Celia Imrie

On Better Things, Celia Imrie is Phyllis, the mother inside Adlon's 2010s half-hours of raising three daughters on an actor's paycheck. Vignettes of care, rage, L.A. logistics, no sitcom gloss. Imrie plays Phyllis as inherited weather: love that arrives like a note you cannot rewrite. Intimate prestige comedy, motherhood as a lived-in art film, allergic to a tidy hug.

TV Flash keeps her because the auteur hour still needed an elder who would not behave. The daughters are the plot; Phyllis is the ghost of how they were raised. On this desk Imrie is 2010s family craft — a performance that photographs as a visit and plays as the reason the handmade comedy still stings.

FX kept Better Things on the schedule 2016–2022 — the window this file actually uses. Imrie does Phyllis as supporting craft, the temperature under whatever the title card promised. Do not hunt a secret episode zero. s01e01 is listed for a reason. Sam/Pilot is Adlon's half-hour of three daughters on an actor's paycheck: care, rage, L.A. logistics, no sitcom gloss. s02e01 is how Better Things talks after it knows the assignment. September is a school-calendar open: vignettes of care after the co-credit weather, still her show.

We file her as Better Things first and Phyllis second. 2016–2022 on FX is the rest of the map. If you only jump once, jump to s05e10. We Are Not Alone closes five seasons as the auteur statement — handmade motherhood, allergic to a network hug. Keep s02e01 if you have a second hour. September is a school-calendar open: vignettes of care after the co-credit weather, still her show. The living room already knew the rest.