HBO’s ‘Somebody Somewhere’ begins its superb final season — break out the tissues

Opinion
By published

The under-the-radar comedy goes out with laughs and tears

Jeff Hiller, Bridget Everett in Somebody Somewhere season 3
(Image credit: HBO)

HBO’s Peabody Award-winning comedy “Somebody Somewhere” is different things to different people. For some, it’s a moving testament to the power of finding your friend group wherever you are, but especially in a small town like Manhattan, Kansas. For others, it’s a form of grief counseling, comforting you through the loss of a loved one as you watch Sam (an Emmy-worthy Bridget Everett) mourn the death of her sister Holly and begin to live again herself.

Where to stream 'Somebody Somewhere'

"Somebody Somewhere" is streaming on Max

Then there are those for whom the series is a mirror because you’re the person who’s been lost: Perhaps you’ve moved back to your hometown to care for a parent or because you were laid off or burnt out. You see other people moving forward with careers and relationships and you feel left behind, immobile. Even if you could decide what you want, your self-doubt won’t let you (cue Sam’s eyeroll) manifest it.

All that is to say, fans are deeply invested in Sam’s story and her finding her way forward by the end of the show’s third and final season (premiering Sunday, Oct. 27 at 10:30 pm ET on HBO and Max). Rest assured, she will. But not before experiencing more growing pains and margarini hangovers.

Warning: Light spoilers ahead!

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The gang’s all here

As the seven-episode swansong begins, more changes are afoot: Sam is working two jobs, assisting sister Tricia (Mary Catherine Garrison) with her wildly successful, snarky pillow business and slinging drinks at a local dive bar, and considering rescuing a dog.

Tricia is officially single and ready to mingle with any man except Iceland (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson), who’s now renting the sisters’ childhood home and family farm. Sam’s best friend, Joel (Jeff Hiller, wonderful as ever), is moving in with his boyfriend, Brad (Tim Bagley, in a deservedly increased role), and making compromises big and small. Their pal Fred (Murray Hill) is eating healthier to please his bride, Susan (Jennifer Mudge), and suggests switching the trio’s weekly brunch date to “catch club” on the baseball diamond to get in some exercise.

The writers paint an accurate portrait of messy lives in your 40s, when busy friends and siblings have competing priorities and will likely need to phone you back when you call having a mini breakdown that you decide not to burden them with at the moment. The beauty of “Somebody Somewhere” (and real life) is the mix of emotions when those talks finally happen at a Varsity Donuts: the vulnerability, the laughter, the affirmation that you are enough, just as you are.

The highlights are many

Bridget Everett, Mary Catherine Garrison in Somebody Somewhere season 3

(Image credit: HBO)

These final half-hours are filled with special moments that open Sam’s eyes to the many depths of love. In episode 2, a musical interlude at Brad and Joel’s housewarming will be the sweetest thing you’ve seen since Patrick serenaded David on “Schitt’s Creek.” Sam and Tricia spend episode 4 at an event planning expo and grow closer via potty humor that’s slightly more serious than Sam and Joel’s season 2 food poisoning (Garrison scream-acts better than anyone).

Brad and Joel host Friendsgiving in episode 5, which reveals more of Brad’s backstory and that Susan is truly incapable of reading a room. The penultimate episode finds Joel as fragile as he’s been since he watched "Mr. Holland’s Opus," and he and Sam finally have a long overdue slumber party with tinis and a heart-to-heart about the fears her new crush has raised and what’s really making him weepy.

The finale has everything you want it to: Sam and Tricia discuss their grief and relationship with a level of empathy and respect you’d have thought impossible in season 1. Joel and Sam have a chat so perfect and poignant, it will move you to tears thinking about it days later. And naturally, because showrunners love a bookend ending and the series’ pilot concluded with a poetic song, there is more music that’ll give you chills.

I don’t think Sam finding her “somebody” is the point of her journey. It’s about her finding the confidence and desire to live intentionally (another phrase she’d eyeroll!). To choose to live in this town and make a life there. To have the conversations that scare her. To let people know her and trust that she is just as worthy of the love that she’s capable of giving. She won’t give up. Neither will we.

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Mandi Bierly
Mandi Bierly
Writer


After spending more than a decade as a reporter and writer at Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, Mandi served as an editor at Yahoo Entertainment and TV Guide Magazine. As a freelance writer, her work has appeared in The New York Times, TV Insider, Vulture, Thrillist, Billboard.com, ArchitecturalDigest.com, HBO.com, Yahoo.com, and now Tom’s Guide. She is an expert on Hallmark movies, Shark Week, and setting an alarm to watch the Olympics live.