit is Top 5 TVs podcast for a broad and wonderfully digressive conversation about the show’s journey in our second standalone Showrunner Spotlight podcast, following our January season recap with the creators of Showtime’s yellow jackets.
Listen to the full interview.
Adlon was the last in-person guest for Top 5 TVs in March 2020, sparking many nostalgic memories of the changed world.
In the interview, Adlon tells hosts Lesley Goldberg and Daniel Fienberg that she knew season five would be the show’s last before she started writing it and although she suspects FX would have let her do more if she was asked: “It feels good to finish showing her feeling good and not falling apart towards the finish line. It was a very mutual decision.
She recognizes that every day she experiences new things that go into her “notes” folder that could have been better things storylines, but “I wanted the story to go on as if the stories were going on. I don’t consider that to be the end for better things, which is how I live my life. People are like are you grieving? I felt like people wanted me to be sad and have this moment. The truth is that it has been seven years of my life. When I started this show, my life was very different. All my children lived at home, there have been many scorched earth moments over the years. I lost a lot of people, I had to make adjustments in terms of pivots and big life changes.
It’s been a tough season to put together, and Adlon discusses the various production challenges amid COVID-19 (and why COVID wasn’t part of the season). The series’ final song choice, “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,” recalls Monty Python’s use of “Galaxy Song” in the season five premiere, a nod to old fans, new and future.
Adlon said: “When we end on ‘Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,’ it was saying goodbye to the fans, goodbye to the people who watch this show, goodbye to the people who haven’t discovered the show yet. show. Because I know what my show is and I always knew it was a marathon and not a race. Eventually people will catch up with it. It’s still not there and it hasn’t many eyeballs of these giant giant shows that have so many eyeballs and people talk about hating watching a show they’re watching which is so much the opposite of what’s happening with better things. I would take the sighting of hate, multitudes of eyeballs. Look over here! There is something for every taste !
In the 78-minute conversation, Adlon talks about bringing his own genealogical experience to Find your roots in the season explains how the baseball cards became a key part of the season arc and she talks about how the night sky in the final shots came together and what this unidentified flying object means to her.
Oh and what comes next for Adlon? She drops some clues.
Listen to the full Top 5 TVs Special Showrunner Spotlight episode, above. Top 5 TVs is a weekly TV podcast hosted by Goldberg (West Coast TV Editor) and Fienberg (Chief TV Critic) that features news, analysis, reviews and interviews with new and established showrunners. Subscribe here.