On the surface, HBO's "Somebody Somewhere" and ABC's "Abbott Elementary" do not appear to be part of the same entertainment universe. The former is an ambling premium-cable dramedy set in small-town Kansas, while the latter is a cheerful network sitcom set in an urban elementary school in Philadelphia. The genial "Abbott Elementary" is family friendly, and the F-bomb flinging "Somebody Somewhere" is really, really not.
However, there is a place where the lost denizens of Manhattan, Kansas, can happily meet and mingle with the underpaid, overtaxed teachers of Abbott Elementary. And that place is right in the middle of your heart.
In the bear-hug dispensing spirit of "Ted Lasso" and the sweetly wry tradition of "Parks and Recreation," these new TV arrivals are welcome reminders that there is room in our pop-culture lives for recognizably flawed human beings doing the best they can under authentically challenging circumstances. And best of all, they manage to be very, very funny while they are doing it.
Created by Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen (both writers on HBO's weed-delivery comedy, "High Maintenance"), "Somebody Somewhere" stars real-life New York cabaret diva Bridget Everett as Sam, a would-be singer who returns to her Kansas hometown to take care of her ailing sister, Holly.
When the series starts, Holly has been dead for more than a year, and Sam is still in a grief-stricken funk. And really, who can blame her? Her job grading essay test questions is a soul-sucking grind. Her family — alcoholic mom, enabling dad, passive-aggressive sister — is a mess. She is a fortysomething woman who is sleeping on her dead sister's couch, and there are no indications that anything is going to change anytime soon.
During an especially bad day at the test-grading office, however, something happens. Sam meets Joel (Jeff Hiller), who remembers Sam from her days as the lung-busting star of their high school show choir. Knowing a kindred spirit when he sees one, Joel invites Sam to the local mall church for "choir practice," which turns out to be an after-hours cabaret for the town's outcasts and eccentrics.
Does Sam bring down the house with her slow-burn version of Peter Gabriel's "Don't Give Up"? She does. Is it the highlight of the series? Not even close.
Sam's "choir practice" triumph doesn't change her life. It doesn't get her out of her dead-end job, miraculously cure her depression or put her on the next bus out of Kansas. But when she joins forces with Joel, her life gets an infusion of joy and optimism that turns every mindless errand and coffee-shop confab into an adventure.
Not a lot happens in "Somebody Somewhere," and with Everett and Hiller leading the meandering way, it doesn't have to.
In New York, Everett is best known for her bawdy shows, which highlight her big, classically trained voice and her ample bosom. But in "Somebody Somewhere," that voice is deployed strategically, and the curves are mostly hidden under shapeless T-shirts. What we get instead is a beautifully layered, lived-in performance of a character who is bruised, defensive and angry, but also tender, good-hearted and hilarious.
The bespectacled, awkward Joel could have been yet another quippy gay sidekick, but as conceived by Bos and Thureen and played by the priceless Hiller, Joel is a man with the courage of his sometimes conflicting convictions. He is a gay man who is also a sincerely devout Christian. He has a wicked sense of humor, but he is also very serious about his vision board.
Joel knows that life's cards are not in his favor, but he won't give up. And he won't let Sam give up either. Like everything else in the well-cast, sharply written "Somebody Somewhere" (which was just renewed for a second season), Sam and Joel's friendship is a TV miracle grounded by hardnosed compassion. It's a gift, but the show won't let us forget that we deserve it.
Speaking of miracles, let us also give a warm and grateful welcome to "Abbott Elementary," a new ABC sitcom that makes good use of the musty mockumentary concept and great use of Quinta Brunson, the bubbly stand-up comedian who also created the show.
Brunson stars as Janine Teagues, a second-grade teacher at the cash-strapped, resource-starved Abbott Elementary School in Philadelphia. The idealistic Janine is now in her second year of teaching, which means her enthusiasm has been made even more disruptive by her conviction that she knows how things work now.
She doesn't, of course. And her misguided attempts to fix everything from malfunctioning lights to balky software is the little engine that drives the show's sweetly barbed takes on racial inequality, bureaucratic bumbling and the dangers of cynicism.
But sometimes, Janine gets stuff done, and the Abbott Elementary world is better for it. And even when things go sideways, her fellow teachers — led by the indomitable Sheryl Lee Ralph as the older and tougher Barbara Howard — are there to pump her up with some old-school wisdom about why what they do matters.
The show has some serious issues on its to-do list, but it checks them off with boisterous good humor and a glittery spray of pop-culture savvy. A little of the school's batty, media-obsessed principal (Janelle James) goes a long way, but any time spent with Brunson, Ralph and Tyler James Williams (as the underwhelmed sub who quickly sees the light) is gold-star material.
While the toxic titans of "Succession" and the teenaged mutant survivalists of "Yellowjackets" are getting boatloads of buzz, "Somebody Somewhere" and "Abbott Elementary" are busy getting us. It's not reality television. It's television that feels real.
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"Somebody Somewhere" airs Sundays at 10:30 p.m. ET on HBO and streams on HBO Max and other platforms. "Abbott Elementary" airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on ABC and streams on Hulu and other platforms.
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