Better Things Season 5 Episode 7 is the seventh instalment of the 5th (and final) season of an American comedy-drama television series created by Pamela Adlon and Louis C.K. for FX, starring Adlon as a divorced actress who raises her three daughters on her own. This final season brings back Sam Fox (Adlon) and her dysfunctional family of daughters, mother, brother, ex-husband and assorted close friends.
Entitled “Family Meeting”, Better Things Season 5 Episode 7 is an extremely muddled chapter in the lives of Sam and family, where nothing seems to happen. The titular event found Sam commandeering her daughters’ phones as a means to force communication amongst all parties but falls flat. Then Sam decides to turn to gay BFF Rich for comfort but discovers a big secret that Max has been keeping from her. Which probably simply exacerbates the breakdown in communications between Sam and her daughters.
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There’s an extended scene where an exploration of Frankie’s school friends and seemingly sudden diaspora of sexual orientation comes across oddly tangential and is out of place narratively as if somehow out of the blue – more than halfway through this season – we find Frankie and friends at a very strange place in terms of their sexual awareness and awakening. Not that LGBTQ+ issues are strange but it’s just that nothing in the previous episodes seemed to suggest this path now taken by the series. Almost as if, the series needed to explore it but only in this superficial manner. In that respect, hugely disappointing.
All told, Better Things Season 5 Episode 7 was a meandering, puzzling mess. Almost as if the series is running out of steam as the finish line looms on the horizon. This cannot be the way Better Things ends. Sigh.
Now streaming on Hulu.
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