Season 3 of Somebody, Somewhere embraces laughter, tears, and all things Manhattan, Kansas
Photo by Sandy Morris/HBO
For a low-key comedy, actress Bridget Everett sure does a lot of crying in the third season of HBO’s award-winning series Somebody, Somewhere. The show—set in Manhattan, Kansas—has seen Everett’s alter-ish ego character, Sam, tackle plenty of personal highs and lows over the past two seasons. Now, in its final season, Sam’s emotional arcs quietly peak… crater… and everything in between.
It’s a nod to Everett’s impressive acting chops, which make her well-rounded, Kansas-personified character—mournful one second, cracking quips the next—one of the most believable on television.
Photo Courtesy of HBO
As in years past, scenes churn slowly, often lingering on characters’ reactions to the point of being uncomfortable. That stillness has become one of the show’s trademarks.
“We don’t mind sitting in a moment—sitting and feeling whatever it is that’s happening,” Everett says. “And I like that about our show—that it feels like a slice of real life, that you’re kind of sitting in a room with somebody. Sometimes there’s quiet moments, sometimes there’s longer moments. Sometimes there’s laughter through tears. It’s all of those things. And we really try to just embrace all of it to make it feel real.”
For the viewer, it shows Sam at her most vulnerable. At any given moment, she’s grieving one sister’s untimely death from cancer, navigating feeling like an outsider, and finding joy hanging out with her merry band of misfit pals, including another tightly wound sister.
Going to Kansas City
In a moment of meta-brilliance, Sam’s uptight sister, Trish, is played by Mary Catherine Garrison—Everett’s roommate for eight years. Their effortless rapport shines in every interaction—much of which has a wildly unscripted feel, including when the duo head to Kansas City for a trade show. It’s also where Trisha discovers she has an STD and goes ballistic. “Mary Catherine—as Trisha—improvs in the fourth episode when they’re in the hotel room,” says Everett. “And she says, ‘What if it spreads?!’ And that really tickled me.” (Sharp-eyed viewers will note that the off-the-cuff line became the title of said episode.)
While the show rarely ventures outside the confines of Manhattan, the aforementioned outing has them road-tripping to KC. It spurred plenty of memories for Everett, especially when we pointed out the similarities to a certain hotel near Westport.
“Oh, definitely. Going to the big city. When I think of going to Kansas City and staying in a fancy hotel, it’s Embassy Suites. It’s just all those memories,” she says. “We would go just because they had free happy hour and free breakfast, and we would just load it up. When other families were going to the Ozarks or to Florida or whatever, we were at the Embassy Suites. Thank you very much.”
Photo by Sandy Morris/HBO
The Shine of Supporting Characters
As Everett was quick to point out, many of her real-life friends and cohorts play supporting characters in the show. Even better? This season they’re all given broader, scene-stealing storylines. Take, for instance, the ever-present Jeff Hiller, who plays Joel, Sam’s tried-and-true(-and tireless) gay bestie on the show.
Thanks to Cupid’s arrow, Joel and newfound love interest Brad (played by stalwart character actor Tim Bagley) are moving in together. Good news for Joel. Bad news for Sam, who feels like she’s losing her kindred spirit. (We’ve all been there, yes?)
Much of the dialogue is painfully on point as Sam begins to feel like the proverbial odd man out. “What’s great about this show is that they let you improvise,” says Hiller. “It’s not like let’s be outrageous and wild. It’s more like—let’s be authentic, let’s be real,” says Hiller. “Let’s sound like we are friends, and we’re zigzagging, that kind of a thing. That helps. (Being friends) does help.”
Veteran performer Murray Hill also gets an upgrade this season as Fred Rococo—an agricultural soil professor with a flair for showbiz. He’s determined to get the group in better shape—figuratively and literally.
When asked who had the longest enduring friendship with Everett, Hill was quick to chime in. “We go way back. I met her when she had just moved to New York,” says Hill. “She was walking down the street, and I was with a friend who was like, ‘Hey, you know Bridget? She’s a singer.’ And literally—the first time I met her—I said, ‘Hey, hi, how are you? Want to do my show Saturday night?’ So that was it. We became fast friends—and, 40 years later, she put me in her TV show.” (Fun fact: According to Hill, out of all the cast members on the show, he was the only actor who didn’t have to audition.)
The Ice(land) Man Cometh
New to the show this year is Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, who plays Iceland—a burly, bearded bloke who piques Sam’s interest. Or does he? Ólafsson—who is a wildly famous actor in his native Iceland—was on Everett’s radar for quite a while. He matches Sam’s neurosis with reserved reverence. “Oddly enough, I did a show with him called Lady Dynamite starring Maria Bamford a couple years ago. And I have always loved him. We became friends during the show,” says Everett.
Everett adds that producer Carolyn Strauss mentioned seeing him in an Icelandic TV series. “I was like, ‘Oh my God—I know him. He’s my friend,'” says Everett. “And I thought if Sam was ever to venture down a different kind of relationship path, that he would be the one. And we wrote the part for him. We shot all of his stuff in just a few days. We were very lucky to get him.”
Photo by Sandy Morris/HBO
Everybody Gets a T-shirt!
Even though a majority of the show was shot in Illinois, Everett’s real-life hometown of Manhattan is on display in every episode—usually emblazoned across her buxom bustline. Her character, Sam, sports T-shirts from a variety of well-known local shops and eateries. “They’re just places I like to go,” she says. “I just love supporting that stuff. When I go back to Kansas, I buy all the T-shirts, and I wear them all the time here. So, I was like, let’s represent the show!”
Garrison chimes in, “And she gives them to everybody on the cast. So, we all have those T-shirts, too!”
“I’m a giver. What do you want? I can’t help it,” Everrett adds.
In many ways, Everett’s HBO dramedy has become her ode to Manhattan, Kansas. She’s become a one-woman CVB if you will. “There’s a lot of touchstones that she includes because I think she loves her hometown so much,” says Bagley. “And she just wants to lift it up, help the businesses there, and put it on the map. I just think that, in a way, it’s her love song to her hometown.”
For instance, there are countless scenes where the squad wolf down Varsity Donuts. It’s carbo-loading and catharsis at its best. “I think Bridget just really loves to have places that really are in Manhattan,” says Hiller. “And we’re the kind of characters—like, it’s not our first time eating a donut.”
“The reason why she puts it in there so much is so when she goes back home, she gets free donuts!” Hill jokes.
Photo by Sandy Morris/HBO
Short-lived Goodbyes
With the series wrapping up this season, the cast was already waxing nostalgic about how much they’ll miss each other, including the camaraderie of crewmembers. “We’ll miss this show. But these are people that I love and will always be connected to,” says Bagley. “And it’s not just the cast, it’s the crewmembers, too. We all just spent a lot of time together. We were very close. It’s a beautiful group.”
“Well, I’m going to miss working with them, but, unfortunately, they’re not going to shake me,” says Everett. “They’re all stuck with me. I talk to Murray every day. Mary Catherine and I talk a lot. We send each other Instagram memes. They’re all part of my life. So, sorry—stuck with me.”
Over the past three seasons, the show has found a quiet, ravenous group of fans who revel in Sam’s full-circle moments. The series—which has been a middling success for HBO—tries hard to tie everything up over the last several episodes. Everett et al. hope more people will discover how timeless the show is—including all its clever, subtle nuances—in years to come.
“I think there’s something about the level of authenticity this show has,” says Garrison. “I’ve never seen anything that’s like it. This is what I like to watch.”
“I wish more eyeballs were on it now, but I think it’s the kind of thing that people will slowly discover as time goes on,” says Everett. “And it’ll be something that, hopefully, remains important, relatable, and relevant—that it won’t just fade away. I think it’ll stay part of a TV cannon that people talk about. I can’t believe I’m saying that about something I did, but I do believe it.”
Season three of Somebody, Somewhere premieres on HBO on Oct. 27th.
