The HBO Sunday night lineup remains, even in this era of Too-Much TV, weekly appointment viewing. Succession and Barry might dominate headlines with their final seasons, but viewers shouldn’t sleep on the outstanding Somebody Somewhere. On paper, these three titles don’t necessarily have much in common, but there is no doubt the latter series is as worthy of the attention the Roys and Barry Berkman are receiving.
Family is a unifying thread, as is the fact that all three have found humor in the darkest places. Set in Manhattan, Kansas, Somebody Somewhere is a story set in a rural town that captures universal feelings like grief, self-discovery, and the need for connecting with others. Sure, there are no global-impacting mergers or hitman-turned-actor, but the experiences depicted by creators Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen remind you of the strength in finding your place and your voice.
It also provides a service airing last in this triple bill.
“We’re like the calming show before bedtime,” Somebody Somewhere’s Mary Catherine Garrison tells Daily Beast’s Obsessed. “It's such a small-scale story; it's so easy to relate to it and to be wherever these characters are, because it's all a baby step away from where a lot of us are.”
(Warning: Some spoilers ahead for the most recent episode of Somebody Somewhere.)
I have referred to the dramedy as a warm hug and soothing to my soul, but the episode I want to talk to Garrison about ends with a deep rupture. Sam (Bridget Everett) feels betrayed by her sister Tricia (Garrison) and BFF Joel (Jeff Hiller) for separate things they have kept from her. “This is why you’re always alone,” Tricia yells, before her sister stomps out of her house.
“Oh, that was really fun,” Garrison says about shooting the siblings escalating from tipsy revelry to screaming at each other. “Someone that knows you better than anybody else—who's known you your whole life—calling you out hits differently than someone who doesn't know you as well.” It is a tipping point predicated on years of them perfecting their defenses due to their mother’s alcoholism. “When you have alcoholic parents, you don't leave yourself unguarded for long, because It's not safe,” says Garrison.
That wound is deep; a fresher one stems from Sam moving home to look after older sister Holly while undergoing cancer treatment. The show’s first season begins six months after Holly’s death. Resentment radiating from this has softened over time, until Sam discovers that Holly kept her initial diagnosis secret because she wanted to try natural methods first. (Sam ices Joel out because he didn’t tell her about the guy he was dating.)
Mary Catherine Garrison.
Sandy Morris/HBOHere, Garrison talks about her decades-long friendship with Everett, the business bump her character receives from a celebrity, the real-life Somebody Somewhere loss, and reactions to the series.
Art Imitates Life
It is Tricia’s first birthday as a single woman, her daughter is at college, and the house feels even emptier than ever. What ends in an argument in the recent episode, “NMB NMP,” highlights how Somebody Somewhere expertly mixes the mundane with laughs and an emotional gut punch.
Tricia has gifted herself a high-tech refrigerator, just one of several moments in the series inspired by real life. Everett lived with co-stars Murray Hill and Hiller during the first season, and a fridge like this was the source of confusion and hilarity for all who encountered it. “Nobody could figure it out. It would play music, then somebody's text would be synced to it, and it was a mess. It was a perfect fit for Season 2,” Garrison laughs (“Watch what you say, Emma, because it could be in Season 3,” Garrison warns me). Sam grinds up on the new kitchen appliance while it plays the seductive “So Into You” by Atlanta Rhythm Section, perfectly demonstrating how easy it is for her to tease Tricia.
Before the mood sours, there is a lot of laughter. Sam makes her sister a birthday cake similar to what they had as kids. Or rather, she tries to bake, as room temperature butter is a challenge. “It didn't taste that bad, but it was hard to swallow—it was sticky. If you look closely, you see we're taking itty bitty bites,” Garrison says. Despite the aesthetically unappealing cow-pattie resembling cake that could be a Nailed It! Audition, the time and effort Sam put into it, is something Tricia appreciates.
“I love that scene because it's the first time you see they do need each other and that somewhere in there, there's something they do like about each other. You don't get to see any of that until then,” says Garrison. “They're all that’s left now, so they need each other more than they probably thought.”
The sisters have been making tentative steps toward a closer dynamic, but Garrison and Everett are already there, having been roommates in New York City for eight years. “It was domestic bliss. We had it all. I told somebody recently, if I hadn't met my husband, I'd probably still be her roommate because we had it figured out,” says Garrison. “We would watch Trading Spaces, all these HGTV shows, and the Westminster Kennel [Club Dog] show.” Garrison knows Everett “inside and out” and is thrilled about her success: “I don't know anyone that deserves it more.”
Big Cunt Energy
There’s another secret to reveal to Sam: the reason why her phone has been pinging nonstop. Tricia’s marriage broke up because her bestie and boutique business partner, Charity, was sleeping with Tricia’s husband, Rick. Their business had big “Live, Laugh, Love” energy, but it is a “Lying Cunt” cushion now blowing up thanks to Amy Sedaris. Yep, on the show, the Amy Sedaris reposted a photo of this cushion stuffed with anger to her Instagram, and Sedaris reblogged it on her socials. (Everett was on two episodes of At Home with Amy Sedaris, and Sedaris also recently moderated a panel for the series)
Bridget Everett and Jeff Hiller.
Sandy Morris/HBOTricia is not a woman who uses this word freely, nor is Garrison: “I don't have a lot of bathroom humor in my history, so a lot of this is challenging for me—even still. I can't just bust out that word.” Again, personal experience and IRL friendships come into play with the storylines. “Every time I hear that C word, there’s a part of me that’s still scandalized. I mean, it’s a lot for me,” she says. “Living with [Everett], she got me comfortable with a lot of stuff that I was never comfortable with.”
Tricia wants to expand her cushion slogans, which is where her sister comes in. Sam relishes this cunt-wordplay opportunity and busts out a song about her “big and juicy cunt.” While living with Everett, “semi-prepared” Garrison for moments like this, she occasionally struggles. “That was improvised. You try acting opposite that and see how far you last,” she jokes .(I tell her I would not last a day without ruining every single take.)
The cunt-cushion brainstorm continues this week when Tricia asks Sam to write down her suggestions, and she comes up with some new beauties like Big Cunt Energy. (Yes, I would like HBO to make this merch.) Sam also has a dynamite idea for what she should call this biz: Charity Cases—yep, naming them after the woman who kickstarted the whole thing.
Real-Life Loss and Somebody Somewhere’s Impact
One central character whose absence is felt throughout the seven episodes is Sam and Tricia’s father, Ed. Veteran character actor Mike Hagerty passed away two weeks before production was meant to start. While he isn’t physically present, it is impossible not to feel him in the writing and performance. “Talking about him is wonderful,” Garrison says when I ask about working with Hagerty. “When people pass, sometimes you go on these hyperbolic things about how wonderful and amazing they are. But he actually is and was.”
Because the first season centered on grief, a creative decision was made to write that Ed is visiting his brother. In his piece, Obsessed’s Coleman Spilde reflects on the profound impact of this choice, and Garrison says it was impossible to act out scenes reading his letters to Tricia and Sam without tearing up. “I was like, well, Tricia wouldn't tear up reading a letter from her dad. I don't think we cared because everybody knows anyway. I feel like he was there somehow. I don't know how, but he was there.”
One of Ed’s closest friends is Fred, as they bonded over the farm, which will play host to Fred’s forthcoming nuptials. This wedding celebration is a quietly radical act at a time when anti-trans legislation and discrimination are a reality, and this depiction of transmasculine representation in a rural setting is impactful.
Garrison spends most of the year in Lynchburg, Virginia (“This is where my husband's from”), and she mentions an encounter at the local Kroger after the first season came out. “This woman who I've known for a few years came up to me and said, ‘Mary Catherine, we love your show,’” she says.
She then went on to tell her that she would watch the episodes with her sister and her two best girlfriends in a Somebody Somewhere TV club of sorts, drinking wine and spending hours talking about the episode: “They've all lived here most of their lives if not their whole lives, and she said, ‘There's a whole world out there that we wouldn't know about, that we wouldn't have any access to. But we feel like there is so much now that we understand that we didn't get before.’”
She took this to mean experiences and representation of LGBTQ+ characters like Fred and Joel in this rural setting. “They are seeing that it's just one aspect of who someone is who doesn't identify as you do,” she says. “Pretty much the best compliment I could ever get.”
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