PASADENA, Calif. — When the Louis C.K. scandal detonated in late 2017 and FX severed its considerable ties to the comedian-producer, fans of “Better Things” worried about the fate of their favorite show, which C.K. co-created and co-wrote with its star, Pamela Adlon.
Rather than fall into a trap of becoming a designated female interpreter of C.K.’s feelings — after he admitted to several acts of sexual misconduct against women — Adlon broke off the friendship (as recounted in a long profile appearing in the latest issue of the New Yorker) and doubled down on her show. Let’s be honest, she deserved most of the credit for it all along.
With support from FX and four new writers, Adlon spent more than a year making the 12 episodes in the third season of “Better Things” (premiering Feb. 28), all of which she also directed. As Adlon explained at the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour, she focused on what she could control, which is the tone and working environment of her own Hollywood set.
It paid off. Of the eight episodes critics have seen so far (with C.K. still contractually credited as a co-creator), it’s safe to say that “Better Things” is even better and more thoughtful in the ways that it already excelled, particularly in how it depicts parenting.
I’ll save most of my kvelling for a full review, but so far one of my favorite scenes features Adlon’s character (and alter ego), Sam Fox, as she deals with the insidious — but not sexual — abuse she and others encounter while working on the sweltering outdoor set of a sci-fi/horror feature film.
After a number of minor indignities and union infractions, Sam and two of her co-stars are forced to perform a dangerous car-chase stunt without mandated safety precautions. In front of the cast and crew, she lets the director and producers have it, even though her co-stars and colleagues are reluctant to rock the boat and lose the gig.
As Adlon also told the New Yorker, the scene can be viewed as her two cents about #MeToo. You don’t have to be sexually harassed or assaulted to experience an abuse of power in the workplace. Adlon, 52, has worked on movie and TV sets “since I’m 9 years old, so I’ve seen everything,” she said Monday.
“I’ll talk about (movie and TV) sets because I’m in this business, but every business (has) abuse of power. People being rude, people who are in an upper-echelon position, you know, mismanaging, wasting people’s time, hurting people psychologically and emotionally … I see that people are interested in the story of making my show (and the Louis C.K. angle), because now I’m running it and directing it.”
“I’m trying to make a model for a kinder, gentler workplace,” she said.
Other FX news
The FX network, meanwhile, appears to be happily chugging along, even as it prepares to become part of Disney — part of last year’s big deal to sell parts of Rupert Murdoch’s Fox empire to the Mouse.
In addition to “Better Things,” critics laughed heartily during a screening of “What We Do in the Shadows” (premiering March 27), a delightful vampire mockumentary based on the 2014 film; we were also intrigued by the moody pilot episode of “Fosse/Verdon” (premiering April 9), particularly its timeline-shifting story structure.
But new seasons of some of FX’s big hits are frustratingly off in the distance: Noah Hawley is still writing Season 4 of “Fargo,” aiming to shoot next winter, while a new season of “Atlanta” could be a longer wait, the network said.
Two of Ryan Murphy’s franchises — “Feud” and “American Crime Story” — are in limbo, waiting mainly for Murphy to signal the network that something’s ready. (A Hurricane Katrina-related season of “Crime Story” will not come to pass, the network confirmed; Murphy had already nixed a “Feud” season about Prince Charles and Diana.)
Speaking to reporters and critics, FX’s chief executive John Landgraf said he’s optimistic that the network and its boutique-style knack for crafting some of TV’s top-notch shows will play a significant role in Disney’s move to compete with Netflix and others in the streaming-TV market.
Popular for his “peak TV” theory a few years back (which predicted a TV bubble burst by now), Landgraf has shifted focus to a quality-over-quantity argument. Never happier than when sharing a new set of charts, Landgraf and his research department combed through critics’ “best-of” lists for 2018 and found their shows made such lists with far more frequency than Netflix’s copious output.
That matters when you’re trying to lure streaming subscribers, who don’t necessarily want the most shows as much as they want the really good shows.
