pop culture

"Somebody Somewhere," a Show About Life—That's It.

Chuck Hodes / HBO

Published Feb 28, 2022

"I am home," were the last words of Sam's song to Joel (Jeff Hiller), which she sang to him in her practically empty barn during Somebody Somewhere's season finale. And judging by where Sam (Bridget Everett) started off this season, the fact that she was able to say those words and mean them shows how far she's come in just seven episodes.

Though she was living at "home" with her "family," neither quite felt like the definitions of those words, meaning that she would have to find those two things elsewhere—a seemingly impossible task given her negative feelings about Kansas and her disdain for her job. With nothing grounding her, she felt like she was floating in space.

The thing is, there has always been this debate over what "home" really is: some say it's a physical place while others deem it to be a mentality or a certain "feeling." For Sam, it ended up becoming both, as her unlikely friendship with Joel became her home, in addition to choir practice, which was both a physical and mental place of comfort to her. Choir practice introduced her to a whole new group of people just like her, giving her a family that would actually be there for her.

For the entirety of the season, Sam slept on the couch in her parents' house in lieu of sleeping in Holly's old room—the room of her sister who had recently died of cancer. Staring at the ceiling one night, about to go to sleep as she usually does on the couch, Sam decided to get up and walk into Holly's room. Finally lying down on her sister's old bed, she turns out the lights and the series ends.

bridget everett murray hill mercedes white jeff hiller

Matt Dinerstein / HBO

Somebody Somewhere is quiet, as its meaning lies between its words and with its title directed right towards you, the viewer: you're somebody somewhere. It reminds us of the little things that make up the human experience while telling a story of growth along the way. Sometimes we don't notice the little wins in our lives because they don't feel like "wins" to us; seeing them on-screen gives them a larger spotlight.

We live in an instantaneous world: if a website doesn't load in two seconds, there's something "wrong" with our phone. We're so used to insane things happening on screen that Somebody Somewhere felt like such a fresh breeze. One of the greatest scenes in the entire show happens at the end of episode five when Sam lies down on her couch, calls Joel, and the two immediately start talking about nothing and laughing on the phone together. Sometimes we forget about how genuinely nice those tiny moments in life are—it took seeing that on-screen to remember that.

Tracking the gradual process of one woman's journey isn't always something that's front and center in a show—usually, it's woven in by a larger plot that has nothing to do with the journey itself. Sam's journey is what the series is all about, and not even with Sam herself, as it extends past her and to those who surround her; we see the ups and down with Joel, Tricia, Sam's parents, and Rick. While from Sam's angle it seemed like Tricia had it all together, over time, it was revealed that her marriage was headed downhill as Rick was having an affair. And what makes that even worse than it already is: it was with Tricia's business partner and best friend, Charity.

Sam had spent all of that time thinking that Tricia had a perfect life, yet that sentiment was quickly proven otherwise. In that sense, comparisons truly mean nothing as we never really know what's going on behind the scenes.

Matt Dinerstein / HBO

In this same fashion, Sam and Joel flip places towards the end of the series, as Joel and Michael break up and Sam decides to quit her job at the essay-grading facility. Joel—who had been the more social one—was now left without a partner both in life and within his job. This is short-lived, however, as Sam has learned a valuable lesson in being friends with Joel: as soon as she realizes how both situations are affecting him, she drives over to his house, grabs him, and leaves, setting off to change the course of his day and showing him that even though it's the end of their days together at work, it's nowhere near the end of their friendship.

More than anything, Somebody Somewhere is brutally honest. It's honest about the truth behind perceptions, the falsity of façades, and real friendship, which is probably why the show is so hard to sum up when describing it to others: it's about life. That's really it. It's about you, me (and Dupree), and anyone else who is in the process of going through life.