More Manhattan, more K-State, and even a few surprise cameos from local folks.
That’s what viewers can expect in the second season of Bridget Everett’s acclaimed HBO series “Somebody, Somewhere.”
Everett, an actress, singer and comedian who grew up in Manhattan, said the show is inspired by her life in Kansas. She graduated from Manhattan High in 1990 and went to Arizona State on a music scholarship before moving to New York to work in show biz.
The series imagines what her life might have been like if she had come back to her hometown. Everett plays Sam, who last season was rocked by the death of her sister. This season, she’s trying to build a life as she moves in with her best friend, Joel, played by Jeff Hiller. Both find joy and support in the new arrangement.
“Sam and Joel start off the season, and they’re very intertwined, they’re kind of codependent,” Everett said during a video call with Hiller and The Mercury. “You know, you don’t always get to see a couple of people in their 40s — and you don’t know because I don’t know how old you are, but you look young — you don’t always get to see people later in life finding new friends and falling in love with each other as friends. They’re in it lock, stock and whatever you call it.”
That closeness can cause problems at times, they said.
Everett said Joel is able to love more than one person at a time, but that’s something Sam is still working on.
“And I think they’ve maybe gotten so close that they’re close at the exclusion of others,” Hiller added. “So when others intrude on their love, there might be a little friction.”
Everett said she and the show’s writer-creators, Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen, didn’t want the story to focus on a typical “woman finds man.”
“This is about the beauty of friendships and how they can unlock you, which is really special,” Everett said. “I know it’s not the only show about friendship, but it’s my favorite show about friendship.”
The new season premieres April 23, and Everett told The Mercury in a video call that the audience will see more Little Apple touches this year.
The first is a new character, Darlene Edwards, who is Sam’s voice teacher.
“She’s named after two voice teachers: Darlene from college and Jennifer Edwards from high school,” Everett said. She said she saw Edwards when she came back to Manhattan for Bridget Everett Day, the event Manhattan threw in her honor last spring. “As soon as I saw her, I just started crying.”
Like last season, music plays a big part Sam’s story as it does in Everett’s life. Her mother, Freddie, also was a music teacher.
The opening scene of Season 2, she said she’s wearing an Auntie Mae’s shirt (it says the Wiener Hole), she said.
“We’re trying to represent,” she said. “You even see, my brother’s in it for a hot second, running up the middle school steps. My best friend Stephanie (Grynkiewicz) Weis, we get a glimpse of her. They’re both in the trailer; they don’t know that yet.”
(She told us we could share that info.)
“Let it rip,” she said. “It might make my brother watch it, if he knows he’s in it. I will say, Brad (Everett, general manager of Hilton Garden Inn) is the first person to text me after every episode, which is very sweet.”
The first season of “Somebody, Somewhere” included lots of purple but no actual shots of K-State. Everett said viewers this viewers might hear some K-State music and see campus buildings like Call Hall.
“You might see some Konza Prairie, you might see some sunflowers,” she said. “You might see some local businesses, you might see some Reed and Elliot (Jewelers), Glenn’s Music.”
Everett said she loves representing her home state on the show.
“It was very important to me to get the Kansas right, or as much as possible, you know I haven’t lived there for a minute but I try to get back there,” she said.
Everett said she’s hopeful the show will have a Season 3 and beyond.
“If not, I’m coming back and getting a job at Varsity Donuts, and you can’t take that away from me,” she said.
