MARCH 10 • 2022 | 51

FREE TRIAL TIME, BETTER THINGS/
PAM/PIECES OF HER, SAGET DID 
DIAPERS, TOO
Very few new movies are in the 
“pipeline” to theaters, so now’s the 
time to try those premium channel 
“free trials.” On March 2, HBO Max 
and Disney+ began streaming West 
Side Story. In our “weird” times, it 
didn’t earn mega-bucks in theaters, 
but I predict that the streaming view-
ership will be huge and that may 
boost the film’s Oscar chances. 
The comedy/drama series Better 
Things began its fifth and final sea-
son on Feb. 28. New episodes pre-
miere on FX on Mondays and on 
Hulu the next day. Two 30-minute 
episodes streamed on the 28th or on 
the 1st. One episode per week after 
that (easy to catch-up via on- 
demand). 
I have often mentioned this series, 
which stars Pamela Adlon, 55, as 
the Jewish divorced mother of three 
daughters whom she is raising alone. 
Adlon co-created this semi-autobi-
ographical series. Her character, Sam 
Fox, is an often-struggling Hollywood 
actress who does a lot of voice-over 
parts. Adlon, too, has done a lot 
of voice-over work, and, while she 
never struggled financially as much 
as Fox, she had some rough-ish 
patches. 
Pamela and her ex-husband, Felix 
Adlon, split in 2010, and he moved 
to Europe. Their three daughters are 
now actresses: Gideon Adlon, 24; 
Odessa Adlon, 21, who now calls 
herself Odessa A’zion; and Valentine 
“Rocky” Adlon, 17.
The prestigious Peabody Award is 
not given to a TV series every year, 
but Better Things won a Peabody in 
2017. Here’s part of what the award 
said: “This searingly funny and beau-
tiful show is an at-times raw exam-
ination of the vicissitudes of working 
motherhood, crackling with feminist 
verve and energy, that consistently 
cuts new ground.”

Pamela Adlon wrote the first and 
last final season episodes herself and 
co-wrote two other final season epi-
sodes.
Gideon Adlon, who co-starred in 
the hit movie Blockers (2017), has a 
large supporting role in The Thing 
About Pam, a four-episode mini-se-
ries that began airing on NBC (yes, 
regular NBC), on March 8 (10 p.m.). 
Renee Zellweger stars as Pam Hupp, 
63, a (real) serial killer now in pris-
on. Hupp attempted to frame a guy 
named Russ Farina for the murder 
of his wife. Gideon Adlon, who looks 
like a younger clone of Pamela, 
plays Mariah, the Farinas’ 17-year-old 
daughter. 
Pieces of Her is an eight-episode 
series that began streaming on 
Netflix on March 4. It’s based on an 
acclaimed novel of the same name 
about a sadly familiar American 
“thing”: a guy goes into a diner and 
kills many people for no reason. 
Spoiler: He is stopped by Laura Oliver 
(Toni Collette), who demonstrates 
“violent moves” that stun her adult 
daughter. Turns out, “mom” has quite 
a past. The fame Laura gets from this 
incident could alert her estranged 
family about her location and endan-
ger her life. 
The supporting cast includes 
Jessica Barden, 29, and Terry 
O’Quinn, a Michigan born-and-raised 

actor whose best known for playing 
John Locke on Lost.
Barden plays Jane, an important 
member of Laura’s estranged family. 
Born in England, Barden now lives in 
Los Angeles with her husband, direc-
tor Max Winkler, 38, and their infant 
daughter. Max is the son of Henry 
Winkler, 76. Barden is a Jew-by-
choice. 
All eight episodes were directed 
by Minka Spiro, 51. She’s someone 
special you should know about. She 
was born and raised in the UK, one of 
seven children of an amazing couple, 
Nitza and Robin Spiro. They are col-
lege educators who founded and run 
the Nitza Spiro Center in London. The 
Center offers Jewish cultural events 
and courses in Jewish history, culture 
and languages. 
Minka, a former Fulbright scholar, 
is married to an Israel-born chef who 
often brings goodies to her TV sets. 
They have two daughters. Spiro has 
directed many “prestige” TV shows 
in the UK and in the States. In a 
2014 profile, the author marveled 
how Spiro, a tiny woman, got the 
Downton Abbey cast to dutifully fol-
low her direction. Also, as you may 
have guessed, Ms. Spiro is eloquent 
about Jewish “things”— whether that 
was discussing Downton episodes 
that featured a Jewish character — 
or directing several episodes of the 
“very Jewish” HBO series The Plot 
Against America. 
I am still shaking my head about the 
odd circumstances of Bob Saget’s 
death. However, here’s a story from 
Saget’s autobiography that made me 
and friends smile. The Olsen twins 
were nine months old when they 
started on Full House, and Saget actu-
ally changed their diapers a couple 
of times. Both times the camera was 
rolling when they, you know, and he 
wanted the twins to be dry as they 
filmed a long scene. He may be the 
only male actor, ever, to diaper his 
co-stars. 

CELEBRITY NEWS

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

ARTS&LIFE

STEPHANIE MORENO/GRADY COLLEGE OF JOURNALISM

Pamela Adlon

