Why it's easy to love Somebody Somewhere
Make time for this gem of a show.
There are a few things you learn as you age, and one of the big ones is that humans are messy. We might imagine we’ll all get to a point where we know enough about ourselves and the world that it means we won’t hurt anyone. But that doesn’t happen - we can get better at how we interact with and treat people (and ourselves), but being human means knowing that you will always make mistakes, despite - and sometimes even because of - your best efforts.
Across its three seasons, Somebody Somewhere, the US TV show that’s available to watch on NOW TV, has shown us it knows this. Its writers know that humans are messy, prone to failure, and our own worst enemies. They also know that by the time you get to your forties you’re trying to figure out your life trajectory while dealing with the fact you might not be where you imagined you’d be, or while trying to deal with your friends being on a totally different trajectory to you.
I love this show. I’ve been suffering through an annoying, energy-sapping dose of a cold this week, and yesterday took time out to watch the entirety of the latest season (each episode is just under 30 minutes long). The emotions I went through watching it went from joy to hilarity to poignant sadness; it manages to encompass the full spectrum of human experience through the stories of a small group of people in a small town in Kansas.
On the page, I have nothing in common with its protagonist, a potty-mouthed 40-something called Sam (played by the incredible Bridget Everett) who works in a bar, grew up on a farm and has a particular gift for belting out power ballads. She lives in a world of cornfields and drive-in ATMs, of church meetings and shopping malls.
One of the most subtle yet telling elements of the show is Sam’s wardrobe, filled with slogan t-shirts and plain shorts she picked up somewhere like Target. She does not lead a showy life, but you can sense that she has the talent and personality for a big life in a bigger city. While this echoes Everett’s own life (only she went to New York City and became a cabaret star), it feels like an echo too of how many people live, not quite seeing their own potential and finding it hard to push beyond their comfort zone. It feels like a deeply real situation to be in.
So though Sam and I - and Sam and you - might not seem similar on the page, we could have plenty in common. We’re humans who have messed up, who have loved people, who have lost people (Sam’s sister, Holly, has died by the time the first episode begins), who struggle to figure out who we are sometimes, and who feel gloriously ourselves other moments. We might want to always be our best selves, but not always get there. We might have petty fights with our family members, or say things to friends that we wish we hadn’t.
Somebody Somewhere is easy to love because it knows all of these things about Sam, but it never judges her. It allows her to learn. It also allows her to bitch about people, to change her mind, to argue with her sister. It allows her to form a community with a group of people, to find support and friendship and maybe even romantic love.
At its core this is a show about friendship, and about being seen as you are by your friends and loved ones. It can be hard being seen as you are. Who wants to admit that they’re less organised and confident than they seem and are actually more sensitive, chaotic or unsure than they appear on the outside? And yet true friendship is where you get to be seen as you are, and the person still sticks around. Maybe they try to help you find your way through all these things.
The central friendship between Sam and Joel (played with such sensitivity by the wonderful Jeff Hiller) is a true love story, and that’s another thing that draws in fans to Somebody Somewhere. We see that in loving each other, they are bound to cause each other pain. When Joel finds a boyfriend and moves in with him, Sam is both happy for him and sad over what she will lose. Who hasn’t felt the bittersweet pinch of seeing a loved one blossom, knowing that you will be losing a tiny part of them?
There’s an element of Somebody Somewhere which is about being an outsider, a person who doesn’t quite fit in with what society expects of people like you. Sam gets embraced by the town’s queer community, who provide a welcoming second family to her. They show her what it’s like to be radically inclusive, helping to nudge her out of her self-consciousness and into being more of her true self (read: bawdy and absolutely gas craic).
While the characters in Somebody, Somewhere gently change and evolve, the stakes across the three series seem lower than your typical TV show. There are no explosions or major mysteries, and the drama in an episode might involve deciding whether to adopt a dog or not. But really, what its characters are dealing with do indeed have high stakes: surviving infidelity and divorce; addiction; deciding whether to have children; parents getting older. As a viewer, you feel the high stakes of the characters’ arcs because you have likely been through some of these things.
There’s a struggle for Sam in figuring out what she actually wants in life, and why she might not want marriage, children, or a partner. But at the same time, the show celebrates that her choices aren’t typical choices. They are her choices, and she is free to be conflicted about them, to revel in them, or to change her mind.
Meanwhile her sister, Tricia (Mary Catherine Garrison - amazing), can be deeply annoying and condescending, but we realise she is also trying very hard to appear to have it all together, even when she very much doesn’t.
And Jeff, lovely Jeff, is a gay man with a deep religious devotion who sees the good in everyone. He’s one of the few flawless characters, who it’s hinted at in season three has deeply suffered at the hands of others, but never lost his positive outlook on life. He’d just bring you to tears.
Somebody Somewhere is deeply human, and I really urge you to watch it if you haven’t. It’s funny, often quite silly and even slapstick, but it can be profound in what it says about negotiating relationships, self-confidence and life. It’s an absolute gem of a show.
Sadly, it hasn’t been renewed, although Bridget Everett would love to bring the characters back again. But what a treat it has been to have it on our screens.