Television series

Somebody Somewhere

A gentle, deeply felt HBO comedy about a middle-aged Kansas woman rebuilding herself after her sister's death, one karaoke night and quiche party at a time. Bridget Everett is extraordinary — funny, raw, unglamorous — and the show never rushes its feelings or reaches for a joke it hasn't earned. It's slow, specific, and unexpectedly moving; less a plot than a mood of hard-won tenderness.

TVMaze rating4.6

If you liked this

Reservation Dogs2021

Same generous heart: a specific, unglamorous place, an ensemble of misfits, grief handled with real tenderness and real jokes. It proves you don't need irony to be funny — just honesty and good timing.

But It's about Indigenous teenagers in Oklahoma, not middle-aged Kansans — the specifics are entirely different, even if the feeling rhymes.

Reservation Dogs poster

Baskets2016no page yet

Zach Galifianakis plays a failed clown drifting home to a strip-mall Midwest town, and finds the same sad-funny register — comedy built from disappointment rather than punchlines.

But Much stranger and sadder than Somebody Somewhere; its humor is drier and its heart is harder to find under the weirdness.

Better Things2016

Pamela Adlon's loose, lived-in dramedy about a working actress and single mother shares that same unhurried rhythm — scenes that breathe, feelings that arrive sideways instead of on cue.

But It's more fragmented and less plot-driven even than Somebody Somewhere; some viewers find its structure frustratingly loose.

Better Things poster

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Fried Green Tomatoes1991

Same engine as Somebody Somewhere: an unlikely bond between two people the town doesn't quite know what to do with, chosen family built over shared meals and grief, just filmed thirty years earlier and one closet deeper.

A Southern small-town story of two women whose devotion reads, even now, as more than friendship — food, community, and grief woven together with unabashed warmth decades before Sam and Joel.

But Its queerness is coded rather than stated outright, a product of its time — some will find that frustrating rather than poignant.

Fried Green Tomatoes poster
More like this (8)

Shrill2019no page yet

Aidy Bryant's Annie, like Sam, is done apologizing for taking up space. Both shows treat a woman's body and voice as things worth reclaiming, with warmth instead of a lecture.

But Faster-paced and more overtly political than Somebody Somewhere's quieter, more meandering character work.

Hacks2021

An unlikely, prickly friendship across generations that softens into something real — the same slow-burn tenderness between two people who start out barely tolerating each other.

But Set in glitzy Las Vegas showbiz rather than small-town Kansas — much sharper-edged and less cozy overall.

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Fleabag2016

Grief disguised as comedy, delivered by a woman who talks straight to camera about how badly she's coping. Different tone, same idea: humor as a survival strategy.

But Far more acidic and London-sharp; little of Somebody Somewhere's gentleness or small-town warmth.

Fleabag poster

Schitt's Creek2015

Outsiders forced into a small town they don't fit, who slowly build a found family there — the arc lands in the same place, just via broader jokes and bigger wigs.

But Glossier and sitcom-shaped where Somebody Somewhere is loose and naturalistic; the comparison is more spirit than style.

Schitt's Creek poster

Six Feet Under2001

The grandparent of grief-as-ongoing-life shows — a family processing death in ways that are funny, ugly, and true, never neatly resolved.

But Much longer, darker, and more sprawling; a serious hour-long drama rather than a light half-hour comedy.

Six Feet Under poster

PEN152019

A different kind of specificity — awkward, unglamorous, deeply felt friendship, played by two adult women in a story that never flinches from embarrassment for the sake of a laugh.

But It's about seventh graders, not middle-aged women — a completely different life stage wearing a similar comic honesty.

PEN15 poster

Small Town Gay Bar2007no page yet

It's the nonfiction mirror of the show's fictional refuge: strip away the comedy and the singing, and this is what building a queer community in rural America actually looks like.

A real documentary about actual gay bars in small Mississippi towns — the true, unpolished version of the community Sam and Joel invent for themselves out of necessity and karaoke.

But No jokes, no warm lighting — just plain-spoken interviews with people for whom this community was never optional, it was survival.

Manchester by the Sea2016

Strip away Sam's karaoke nights and Joel's kindness and you're left with this: the same raw grief the show is built on, played completely straight, with no songs to make it bearable.

Grief without the comfort of a joke to soften it — a man returning to his hometown, hollowed out by loss he can't outrun, in a cold coastal town instead of a warm Kansas one.

But Unrelentingly sad, with almost none of Somebody Somewhere's humor or hope — a very different evening entirely.

Manchester by the Sea poster

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