Why Better Things can succeed without Louis CK’s participation

Vulture

Despite Pamela Adlon’s working relationship with Louis CK, her FX show benefits from not being like Louie: “Better Things is ultimately an optimistic series about people who muddle through life while sincerely doing the best they can,” says Matt Zoller Seitz. “Louie, in contrast, was a Brechtian laboratory for dramatic and comic experiments, and it often teased audiences with the question of whether CK was better or worse than his similarly named lead character. Better Things clearly separates Adlon from the show’s heroine, an actor and single mom, even giving her an unmistakably different name, Sam Fox. It leaves no doubt that you’re seeing fiction, not a Louie-style confessional blur of drama and stand-up.”