FX’s Better Things Ending After Season 5

Better Things is set to end after five seasons on FX, bringing an end to the journey launched by writer Pamela Adlon, who is in production on the show for a 2022 premiere date. Adlon will remain at FX Productions, though, where she has an overall deal and has been writing and developing projects for FX networks as well as (at least potentially) other Disney TV properties. The show centers on Sam Fox (Adlon), a single mother and working actor with no filter trying to raise her three daughters — Max, Frankie, and Duke — in Los Angeles. Per the series’ official synopsis, she also looks out for her mother, Phil, an English ex-patriate with questionable faculties who lives across the street. 

The series’ end seems to have been expected when the final season began production. It’s also possible that Adlon will decide to revisit the characters in another form down the line, apparently.

“I will forever be grateful to FX for allowing me to tell stories the way I see the world and want the world to be seen,” Adlon said in a statement to Deadline, who broke the news. “Making this show has been film school for me. I bow down to my crew and my cast. And I can’t wait for people to discover and re-discover Better Things. This is gonna be a wrap on Sam Fox (for now). See you at the after party.”

Better Things is one of the best-reviewed shows in years. The series won a Peabody Award in 2017, earned Adlon a 2017 and 2018 Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, a 2018 Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Television Series Musical or Comedy. The series also has a WGA Award nomination and five TCA Award nominations under its belt.