Quite how a 20-year-old cable network, albeit it one home to bro-heavy comedies such as It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and The League, has only just decided to see if maybe women are worth putting front and centre in 2015 is a discussion for another day. For now let’s rejoice in the fact that they have anointed Pamela Adlon to be the chosen one.
Better Things appears to be a Louie-style vehicle for the funny and smart Adlon. A successful actress and single mother with three daughters, she plays Sam, a mother of three and professional actress. An unaired pilot was shot earlier this year and FX just confirmed a first season order of 10 episodes. Adlon and CK will write the series which, based on the pilot, the Hollywood Reporter described as being about a woman “trying to earn a living, navigate her three daughters’ lives and also maybe squeezing in some sex once in a while”.
The partnership of Adlon and CK makes sense: they have been working together for years, having first teamed up on the ill-fated HBO sitcom Lucky Louie in which they played a warring husband and wife. It was here that she showed signs of the straight-talking and confident style that has gone on to become her trademark. One episode sees the couple consider a divorce. “I hate you,” Adlon tells him before softening and adding: “But I‘ve always hated you.” Realising their love is built on conflict, they resolve to stay together. It’s made funny coming from Adlon’s distinctively cartoon-ish voice, something she has utilised in voice-over roles on Recess and King of the Hill.
Adlon and CK’s working relationship extended to his next project, Louie, and it’s notable that on a show in which the comedian does almost everything himself, she is a consulting editor. The pair play an on/off couple here, with many fans rooting for them to make a go of things full time. As writers they have explored interesting gender stereotypes together too, including in the episode in which a role-playing game in the bedroom sees “Pamela” put her fingers up Louie’s butt. Come pillow talk, he asks her to define their relationship and she breaks up with him. It’s funny, brutal and moving at the same time. It’s very Pamela Adlon.
There’s also a camp turn in the ultimate middle-aged man fantasy, Californication, to consider. In that series she plays the wife of lead character Hank Moody’s agent, sample line: “What is a marriage, if not an opportunity to mock someone through thick and thin while simultaneously exploring your deepest, darkest sexual desires?”
She is an actress who has made a career pulling MVP roles in TV shows, owning the men in the spotlight and unnerving them. It’s not surprising that she has finally been given the chance she deserves, merely how long it took. With FX breaking two decades of protocol and giving her this shot, here’s hoping Better Things is a prophetic title for her career too.
