Like much of Better Things’ run, “Future Fever” is a complicated episode that I like the more I think about it. I tend to like each episode on first watch. But as they percolate in my brain, I like them even more, teasing out each episode’s complexities and subtleties. Better Things can be half watched, and still enjoyed as a comedy. There are the easy gags: when Sam, Max, and the miserable blind date all simultaneously “ew” at the IPA lover hitting on Max, when Phil walks into Sam’s house in her bra and accusing her daughter of wine theft. But this is a show that doesn’t tend to lay everything bare, and that ‘s a luxury that a lot of television — grabbing each and every viewer with as much flash as it can — doesn’t have or care to take.
A lot of Better Things has looked at motherhood as unglamorous and difficult but in “Future Fever,” Sam the Mom finally gets a win, and one that doesn’t come just as her career falters. The first part of the episode deals with physical care. Frankie is sick with a fever and can’t go to soccer practice even though it’s Sam’s day to do snacks — she has cuties for god’s sakes. Sam goes anyway and another mother asks her to pray for a fellow soccer mom, an idea that Sam rebuffs because that mom isn’t really the praying type. That’s not tangible or real care for Sam. There’s nothing fulfilling in that. Good vibes aren’t going to make this woman feel better. Max gets actual fulfillment out of taking care of Frankie, even if her nursing skills go as far as administering medicine. The grape kind, as Frankie requests, even if the grape kind is the grossest kind. Sam revels in not just being a source of a cure for her daughter, but for being needed as well.
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