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Today's series takes place in
Manhattan
, the real place where
Bridget Everett
, its protagonist, was also born.
But that Manhattan is not the same as always.
Somebody Somewhere
takes place in
Manhattan
, Kansas, a town of about 50,000 inhabitants that could not have less to do with the New York island of
Billions
,
Girls
or
Succession
.
In Manhattan, Kansas,
life goes by slowly, dreams are just that and the only option to achieve them, which would be to flee, doesn't exist
.
When
Sam
(Bridget Everett) blurts out this point-blank truth to his friend
Deella Joel
(
Jeff Hiller
),
Somebody Somewhere
confirms what it is: a drama.
That the trajectory of its protagonist has to do with comedy, that we perceive it a priori as "a funny fat girl" (that stinky narrative trope), is one of the most intelligent decisions of the series.
On the other hand, the fact that Everett appears in the list of executive producers of
Somebody Somewhere
points to something we already knew: for someone like her, it is important to be part of a project from the inside.
In that list of producers of the HBO Max series are also the brothers
Jay
and
Mark Duplass
, promoters of some of the most stimulating fiction in recent years.
Created by
Hannah Bos
and
Paul Thureen
,
Somebody Somewhere
is
a story of losers who live in a place whose name is constantly reminded of them
.
Kansas's Manhattan is 10 times less densely populated than
New York
.
Its range of opportunities, work, personal and leisure, is proportional.
That their outcasts build a small place of true freedom there is a feat.
A small feat.
Because in
Somebody Somewhere
everything is small.
Except its protagonist.
The series begins with a Sam in the midst of a midlife crisis and in full mourning for her dead sister.
That's when she befriends Joel, someone who we don't know if she has the best ticket to leave Kansas behind or the biggest acceptance that her whole life will take place in bad Manhattan.
Inclusion is that a series is starred by a fat 50-year-old woman.
And decency is referring to Sam and Bridget Everett that way.
Nothing about "a woman of a certain age" or, worse yet, "a non-normative physique."
She, no matter how depressed she is, will make some great jokes about these euphemisms
.
And she, at the same time, will understand that sometimes it is better to wait a bit before calling things by her name.
The quirky gang she meets through Joel would make a lot more sense in New York, where her identities would be a pride and a banner.
But in Manhattan, Kansas, it's not so easy.
However,
Somebody Somewhere
doesn't dwell on the Sams and Joels' obstacles in a deep American town (stinking narrative trope), but instead questions why she's wrong or if he really accepts such a mediocre fate.
Therein lies the ambition of
Somebody Somewhere
that, like his characters, the last thing he wants is to be embarrassed.
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