When watching the first handful of episodes of FX’s new comedy Better Things back-to-back, you’ll notice an unusual pattern. The show—about actress and single mom Sam (Pamela Adlon), her three daughters, her mother, and her friends—is largely populated by women, sure. But when male characters do appear on the fringes—as fictional cab drivers, doctors, teachers, TV writers—they are almost all portrayed by non-white actors. And that’s no accident. When asked about how few white men appear on the show, Adlon (who also co-created, -wrote, and -directed the series), boisterously yells “YEEEEEES,” in the warm, crackling voice familiar to fans of her work on Californication, Louie, and King of the Hill.

But there’s no malicious agenda here. Adlon tells Vanity Fair that she’s simply created a fictional world that looks very much like her own—and for this woman, who has navigated the world of Hollywood for three decades, that world is “very gay and very colorful.” And very female.

White actors do pop up on Better Things; great comedians like Zach Woods, Diedrich Bader, and, in a very brief and hilarious self-lampooning appearance, David Duchovny all put in appearances. But in the episode where Duchovny essentially has a glorified cameo, it’s guest star Lenny Kravitz who gets the lion’s share of screen time.

Of course, though he may not appear on-screen in the first few episodes, there is one white actor who is vital to the existence of Better Things. Adlon’s close friend and collaborator Louis C.K. helped develop, write, and direct the show—and though the perspective of the series is wholly hers, Adlon says she learned “everything” from him. Much like Louie, Better Things is unflinchingly honest and autobiographical; Adlon herself is the single mother of three girls, and like Sam, she struggles and triumphs every day trying to navigate an industry that consistently undervalues women her age.

The broader strokes inspired by real life are obvious, but once you dig a little into Adlon’s past, it’s clear that the show leans on even tiny details to create a wholly authentic, emotionally rich world. In a later episode, for example, Adlon is seen in a makeup trailer kitted out to look like an alien that bears a suspiciously striking resemblance to a character she actually played in a 1989 episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. That level of specificity imbues the more resonant elements of the series, whether it’s the antagonistic-yet-loving relationship Sam shares with her daughters or an absolutely devastating sequence from the pilot that involves something as seemingly simple as an unanswered text.

But like Louie before it, Better Things manages to dive deep into the realm of melancholy without ever veering into bitterness. Adlon is frank and self-aware when discussing her show: “I’m talking about being invisible, feeling like as a woman, a single mom in my 40s, that men just don’t look at you,” she says without rancor. “Men just stop basically looking at you. I have friends who date or go on dating Web sites, and it’s like, ‘What am I going to do?’” Jokingly throwing out ideas for a dating profile, she offers, “’You might recognize me from TV,’ or, ‘Do you like King of the Hill? Hey, let’s go grab a drink.’ I live in LA. Tough.”

And just as Louie is occasionally a sharp exploration of the world of stand-up comedy, Better Things is as much a critique of the dysfunctional film and TV industry as it is a bittersweet exploration of Sam’s family and romantic life. Plastic surgery, over-the-top scene work, voice-over jobs, and frustrating auditions—where Adlon is joined by fellow crackle-voiced actresses Julie Bowen and her doppelgänger Constance Zimmer—add up to paint a picture of Hollywood that is both loving and damning.

But at its core, Better Things is about the aspect of Adlon’s life that forced her to take a small step back from her career for many years: motherhood. “I had to say no to a lot of opportunities and things to focus on my girls for many years,” Adlon admits. But raising her three kids—who are, in real life, a little older than the young actresses on the show—helped Adlon prepare to step into her biggest role yet as a female show runner at the male-dominated FX.

“Anything that was a scary concept to me before, like directing or being my own show-runner, just fell away” she says. “It was kind of a seamless transition because I’m a mother at heart anyway, so this was kind of a no-brainer.” So, is raising a show just like raising a kid, then? “Oh God, yes. Every single obstacle that was thrown in my direction, my preparation has been being a single mom of three girls. Without a doubt.” Now that’s something you don’t often hear in Hollywood.

Better Things premieres Thursday, September 8 on FX.