Mark Schafer/SHOWTIME
Shaw, like other extremely talented writer-actors with personal stories to tell (Donald Glover, Aziz Ansari, Issa Rae and Pamela Adlon, chief among them) infuses SMILF and her loosely autobiographical character Bridgette with hurt, vulnerability, feistiness, sexiness (in a character not meant, for the most part, to be engaging that quality) and burgeoning determination to wonderful, subtle effect. Moving beyond the young-single-mother-is-hard thing, Shaw manages to broaden and then convincingly react (in her understated way) to Bridgette’s world; the deepening vulnerability and rising spirit in the character gives her a chance to shine, doing it with a simplicity that belies the emotional complexity. — TG