If you like comedy with a personal, homemade feel, then this was a mixed week. Pamela Adlon’s “Better Things” was renewed; Frankie Shaw’s “SMILF” wasn’t.
Both shows were born from the women’s real lives: Shaw as a single mother with one son and no money, Adlon as a divorced mother with three daughters and a sometimes-busy career.
Both were listed as comedies, but often teetered near tragedy — very near, in the “SMILF” case. The final episode — 10:30 p.m. Sunday, March 31, Showtime — finds Bridgette (Shaw) saying, “I’m just kind of scared. I feel like I’m living someone else’s life.”
It’s actually a good way to end the series … even though it probably wasn’t planned that way.( “SMILF” ran into trouble amid staffers’ complaints about Shaw’s behavior as a showrunner.) We wish it would have survived … and we’re glad the oft-brilliant “Better Things” (10 p.m. Thursdays on FX) did.