S01.E01: Sam/Pilot

[Tara Ariano]

Quote

In the series premiere, single mother Sam Fox struggles to raise three girls while trying to maintain her career as an actor.

[Primetimer]

Louis C.K. collaborates with his former Louie sparring partner Pamela Adlon for a sitcom about the life of a fortysomething working actor/working mom. Is it, in fact, Better than most Things on TV?

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[Jeffurry]

My friend who's a photographer took me to a Celebrity Autobiography reading a few years ago because he knew I'm an incurable fan of Mindy Cohn. Mindy Cohn and I had communicated on Twitter and I knew she'd be as nice as she turned out to be. Pamela Adlon was also there and while I have extremely limited experience with celebrities, she was the nicest celebrity I've ever met. She kept talking to me, long after she actually had to. ;{)} I hope this does well because she's just the best.

Edited September 8, 2016 by Jeffurry

[revbfc]

Pamela Adlon was amazing.  I'm definitely making sure I watch every week.

[teddysmom]

Not as funny as I thought it would be it definitely has a "Louie" vibe, but I'll watch. I loved the scene with Pamela and Constance Zimmer.

The youngest daughter reminds me of the girls on Louie. Her little fake cry over the earrings was so typical of kids that age. If she was mine I would have told her not only are you not getting more earrings, I'm throwing out the ones you have at home if you don't stop right now. Probably a good thing I don't have kids.

[Empress1]

The older two kids are pretty unpleasant, especially the middle one. I hope we only see her in small doses.

[EdnasEdibles]

3 hours ago, Empress1 said:

The older two kids are pretty unpleasant, especially the middle one. I hope we only see her in small doses.

Agreed. They need to do something to make them seem a little nicer or something. Otherwise, I won't have much sympathy for them and I'll start to wonder about her parenting skills.

Overall, I liked it. They had to set up a lot but storywise I like they way they are letting things unfold - not telling you everything but just enough to keep you interested. 

[PamelaMaeSnap]

MASSIVE MASSIVE kudos to Linda Cohen, the Music Supervisor ... when a pilot episode features not just one but TWO songs by Slim Gaillard (Dunkin' Bagels Splash in the Coffee and Flat Foot Floogie) AND Belle Brigade I'm all in.

[teddysmom]

Pamela chose all the music for the show, she has very good taste. 

[Irlandesa]

My favorite scene was the scene at the audition between Constance and Pamela.  I've always liked both actresses in whatever I've seen them in and while I've never confused the two, I've always recognized they likely were up for similar parts.

As for the series, it felt a bit too much like Louie for me.  And while that would be a good thing for many many people, I was getting pretty tired of Louie by the time it ended its last season. So for me having such a similar vibe and tone is going to be a challenge instead of feature.  But since I really do like Pamela, I'm willing to give it more time.

[For Cereals]

Yes, a lot of Louie...the most important thing, though, I need to know the designer for the booties Julie Bowen was wearing in the audition scene and I did like the music.

[scrb]

If it's like Louie, no problemo for me.

Especially since he seems to be in no hurry to make new episodes -- if he does come back, those girls who play his daughters may be college age.

[zxy556575]

A gratuitous masturbation scene, really? That part certainly reminded me of Louie.

Not sure what's the point, or if there is one, in giving Sam and her daughters traditionally male names.

[lofidelity]

1 hour ago, lordonia said:

A gratuitous masturbation scene, really? That part certainly reminded me of Louie.

Not sure what's the point, or if there is one, in giving Sam and her daughters traditionally male names.

Wait, where was the masturbation scene?  I'm not sure if I missed part of the episode, the FX website was acting up when I tried to watch.

My guess is there isn't a point to the traditionally male names, it's just an artifact of the show being semi-autobiographical.  Adlon's real-life daughters also have traditionally male names, and "Sam" rhymes with "Pam."

Anyway, the first episode was a pleasant surprise.  I really like Pamela Adlon, but I find her kind of uneven -- she has some really great moments, but she also has a lot of leftover 1980s-child-actor mannerisms that make most of what she does feel super forced to me -- so I was nervous that I wouldn't really like her carrying a whole show.  But she and Louis CK definitely wrote to her strengths, and I really liked her in this.  (Especially that scene where she's watching the text-message dots, dang.)  I could do without CK's choppy editing, though.  And it would have been nice to get more of an explanation of that flashback to her dad within this episode, too, that felt like it was just thrown in there.  Hopefully future episodes will pick up the thread of that relationship.

[zxy556575]

7 hours ago, lofidelity said:

Wait, where was the masturbation scene? 

In her bedroom when she had her pants down and was looking at porn on her laptop. Her daughter was knocking at the door and Sam kept shouting at her not to come in.

[TheRabbi]

I've never seen Louie but I definitely enjoyed the pilot of this. My favorite scene was her voice session where she's going off about her kid's teacher and the technical guy is just kind of rolling with it. I laughed a good amount. I suppose I should check out Louie?

Edited September 10, 2016 by TheRabbi

[cpcathy]

I think Louie is brilliant, and yes, Better Things seems the female version to me. Pamela's character at least seems nicer in this than she was on Louie.

[Mumbles]

I haven't watched "Louie" yet - and I will get to it - and my first exposure to both Louis CK and Adlon was his HBO sitcom, "Lucky Louie." I still don't know what to make of that show...all of Louis cK's existential bleakness, crammed into a traditional working-class-guy sitcom. Adlon's role was a stereotypical sitcom housewife shrew and I had a lot of problems with the role (not her); now I know that Louis was in an unhappy marriage so I wonder if that was feeding that. 

I liked this episode enough to give it another shot. I too found the kids awful...even the little one, who is the nicest, has a bit of the "wise child" sitcom cliche.

[Racj82]

On Saturday, September 10, 2016 at 9:23 AM, lordonia said:

In her bedroom when she had her pants down and was looking at porn on her laptop. Her daughter was knocking at the door and Sam kept shouting at her not to come in.

There was nothing gratuitous about that. Nothing overtly sexual or anything. People get sexually frustrated. People masterbate. Some people don't even get that bit of privacy because of kids which was the point of the scene.

[mansonlamps]

I really liked the lead, who I'm not familiar with four some reason, but the daughters are obnoxious to the point of making it unpleasant for me to watch.  Especially the middle one.  I'll give it another couple of tries though, it's definitely different.

[MaggieG]

Oh good, I'm glad I'm not the only one who found her daughters obnoxious. Between the older one wanting pot and the middle one wanting to cut off her clitoris, I think I'd rather deal with the youngest. I'll buy her the earrings.

I also thought the one scene with the dad was kinda weird. Was she dreaming? I'll give it a few more episodes

[cmfran]

Me and my wife watched the first ep, and we both thought it was terrible. Just a bunch of awkward vignettes with no real story and no laughs, but since Louis CK is involved, that's pretty much what I expected. Pass.

[ItCouldBeWorse]

57 minutes ago, MaggieG said:

I also thought the one scene with the dad was kinda weird. Was she dreaming?

I believe she was dreaming.  Remember, it was established that she was a child actress and it looks like her father was involved in that ("the big game").

It also sounded to me as if her mother had a British accent, which, according to Wikipedia would be accurate in her real life, along with her father's involvement in television.

I guess we will be finding out about her presumably married paramour?  If so, great example for the teen-aged daughter.

[tennisgurl]

You know, I am just so very glad that neither of my parents are writers, actors, or comedians. There is a pretty low chance of either of them creating an autobiographical dramady about our lives, where I come off like a huge pain in the ass, and the world will see my parents awkwardly jerk off to bad porn. 

I liked this a lot, it was a nice mix of funny and stressful and melancholic. I am WAY behind on Louie, but I can really see the influence of Louie all over this. All very awkward humor, parent stress, and weird camera angels. 

I do hope the teen and short haired daughters get less awful. I get really annoyed when the kids of a put upon parent protagonist are just SUCH assholes, they hardly seem real. Parenting is hard enough with normal kids, you can get plenty of drama with that.  

[scrb]

Well it was only the pilot and the show is trying to establish that single mother character actress Sam has her hands full.

So the kids can be trying on her.

But it could be lazy writing if they always use the trope of the bratty kids to show her trials as parent.

If they sometimes show why Sam loves them so once in awhile because they behave with grace, then there shouldn't be a problem.

Louie features the children once in awhile but most of the episodes deal with his experiences.  So we'll see if this show focuses too much on parenthood.

[numbnut]

On 9/9/2016 at 6:44 PM, Irlandesa said:

My favorite scene was the scene at the audition between Constance and Pamela.  I've always liked both actresses in whatever I've seen them in and while I've never confused the two, I've always recognized they likely were up for similar parts.

I didn't know I had a preference until I saw Zimmer and thought, "Aw, I wish Zimmer was the star of this show." Adlon is cool but when her voice gets whiny it grates on my nerves (much like the oldest daughter's voice).

[possibilities]

On 9/10/2016 at 8:43 PM, Mumbles said:

I haven't watched "Louie" yet - and I will get to it - and my first exposure to both Louis CK and Adlon was his HBO sitcom, "Lucky Louie." I still don't know what to make of that show...all of Louis cK's existential bleakness, crammed into a traditional working-class-guy sitcom. Adlon's role was a stereotypical sitcom housewife shrew and I had a lot of problems with the role (not her); now I know that Louis was in an unhappy marriage so I wonder if that was feeding that.

C.K. objectifies women all the time. I don't think it was just a phase. I liked many things about "Louie" but his attitude toward women was not one of them (and the last season was absolutely execrable). I think "Better Things" is much less surreal than "Louie" and so far Sam is a more developed character than her role on "Louie" ever was. It's been a while since I saw "Lucky Louie" so I can't comment on that show directly.

 

On 9/12/2016 at 10:50 PM, tennisgurl said:

 I get really annoyed when the kids of a put upon parent protagonist are just SUCH assholes, they hardly seem real. Parenting is hard enough with normal kids, you can get plenty of drama with that.

Parenting can be frustrating and funny, but I agree that going too far and creating monster offspring characters isn't the best way to vent one's parental frustration or mine the reality for drama or laughs. The parenting parts of "Louie" were the best parts, in my opinion, and I'm not really seeing that here.

But it's way too soon to judge the show. Pilots are often not the greatest.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I'm mostly familiar with Pamela Adlon because of Californication (I didn't reailze that she was Dolores in Grease 2 and the voice of Bobby Hill until I googled her at some point during Californication) so kudos to her for being in the business for so long and with such different projects/characters.

While I agree that the kids were obnoxious, kids CAN be obnoxious and it's rough when there's only one parent who has to deal with them most of the time. I'm not saying that I want to see obnoxious kids, but it seems like a large part of the show is Sam dealing with being a parent and everything that entails, from picking up socks on the staircase to dealing with a teenager who wants her to buy pot for her. Putting them in the background more would make the show more about being a working actress than a single mom. I would be fine with that, but that doesn't seem to be the premise of the show.