Better Things' next season will be its last
The FX series—starring, directed by, and co-created by Pamela Adlon—will air its final season in 2022
The story of the Fox family is coming to a close, it seems, as Deadline reports tonight that the next season of Pamela Adlon’s Better Things will be the series’ final run. The Peabody-winning series followed Adlon as Sam Fox, a single mother attempting to raise her daughters while also working as an actress, and fielding the attentions of an almost uniformly disappointing pack of men.
Adlon—who co-created the semi-autobiographical series alongside another extremely disappointing man, but who has served as the creative mainspring of the show throughout its entire run—issued a statement today, after news broke that the show’s upcoming fifth season would end its FX run. “I will forever be grateful to FX for allowing me to tell stories the way I see the world and want the world to be seen,” she told Deadline, before laying in at least a little hope that the show might some day return: “Making this show has been film school for me. I bow down to my crew and my cast. And I can’t wait for people to discover and re-discover Better Things. This is gonna be a wrap on Sam Fox (for now). See you at the after party.”
Better Things has been a consistent high spot on the FX schedule over the last seven years. Here’s TV Editor Danette Chavez, putting some of what Adlon has attempted, and achieved, with the show into words in her review of its fourth season finale:
Like so many moments on Better Things, it’s tough to pin down whether it’s an entry point or a conclusion. But it is serendipitous. Not in the sense of “by chance” or “luck” (when has Sam ever lucked into anything), but in its ephemeral and undeniable joy. That’s the essence of Adlon’s show, which is right in its title: Better Things, which suggests a shifting state. There are lows—abysmal ones—but things can get better. I get it now: Adlon hasn’t been trying to capture life; that’s impossible. All she can do is reflect it, in ever more gut-wrenching, insightful, and impressive ways.
Better Things stars Adlon, plus Mikey Madison, Hannah Alligood, Olivia Edward, and Celia Imrie. The show’s final season premiere is currently set to arrive in 2022.