Better Things: Season 4 Episode 6 “New Orleans” – Recap/ Review (with Spoilers)

A familiar face pops up in an unexpected place as Sam attends a wedding and falls in love with New Orleans.

Sam's Ex smoking a cigarette.

A familiar face pops up in an unexpected place as Sam attends a wedding and falls in love with New Orleans.


Directed By Pamela Adlon
Written By Joe Hortua
Aired (FX) 4/2/2020

This content contains pertinent spoilers.

Fancy Seeing You Here: Sam, Sam’s Ex

Sam heads on down to New Orleans for a wedding, and who does she end up running into? Her ex. No, not Robin, but the one she used to have sex dreams about and cheated on Robin with. Now, why is he in New Orleans? Well, his current girlfriend, depending on if Sam can woo him, is friends with one of the two groomsmen at the wedding. Thus he keeps bumping into Sam, and after a certain point, it is decided they should just hang out.

Highlights

How The Show Shifts When Sam Isn’t With Her LA Kids and Family

When Sam leaves her daughters and Phil behind, it can often be a vacation for us as much as Sam. Don’t get us wrong, we love Phil, Max, Duke, and Frankie. It’s just, they are all so consuming that you’re reminded how easy it is for a person, mothers especially, to lose themselves due to taking care of children or their parents. And as shown with Sam, she has been losing more than she has been gaining lately, so this trip was overdue.

Plus, just look at how joyous she is. Between aging and all that comes with living in LA, Sam has been drained, stressed, and sometimes it is hard to say whether or not she is just in a state of prolonged sadness or not. Something that she hides just because:

  1. Therapy didn’t work out that well
  2. She doesn’t have a person in her life who won’t flip things and make it about them
  3. People need her to be the one who has some realm of control

So to see her drinking, happy, and getting male attention! Oh, season 4 is usually some form of a soft reboot for a series, and I am SO DOWN for Sam deciding to move to New Orleans. Granted, who knows how Frankie, Max, and Duke may react, but considering their alternative is their father? I think they’ll adjust. Plus, their house in LA seems more trouble than it is worth and Sam could easily do voice work remotely and the few live-action gigs she does get, she can just fly.

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One Comment

  1. I agree with your review as presented. Loved Sam’s joyous abandon with these New Orleans people. The one omission, in my opinion, was not mentioning the wedding, especially the wedding song. This from someone who does not enjoy most wedding scenes, they make my teeth hurt. I’ve revisited this episode many times just to listen to “Those were the days,” which was so lovely – southern lovely. Sam’s reaction to it told me more about Sam than any line of script in any episode. Great show.

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