Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/HBO Max
I’m trying to think of how to describe it, the emotional experience of watching Somebody Somewhere.
OK. So, you know how no one knows what the hell “simmer” means when you Google a recipe? Like, you watch a pan that has some stuff in it and it’s bubbling, but then it’s not bubbling—it looks fine. And then—oh no!—it’s not just bubbling anymore, it’s boiling over, and spitting at you. It’s uncontrollable chaos. What had been, I guess, simmering is now erupting everywhere?
That’s what it feels like to watch HBO’s Somebody Somewhere. It’s not a sauce (I don’t even know if I was describing how to make a sauce, god help me). But it is a show about having grace for yourself, grace for where you are in life, and grace for the hot mess you—or your sauce—might soon become.