edit: for some reasons the spoiler censoring thingy doesn't seem to be working (at least not for me) so watch out, most of the text contains spoilers.

Better Things is about Sam (Pamela Adlon, who created the show with Louis CK), an actress pushing 50, raising her three daughters alone. I just finished watching it, and overall I found it entertaining, and interesting. I like that all of the central characters are women. There's a lot of female friendships, women talking about motherhood, marriage, divorce, careers, menopause, about growing up, and so on. It is on the libfem side, but I guess it's a reflection of the times.

Sam's middle daughter, Frankie, is GNC, and from the beginning I feared that they'd eventually trans her, simply for being GNC. In the end of the first season, Frankie is caught using the boys' bathroom at school and Sam is called. Later Frankie explains that she was just grossed out about the behaviour of some girls (which I think sounds like sexual assault from what she described), and she says "people will say it's because I'm a boy, but I'm not". What a relief! For a couple of minutes, because later the eldest states "Frankie is a boy", as if it were really obvious. Which she will later on completely deny having ever said, because as the show goes on, Frankie does not transition. Instead she becomes a they/them non binary, even though there's nothing unfeminine about her. Sure, she starts wearing suits, but so did Marlene Dietrich.

Frankie is the worst! She is insufferable, and so arrogant lecturing adults about politics! She's also completely disrespectful towards her mother, and very self centered. I know teenagers do that, but Frankie takes it to another level. At some point she runs away from home, and no explanation why she needed so much to be away is ever given. She just sort of disappears, and it seems she's been imposing herself at friends' houses, expecting adults other than her family members to take care of her. Sure she's smart and independent in many ways, but I don't think it's made clear in the show how dangerous a situation like this could be in real life. In the show she's staying with friends, but in real life I doubt that many people would house a brat just because of her teen angst, and a child with that level of arrogance could easily be groomed and abused by some adult taking advantage of a girl who thinks she can just leave home at 13.

At the same time, this white "non-girl" who thinks Easter traditions are offensive (because fertility symbols?) has absolutely no problem having a quiceañera. A rite of passage that is not her heritage, and it's exclusive for girls, which she claims she isn't. Her reasoning is that California is originally Mexican land, and her having a quinceañera is "appreciation" and not appropriation. Appreciation, it seems, of a tradition that means introducing the girl to the community as a woman who's ready to get married. But sure, it's not problematic because it's not white, I guess.

Everyone is very supportive of Frankie's gender identity in the show, including Sam, but it's an afterthought. No one makes a big deal out of it, they are more like "whatever". Sam is in fact a very permissive mother (sometimes too much IMO) and gives plenty of space for her daughters to express themselves. I don't think the plot was written to make identity politics or liberal politics look good. I think it was written to look like is a trend amongst bored teenagers. Max, the eldest daughter, matures over the seasons, specially towards the end, and Sam's mother, who Sam considered putting in a home at some point, also moves on, and I feel like the message is that it's all phases, including Frankie's gender identity. She'll grow out of it.

I'd say it's overall a good show, because despite the liberal politics I enjoyed watching it. Has anyone seen it? What did you think?