For a substantial part of her career, Pamela Adlon was cleaning up in the world of animation, putting her distinctive voice to good use in various shows, but most notably King of the Hill, voicing Bobby Hill, for which she won an Emmy in 2002.

She then appeared on screen in the edgy comedy drama Californication alongside David Duchovny, and recently starred in the show Better Things as Sam Fox, a divorced mother attempting to raise three daughters.

She returns to the theme of family for her directorial debut that focuses on two best friends and their challenges with motherhood.

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Dawn (Michelle Buteau) and Eden (Ilana Glazer) have been best friends forever, and Eden is there for her BFF during the latter stages of her second pregnancy.

Eden is a single yoga instructor, who ends up meeting a guy on the subway and going back to his. One thing leads to another and, well, they have sex.

Eden is pretty keen on him, but when he doesn’t return her messages, she gets the impression that he’s just not into her. This is made more awks when Eden discovers that she’s pregnant.

She would probably get stressed out at the thought of being a single mom, but knowing Dawn will be right by her side, she has nothing to worry about. But as she soon realises, life has a habit of screwing up your plans, and they soon find their long-standing friendship severely tested.

Anyone who has seen the Comedy Central comedy Broad City, will not only be familiar with its star Glazer, but also her style of comedy. And as she co-wrote this film, you can expect a similar kind of shtick here.

And the film starts off well enough, being pretty bold, ballsy and in your face from the very start, with Glazer and Buteau enjoying some nice on screen chemistry together.

But that breakneck pace comes to an instant halt for the second third of the film, where the narrative seemingly treads water unnecessarily for the whole middle section, where it becomes disappointingly generic regarding a single mum going through a pregnancy on her own.

Adlon does the best she can from her end, certainly capturing NYC well – although it would probably prove more difficult not to – but there’s nothing she can really do with the blandness of the material in the middle section.

It attempts to find its rhythm for the final third, but by that time it’s just too late, with the energy and the impetus from the start of the film all but a distant memory.

It’s a shame that Glazer didn’t stick with the liveliness the film starts with, as it would certainly help give it a unique voice. Sadly though, it just quickly degenerates into a bland story of two friends who get pregnant, with the only thing it delivers is an all too safe comedy.