HBO’s ‘Somebody Somewhere’ Returns: ‘The Theme Was G, Double A, O: Growth Against All Odds’
“Somebody Somewhere” is a show about friendship.
It’s also a show about trying. And growing. And about a million other things that happen in the quest to find your people — wherever they may be.
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For the crew of “Somebody Somewhere” that place is Manhattan, Kansas, and over three too-quick seasons, the Peabody-winning comedy series centers on Sam (Bridget Everett), a woman attempting to put her life back together in a small town after the death of her sister. She’s dealing with a lot of self-hate, but slowly she learns to build her own community — which includes new best friend Joel (Jeff Hiller), occasional nemesis sister Tricia (Mary Catherine Garrison), and many others, including memorable turns from Murray Hill and Tim Bagley.
“One of the things I love about the show is we’re more character driven [as opposed to plot],” Everett told IndieWire. “The most interesting storytelling is just thinking about Joel and his religion and Sam and her grief. These are things that are not one and done. They live with you, and they’re a constant conversation and they’re part of who you are. You have to [explore] how that bumps up against the other people around you, and how it colors your life.”
Prior to the seven-episode final season premiere of the show on September 27, IndieWire spoke with co-creators Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen alongside writer, executive producer, and star Everett for a wide-ranging conversation about HBO’s little comedy that could — and while, never fear, there aren’t any big spoilers, all were a little wistful about the forthcoming ending. Or at least, the ending for now.
“The show is really about a slice of life,” Everett said. “It feels like a disservice to the show to button it up too neatly. I mean, who knows? Maybe we’ll get to make a movie one day, or something. For us, the characters are still living.”
The following interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
IndieWire: Tell me a little bit about being back on set after the strike on the first day.
Bridget Everett: I just felt rusty. “Oh, my God, I hope this all comes back together.” But the truth was everybody was so grateful to be there and to be working again and to be doing the show again. It was really such a grateful, gracious, fun vibe.
Did you know when you were writing the final season that it was going to be the final season?
Paul Thureen: We didn’t know it was going to be the final season when we were writing it. But that sort of didn’t change anything, because we always wrote every season like it would be the final season. All we can do is the best we can at any moment. And so every season we just did the best season that we could.
The season is so beautiful. What were the conversations with HBO about wrapping it up, and how they saw the ending?
Hannah Bos: I would just say that we wrote every season sort of keeping things up in the air. Because, again, these are sort of real people to us, so we don’t actually feel like things are ending in any way. They’re sort of extensions and learning and growing and trying, and so much of the show is taking one step forward and two steps back. So maybe things that we see in the end of this season don’t stick. Who knows? These are all very interesting, human characters that are still alive to us.
I love that each season doesn’t pick up immediately after the previous finale. You have just got to re-get your bearings and figure out how these people will continue to move forward. When you were writing Season 3, what was your thesis for this season? What did you really want to explore?
Everett: The theme was G, double A, O: Growth Against All Odds. And so we really focus on, obviously, characters growing and changing. But specifically Sam, having her push through some major emotional hurdles, fear, facing her self-worth, being scared and doing it anyway. And that was kind of the core, at least for the number one on the call sheet! [laughs]
Thureen: And we always start with real life. We want it to feel like the show needs stakes, and it needs drive. But I think there’s sort of a danger that if it feels too engineered or manufactured, it really sticks out, you know?
I’m really proud of how this season starts, because it [begins with] the idea of Sam’s friends and family being coupled up and trying to find out what her new place is [in] that world, but also for Joel to find out how he exists in a relationship. It came from some place that feels very real and recognizable, but you’re dropped in. It’s still slice of life, but you sort of have this feeling of like, “Oh, there’s this new normal for everybody, and how are they going to find their new roles in this situation?” And that’s where growth comes from, and that’s where struggle comes from.
Bos: I really like that you appreciated that it doesn’t sort of begin each season where it left off. That was something that [Executive Vice President, HBO Programming] Amy Gravitt especially was really encouraging us to start a season where we wanted. We’ve never made a TV show before! The whole time we’re making this, we’re just making something that we’d like to watch. So that was also very freeing and fun for us to imagine, between seasons, what our characters were doing, and then picking up in the middle [and] just dropping people into this world, and they can sort of hang out and see what they missed, and just jump in the car with them.
Thureen: Since you asked about coming back after the strike, it was also something that was interesting, that there was like a forced seasonal change, because we’d already shot in the spring and summer [in previous seasons], and so knowing that we were going to be shooting in the winter, we loved that idea for a different look and feel for the show. It [showed] this idea that time had gone by, and I think it’s a great shorthand for [viewers] to see this new season for these characters.
Getting to write a show for multiple seasons, I’m curious if there’s been a character you’re writing that maybe you weren’t planning on being a big part that wound up being a big part of the show, someone who became really fun to write for?
Everett: Well, the problem is, there’s too much talent on the show, so maybe in Season 1, Mary Catherine was underutilized, and then Mike [Hagerty] died right before we were going to start Season 2. And so we had to kind of scramble to realign things. And Mary Catherine [as] Tricia became a bigger part. And then this season, she’s just so fun to write for, because she can do anything and do it well. She’s so free, and she can be funny and heartbreaking; it’s such a joy to get to write for her.
Thureen: I agree.
Hannah and Paul, what wows you about Bridget’s performance? I realize she’s on the Zoom so she can hear.
Everett: This is just terrifying for everybody.
Bos: It’s very fun to write with Bridget, that’s been a total dream. It’s really fun to just make a world with her and then work on the writing, and then get to see her do it. Each step of it on a collaborative level, is like, I’m gonna cry a little bit, but this has been a dream collaboration. I feel like it’s very rare. It’s just, she always surprises me. Even though we spent so much time together working on it, I’m always moved on this deeper, higher level of how she just brings her whole heart to it. And it’s very moving to see how deep she goes, even on the comedy.
Thureen: It’s funny because your question is about her as a performer, and we’ll get to that. But I think it is hard for us to remove [the fact] we spent the last six years just talking about and making every detail of this show. And Bridget is such a vulnerable performer, but she’s also such a vulnerable writer and generator, and so thoughtful of every little detail. And I think that what she brings to making the show, she also brings to the performance. She just is so watchable. As Hannah said, just she cares so much and brings her whole heart to it. She listens and responds in a way that she just sort of shapes the whole rhythm and the feel of the show and every performer that comes in, she makes it easy for them.
Bridget, your performance is so wonderful, and particularly any scene with you and Jeff, it kills me. It reminds me of me and my friends. What’s in store for Sam and Joel this season?
Everett: First of all, those scenes are always so much fun to film. They’re very easy. Jeff is such an incredible presence and so lovable and really the heart of the show. Season 1 [is when] they’re falling in love with each other. Season 2, there’s some friction. And this is them learning how to live their own lives. They’ve become kind of co-dependent. This is now [them] set up on sort of their own paths, and how they’re trying to navigate that. And it’s not really about the conflict of it. It’s more just about how to find the harmony of it, which is fun. They’re just so great together. I love watching those scenes and I’m in them! So does that make me sound like a pig? Maybe! But you have to take yourself out of it and look at it as a producer and a writer sometimes, too.
You’re wearing many hats! This season, Sam begins to explore wanting a romantic relationship and what that might look like. And you were speaking earlier about how viewers get dropped in on this season, everybody is sort of coupled up, and Sam is looking at her life. That is something that is so raw for so many viewers. What was important to you about getting that aspect of the story right, and in Season 3 exploring romance with Sam?
Thureen: I think for us, it was very important that it’s about what it reveals in her and sort of a new way to be vulnerable. Part of the growth of Sam is the way she’s able to be there for her friends this season, but also, is she able to be there for herself, which I think is always going to be a struggle for her. So I think it’s not about she wants a romantic relationship, but I think it is about feeling worthy of love and being able to give love, whether that’s to a pet, whether that’s to your sister, whether that’s to your best friend, or whether that’s in a romantic relationship. And I think for her, the romantic relationship is always going to have the most landmines, but the answer for her isn’t this relationship with somebody else is going to fix me, but it’s sort of her being able to reckon with these things that have been lifelong struggles.
Bos: I also think it was really fun to see Sam this season use things that she has learned through other relationships on other people. I think starting the season with everyone coupled up, she gets a really sort of spend some time with herself, in a new way try some things out. Joel gets to do the same thing, but then Sam gets to come back and shepherd him in some ways when he really needs it. And that’s another kind of growth that was really exciting for us to figure out together. In the end, the truth of this show is it’s a love story between friends. … This is not about a romantic love. This is about a deeper kind of love, and that’s friendship.
Thureen: The real romance of the show is Sam and Joel. That always will be.
“Somebody Somewhere” Season 3 premieres on HBO on Sunday, October 27.
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