I’m admittedly not someone who watches every buzzy TV show. Bridgerton? Never seen it. Tell Me Lies? I’ve heard good things. Abbott Elementary? Sorry, I’m too busy watching King of The Hill for the hundredth time. That said, there’s one current HBO Max show that I can’t get enough of—Somebody Somewhere—because it’s decidedly flawless. Despite its excellence, I *never* hear anyone talk about it, and when I ask someone if they’ve seen it, the answer is always no. With the third and final season premiering tonight, allow me to wax poetic about why this show deserves your attention.
This Incredible HBO Max Show’s Final Season Is Here—and I Need More of You to Give It the Love It Deserves
Pop some corn (and fetch some tissues)
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Published Oct 27, 2024
Sandy Morris/HBO
Sandy Morris/HBO
1. It’s Equal Parts Funny *and* Gut-Wrenching
I started this dramedy shortly after it was released back in January 2022. The show centers on Sam Miller (played by Bridget Everett, who is also a writer and executive producer), a middle-aged woman who moves back to her hometown in Kansas after caring for her late sister. In a state of grief and disillusionment, Sam unexpectedly starts on a journey towards joy, confidence and self-acceptance with the help of a few local misfits.
The show deals with themes of death, terminal illness, alcoholism, infidelity and trauma, and it’s undeniably poignant in its handling of them all. But it’s also hilarious in an awkward, slightly self-deprecating and delightfully honest way. (St. Louis sushi is all I’ll say.)
Sandy Morris/HBO
2. The Characters Feel Like Real People
These aren’t polished, done-up, Insta-ready actors like on Euphoria. They look like people you’d see at the supermarket. Not only do the aesthetics of the show feel authentic (especially for small-town Kansas), but the characters are often put in nuanced situations that are uniquely funny, yet deeply universal.
For instance, Joel (played by Jeff Hiller) gets caught lightly creeping on his crush and ends up having a charmingly tense first date. Sam’s sister Tricia (played by Mary Catherine Garrison) starts selling live-laugh-love-style pillows with a nasty phrase on it in a wine-fueled rage as revenge against her former friend who had a secret affair with her husband. They could be any of us, no?
Sandy Morris/HBO
3. It Investigates the Importance of Adult Friendships
IMO, it’s often adolescent characters and coming-of-age stories that focus on friendship. Here, you see middle-aged folks seeking acceptance and desperately searching for their place in the world, emphasizing the fact that these are lifelong endeavors. Of course, we know this to be true, but it’s not often that we see examples of it in media. It puts our most shameful and timeless insecurities in the spotlight in a way that may initially feel prickly, but it’s seeing them plainly displayed that potentially allows us to be more tender with ourselves IRL.
I find it especially impactful that the characters are middle-aged. Sam is old enough that she’s responsible for caring for her ailing parents, but still young enough to flirt with her hot neighbor and get drunk on a party bus at her friend’s bachelor party. She played the grown-up as her sister was dying, but still holds a mean childlike grudge when she finds out Joel’s been keeping his new beau a secret from her.
It shows that we don’t simply grow out of these intrinsically mortal sensitivities and desires. As a 31-year-old, I find it strangely comforting to see that life doesn’t magically figure itself out as you get older.
The first episode of the third and final season of Somebody Somewhere premieres tonight at 10:30 p.m. EST on HBO Max, so now’s the time to catch up if you ask me.
