Ignore the name. SMILF is a masterpiece.

Frankie Shaw — who writes, directs, produces, stars in, and serves as showrunner — is a quadruple threat

Frankie Shaw and Alexandra and Anna Reimer in 'SMILF.'
(Image credit: Mark Schafer/SHOWTIME)

Ignore its name. SMILF, Frankie Shaw's show, which premiered last night, is a crusty, tender masterpiece. The semi-autobiographical dramedy is Louie meets Transparent meets Catastrophe meets Better Things, except younger and much, much poorer. Shaw won the 2015 Short Film Jury Award at Sundance for the short film on which SMILF is based. Going by the first three episodes, Frankie Shaw — who writes, directs, produces, stars in, and serves as showrunner for SMILF — is a quadruple threat.

The half-hour Showtime series makes efficient work of its first six minutes. We open with Shaw's character Bridgette holding her own in a pickup game against some guys she's just met. The Ying Yang Twins' "Wait (The Whisper Song)" scores Bridgette's victory against a gorgeous man whose smile fades when he sees her son Larry in a stroller. Bridgette is a single mother, you see. And the show's ostensible premise — and retort to its title — is that the Single Mother I'd Love to F*** is a myth. It's she who wants to f***, and it's tough to find takers.

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Lili Loofbourow

Lili Loofbourow is the culture critic at TheWeek.com. She's also a special correspondent for the Los Angeles Review of Books and an editor for Beyond Criticism, a Bloomsbury Academic series dedicated to formally experimental criticism. Her writing has appeared in a variety of venues including The Guardian, Salon, The New York Times Magazine, The New Republic, and Slate.