-Welcome back to the show.
I've always loved seeing you.
And I want to talk about the -- -Thank you for having me.
-Oh, come on. The series -- -Hello? Is this real?
[ Laughter ]
-No, this is chocolate. It's cake.
"Is it cake?" -Oh, yeah.
"Is it cake." -Yeah, yeah. Thank you.
-Oh, yeah. I want to talk to you about,
obviously, the success of "Better Things."
The series finale. Listen to some of these reviews.
"Hollywood Reporter" -- very important.
They say, "The fifth season of 'Better Things'
is the best TV show of the year thus far.
This show impacts the way I see everything around me."
-April. [ Laughter ]
-That's "Hollywood Reporter." "Variety" says,
"the final season of 'Better Things'
is a moment of change for TV."
"Time" magazine, "The final season of 'Better Things'
is Pamela Adlon's masterpiece."
And right now it's 100% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
Ladies and gentlemen... [ Cheers and applause ]
...what more can I say? What more can I say
about "Better Things" except it doesn't get better?
-Thank you. -And then the podcast --
-Yeah. Yes. -If you like podcasts,
listen to the "Better Things" podcast.
-Yes. We have a compan-- I wanted to do it.
I wanted to be like other people and, like, real TV shows.
So, I was like, "Let me do -- Let me do what these people
are doing. Like, a companion --"
So I talk about the whole season,
but then I have, like, a different person on.
And so, like, I just had Cree Summer.
She just did the last one with me.
And we talked about being O.G. voiceover people.
And we do, like, deep dives. And then after the show's over,
I'm gonna keep the podcast going because I want to be like
Huell Howser, basically, or Mister Rogers, so...
-But you recently just told the story about how you
filmed this season, of course, during the pandemic,
and this is when it was tough to film.
You actually filmed a lot of it in London.
-Yes, we had to because --
So, Celia Imrie, who plays my mom...
-Amazing. -...she doesn't fly,
historically, and it's not because she's a diva.
She has a heart -- -Okay, a medical condition.
-A medical reason. -Sure.
-And so she would take, like, the QE2 every year,
like the "Yentl," "Papa, watch me fly," like,
on the front of the boat.
But they weren't booking passengers.
[ Laughter ]
-The "Yentl" -- -Thank you.
-Oh, my gosh. -Thank you.
-That is so funny. -I knew you would know.
-Barbra Streisand, love it. -Yeah, and so, they weren't
booking passage because of COVID this year.
And I'm like, "I can't do a whole season --"
Because it's three generations of women on my show,
and I can't have Phyl, like, on Zoom.
So, we -- I mean, we went through everything.
FX, my network, at one point, they were like,
"We found a boat.
It costs a million dollars."
And I was like, "What?" -"Yeah, we --"
-"You're gonna put the old lady on the boat?
Can it go mid-Atlantic? Like, is that safe?"
-No, this is a terrible thing to do.
-So, then, we just eventually figured out
how to shoot her scenes all in England.
So, any time you see Phyl this season,
we're in England with her. -Wow!
And the magic of -- and they just made it look like --
-And beautiful. -Seamless.
-My production designers, the art department,
everybody worked so hard. They were incredible.
-I love the music in the show,
and I know, this season,
you start off with a little "Monty Python."
-I thought, you know, because people said,
"Are you gonna address COVID in the show?"
And I went through all these kind of machinations,
and I thought, "Maybe we'll do it in flashbacks."
And I'm like, "No, it's still going to be around."
Because, I remember, I was here
like two nights before everything got shut down.
-I remember this. -Remember?
I had the thieves spray. -I do remember that.
-I wouldn't shake your hand, but I shook Rachel Maddow's hand.
-You basically -- You hugged Rachel --
[ Laughter ] -I licked her.
-You hugged Rachel Maddow. -I was like, "No, bro!"
-Yeah, you're like, "Jimmy, chill, man."
-Yes, exactly. -And then, "Rachel Maddow, hi!"
And I go, "Hey. What am I?" I watched it happen.
Yes. -So, I wanted to come back
with hearing Eric Idle start the song.
-What does he say again? -He says,
"Whenever life gets you down, Mrs. Brown,
and things seem hard or tough and people are stupid,
obnoxious, or daft, and you feel like you've had quite enough,
just remember that you're standing on a planet
that's evolve -- evolving." Yeah.
I don't want to -- It's Eric Idle. It's not --
-No, that's brilliant.
-But it's about the bigness of the universe.
And it's like... -How small we actually are.
-...how small we are. And it's just, you know,
that people get really --
Like, everything's really messed up right now,
and we can feel really bad, but there are so many
good things happening, and you can't sit there and go,
"I can't help this, I can't help that,
so I'm not gonna help anything."
Pick a thing. Pick a thing.
-Yeah. -And then you can make a change.
-Yeah. That's what I'm talking about.
That's exactly the vibe. That's what I want.
[ Cheers and applause ]
I'm gonna be sad to see it go, but this is your baby.
I mean, you put a lot of your life into this.
-Yeah, I am grateful. -Heart and soul and sweat.
Yeah, well done. -Thank you.
-I want to show everyone a clip.
Here's Pamela Adlon in "Better Things."
Take a look.
-My head is spinning.
-I'll get you some crackers.
-Oof.
Phyl... -Hmm?
-Mom, let's take a picture.
We hardly have any good pictures on this trip together.
-Absolutely not.
My hair. -Come here.
-Don't grab me. I'm not the cat's litter.
-One sec. I love these stairs.
Just one cool --
Just stand still. -I've told you many times,
I don't like a hand on my shoulder.
-I want one cool selfie.
[ Body thudding ] Aah!
Ohh! -Sam?
-Pamela Adlon, everybody. The final episode
of "Better Things" airs next Monday
at 10:00 p.m. on FX and Hulu. -Thank you.