Critic Reviews

SMILF finds its resonance--comical and emotional--in a no-frills attitude and unapologetic realism. [3 Nov 2017, p.57]

You won’t spend long dwelling on the title, but you’ll want to stick with this story.

None of SMILF would work beyond the struggling single-mom trope if it weren't for Shaw truly announcing herself here as a creative force. ... Showtime looks to have found something special with SMILF.

If you’re predisposed to finding humor and humanity in the depths of desperation, SMILF delivers with crass wit, sharp insight and empathy.

Three episodes in, I am charmed by Shaw’s way of sketching her character, Bridgette Bird, in brazen strokes of absurdity and delicate gestures of woe. ... Shaw proves herself a fantastically nimble performer, by turns tough and impish.

[The second season] is a great improvement, with some of the warmth and cohesion that were missing [from season one]. Shaw and her team seem to be more aware of the themes in play, more deliberate in building the episodes toward emotional peaks instead of letting them float in place as raw, envelope-pushing non sequiturs.

SMILF remains deliciously thorny and droll in season two, even as its impending death knell resounds louder and louder with every disturbing behind-the-scenes revelation.

Shaw’s performance as Bridgette is superb, and never feels less than deeply authentic. ... SMILF can sometimes be all over the map, narratively, but in ways that feel true to life, a messiness of necessity for a woman who resists the daily indignities with a fierce determination and blunt openness.

SMILF is not quite a great series yet. But in its initial trio of episodes ... it’s obvious it has the potential to get there.

Season two has moments that are moving, raw, and imaginatively conceived. But sometimes, Shaw tries too aggressively to be edgy or darkly clever. The Weinstein evocations are one example of that.