Binge-r #277: Somebody Somewhere + Troppo

First We Take Manhattan: Bridget Everett (Sam) and Jeff Hiller (Joel) in Somebody Somewhere

SOMEBODY SOMEWHERE S1

Streaming Service: Binge

Availability: All seven episodes now streaming

Arriving in weekly half hour episodes that are unassuming at first glance but imbued with bittersweet complications, this HBO comedy-drama has become a welcome surprise. Like it’s protagonist, the show worries about being seen, yet refuses to let you look away. Established within the tidy confines of a Kansas college town named Manhattan, Somebody Somewhere stars American cabaret star Bridget Everett as Sam, an insecure and unfulfilled wanderer. Sam still sleeps on the couch of her late sister, who she came home to look after when cancer took hold, and the unnecessary itinerancy is typical of her outlook. “Nice talking to you – probably won’t happen again,” Sam tells a neighbour, which she considers both a funny goodbye and the necessary truth.

Her lifeline is Joel (comic Jeff Hiller), a work colleague at a test grading sweatshop and former high school acquaintance. A gay Christian whose optimism comes with complications, he coaxes Sam into visiting ‘choir practice’, an undercover musical salon in his local church where he leads the band and the local queer/misfit community socialise and perform. Several episodes allow Everett to sing, which serves as an emotional barometer for Sam, who has to contend with a sister she’s constantly at odds with, Tricia (Mary Catherine Garrison), and a beloved, ageing father (Mike Hagerty) who doesn’t want to admit that Sam’s mother (Jane Drake Brody) is slipping into alcoholism. Family gatherings have currents and glances that speak of both lifelong proximity but a litany of silence – the direction catches these fault-lines and flare-ups with unobtrusive empathy.

The humour comes not from set-up to punchline transition, but the everyday exchanges, sudden frustrations, and shared consolations that Bridget experiences. Creators Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen know they’re making a midlife crisis narrative, but Sam’s self-doubt is so deeply engrained that no step forward, however rewarding, comes without the real possibility of sliding backwards – whether it’s turning on Joel because she’s scared of committing herself, or diving headlong into drama that can conveniently serve as a distraction. The show is generous to all the characters, but it doesn’t suffer for a lack of genuine conflict. Everett is such a compelling lead, revealing how confidence and vulnerability can be uncomfortably intertwined, that the simplest of outlines attract observational humour and welcome progress. Somebody Somewhere effortlessly wins you over.

The Heat is On: Nicole Chamoun (Amanda) and Thomas Jane (Ted) in Troppo

TROPPO (ABC iview, all eight episodes now streaming): This measured crime thriller is tropical noir, a mystery with mismatched investigators set in the far north of Queensland, where death by crocodile, police harassment, and unlikely alliances are all possibilities. In adapting Candice Fox’s crime novel Crimson Lake, creator Yolanda Ramke (the outstanding Netflix outback zombie drama Cargo) focuses on a pair of outsiders in a small community: budding private detective Amanda Pharrell (Nicole Chamoun) has returned after years in jail despite the disdain of locals, while Ted Conkaffey (Thomas Jane) is a former big city cop living in exile after being railroaded by colleagues. Asked by his worried family to find a missing Korean scientist from a tech start-up, the pair search for answers while slowly letting the light shine on their own pasts. In outline it’s a familiar tale, but the setting and the shades of character elevate it above the predictable. Chamoun gives a complex, fractious performance as a woman whose battle-hardened shell can’t quite stop the enthusiasm and longing for renewal from shining through.

NEWLY ADDED MOVIES

New on Netflix: Judd Apatow connects with the next generation of comic talent, directing The King of Staten Island (2020, 137 minutes), a belated coming of age drama about an aimless young man (co-writer Pete Davidson) still grieving for his lost father whose life is upended when his mother (Marisa Tomei) starts dating again; abrasiveness and ill communication are the comic-drama’s vocabulary, but it’s obviously heartfelt.

New on SBS on Demand: A quietly moving thriller about a 12-year-old Brooklyn boy (Sean Nelson) who is smart enough to see what delivering for local crack dealers means for his life, Boaz Yakin’s Fresh (1994, 110 minutes) is perceptive about environment, family and influence – the paternal figures for Fresh are an encouraging drug boss (Giancarlo Esposito) and his real father, a homeless chess hustler (Samuel L Jackson).

New on Stan: Pig (2021, 92 minutes) sees Nicolas Cage give his finest performance in years, playing a recluse forced to contend with his past when his truffle-hunting pig is stolen – it’s more nuanced and emotionally riveting than it sounds; a raucously honest romantic-comedy, Leslye Headland’s Sleeping with Other People (2015, 102 minutes) stars Alison Brie and Jason Sudeikis as a college couple who meet again at a support group for sex addicts.

>> Missed the last BINGE-R? Click here to catch up on Apple TV+’s masterful sci-fi thriller Severance and Netflix’s Australian comedy Why Are You Like This.

>> Want BINGE-R sent to your inbox? Click here for the weekly e-mail.

>> Check the complete BINGE-R archive: 367 series reviewed here, 163 movies reviewed here, and 44 lists compiled here.