FX has announced that renewals for comedy series Better Things and documentary series The Weekly for its 2020-2021 program schedule, according to Deadline. With this announcement, the comedy Better Things will return for its fifth season and The Weekly has now received second season. These two renewals add to the recent announcements from the network to renew its long-running comedy It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia for its fifteenth season, season two of Lil Dicky’s new comedy series Dave, season two of the Martin Freeman (The Office (U.K.)) series Breeders, and the renewal of the vampire-mockumentary series What We Do in the Shadows for its third season.
Better Things premiered in 2016 and has recently concluded its fourth season run to further critical acclaim. Over a total of forty-two half-hour episodes, the comedy series follows a single mother of three attempting to make it as an actress in Hollywood. Created by Louis C.K. (Louie) and Pamela Adlon (Louie, Californication), the show stars Adlon as the main character Sam Fox in addition to her daughters Max, portrayed by Mikey Madison (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), Frankie, played by Hannah Alligood (Paper Towns), and Duke, who is portrayed by Olivia Edward (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend). For her portrayal of Sam, Adlon has received two Primetime Emmy nominations for Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in addition to one Golden Globe nomination as well. Currently, there is no announced episode order for the upcoming fifth season.
The Weekly initially aired in 2019 and is produced by The New York Times as the investigative series was adapted from The Daily podcast. In its first season, The Weekly consisted of thirty half-hour episodes which depicted a different NYT journalist presenting a new feature on a topical issue in the world currently. The first season received critical acclaim with its second episode featuring the Brian M. Rosenthal story surrounding the New York City taxi companies receiving a 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting. Similar to Better Things, the news of The Weekly’s renewal was not paired with an episode count for its ensuing season.
Currently, Better Things and The Weekly are available for streaming on Hulu and are also a part FX on Hulu where new episodes air the next day on the streaming platform.