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Lennon Parham on Season 3 of “Somebody Somewhere” [1]
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Date: 2025-03-06
This year looks to bring plenty of change, and one of those variations is that there will not be a new season of HBO’s Somebody Somewhere. It’s a three-season television series of Kansans engaged in painful, relatable grappling with who they’ve become and if it’s who they want to be. And it’s delightful.
The show’s 21 episodes spend much of their time with the incredibly funny and absolutely tortured Sam (actual Kansan Bridget Everett) who’s come home to take care of her sister. We’re invited in after her sister has died, and Sam decides to stay. It’s a simple premise that somehow remains relatively unburdened by the weight of its work. The toilet humor helps, as well as the unapologetic authenticity of its people.
I’d once emceed a fundraiser with Lennon Parham, and when I saw that she’s a writer and director for several episodes of the show, I had to talk to her about it.
If you don’t know Parham, she’s done that thing that most actors would love to do: become a go-to talent for nothing but groundbreaking entertainment. She’s had roles in Arrested Development, Great Northern, Bob’s Burgers, Veep, Parks & Recreation and Mad Men. Currently, she’s voicing characters in Cartoon Network’s Royal Crackers as well as the star-studded The Second Best Hospital in the Universe on Amazon Prime. Most notably she plays Shelly in Starz network’s Minx. The fictional story of the first erotic magazine for women is a male nudity renaissance that’s received broad critical acclaim.
Today, however, I wanted to talk about nothing but Somebody Somewhere. This brilliant portrait of people on the plains wondering if they’ve peaked. We get right into this scene in season 3 when Joel (Jeff Hiller) bursts with an extremely relatable moment. He begins to cry. He’s overwhelmed to tears but, in a blip of brilliant acting, shows he isn’t sure he should be. This tiny crevice in the massive canyon of emotional extraction that comes standard with Somebody Somewhere was so good and so relatable that I needed to know the secret to making it happen.
That’s where my conversation with Lennon begins.
Jared: So there’s this thing with Joel in the kitchen. After a nice afternoon, his loving partner makes him tea and yet he starts crying, and he does this little gesture where he looks to the sky and seems to ask “Why?” as in “Why am I crying?” It’s as if he has imposter syndrome about his emotions. As if he doesn’t merit the tears. How in the heck do you direct that?
Lennon: These actors are incredible. They know their character so well. Jeff is really close to Joel. He’s not quite as precious, I guess. But I’ve known Jeff for 20 years. We used to do improv together in New York, like we’ve been in the trenches together. So most of the time I just get out of the way, or I’ll just remind him of something that he does that’s my favorite. He knew exactly what that moment needed to be, and so we just rolled.
Jared: Is it on your mind that you’re part of a brilliant thing that somehow makes me feel like I’m in the room and I’m about to awkwardly knock over some glassware. Like, are you aware that this show is at once a snow globe and a hand grenade?
Lennon: Whoa. I mean, I saw the show. I worked with Bridget (who plays Sam) on a show called Lady Dynamite. It was one of her very first things with Mitch (Hurwitz) who created Arrested Development. He was the executive producer with Maria Bamford and co-creator Pam Brady. They cast Bridget and I as this duo of terrible friends to Maria, and that was the first time we met. I remember her saying, “what do I do now? How does this work?” Even though I hadn’t been doing it that much, I was the one that had been around the block. When I started seeing advertisements for Somebody Somewhere and it was Bridget and it was Jeff…and it was Mary Catherine Garrison. She plays Sam’s sister Trisha and we went to undergrad together. I knew I wanted to be a part of it.
Jared: Which, by the way, Mary’s character’s company Trish Upon a Star is the most Bob’s Burger thing.
Lennon: Haha, yeah. I feel like it’s a master class on storytelling. I mean, I’m just kind of there to make what is on the page come to life, you know what I mean. So anyway, season one, it was already—they were already doing these magical things. And by episode three I was like, I have to be a part of this show. I don’t know how. I think I’m supposed to direct it, but at that point I hadn’t directed a ton of stuff, and so I ended up reaching out to Bridget and, through my team, I got an interview. By season two, I’d directed two of the episodes. They happen to be these really emotionally charged breakthrough moments for Sam. When they asked me to be in the writers room for season three, I cried. I cried when they asked me to be a part of it, because it’s just so meaningful to me, and there’s just nothing like it on television.
Jared: When I reached out to you, you were very modest. But just to be there seems an incredible thing. Or maybe I’m simply an overwhelmed fan giddy to talk about this insanely simple show that’s so…so right.
Lennon: I can’t really take credit for what the show is about or the tone of it. I feel like I get it deep in my soul. I understand that the show is sort of an exploration of grief; of shifting family dynamics after you lose someone. How do people settle into the space or around the space the person left? But also adults grappling with, “I am not where I thought I would be. I am not who I thought I would be. I have this special thing, but what if no one ever sees it?” Also, finding friendship in your 40s, like all of that. I understand it in my core, and I feel like because I grew up in Lilburn, GA, and went to college in Indiana, that there’s something about the small town pace of it, and found family of it, that I deeply understand. And when I read the scripts, I can see it. I can just see it happening. And, for me, this season is specifically about Sam’s bravery in moving forward towards connection, even though it is so terrifying to her.
Jared: Well you directed that shot with her and Iceland (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson as Víglundur ‘Iceland’ Hjartarson), when she pulls away from his advances, and you have them on extreme sides of the camera, and it’s just an eternity of fallow fields in between. That’s amazing. It’s weird. I know it’s a show, and I know it’s actors, and I want to be bigger, I want to be less mortal, but I’m just stretched between them, like an emotion in a custody battle, and I’m muttering, “Dammit, Bridget let him love you as much as he wants to!”
Lennon: I know, I know, I know. It’s so real. I feel like we all have that moment of bravery where you jump off and you say the thing that you’re terrified to say. Getting this show was that for me. There was a scene at the end of episode, I think, three or four, where Sam has talked to her dad about needing help with their mom’s drinking. Obviously we lost Mike Haggerty in between season one and season two, and I find the way that they honor him in season two and three is just so moving. But right after that we see a shot through the kitchen window. The dad comes in and talks to the mom, and it’s not going well. And then they pan over to find Sam watching from outside. And we don’t need to hear the conversation, because we just saw the scene, and we know what he’s talking about. And whatever was said, you know, there’s going to be movement, there’s going to be change, and now we’ve addressed it in that moment. It was similar to a shot that I had hoped to get on Bless this Mess. But it was a different show and we probably would have never used it because it didn’t have any jokes in it. But there was an ‘aha’ moment where I realized I’m supposed to direct the show. I swear it took me three days to even send the email to my manager saying I want this, because I was terrified and I thought it was crazy to say it out loud that I want to be a part of this. It’s been one of the most special experiences of my career.
Jared: Yes. It’s Smithsonian grade American history. I’m from a little town too. Really tiny. And growing up we didn’t have gay people. We didn’t really have sad people. Or so we were led to believe by struggling adults who were all of those people. The show really shakes all the BS stereotypes of rural America.
Lennon: Anybody who’s from a town like that knows that the town is full of all kinds of people, and all kinds of people choose to live there. My parents grew up in this tiny town in rural Alabama called Union Springs. It’s the field trial capital of the world. I don’t want to brag, but we just went back there for Thanksgiving, and it hasn’t changed. But it also has, because it has to. There was, for a time, an Italian restaurant owned by a gay couple, and it’s more integrated than it was. It takes all kinds. I think one thing that the show does beautifully is show people living their lives; people that we don’t normally see stories about. I think the fact that we don’t harp upon who the people are or how they live their lives—there’s something really humanizing about it. So many people are feeling seen and feeling resonance with the story.
Jared: If there’s someone who has never seen this show, what do you tell them about it? What do you tell them that it is?
Lennon: Well, I say it’s a comedy. It’s comedy forward. It’s a show about a woman who has moved back to her hometown of Manhattan, Kansas to take care of her sister when she was ill, and she decides to stay. And it’s about found family. It’s about reconnecting with your own family. And there’s a lot of farts, a lot of bathroom humor. It’s very silly and, but also incredibly deep and, and you get to hear Bridget sing, which is like one of my favorite things in the whole world.
Jared: Well, yeah, Bridget singing thing is a whole dissertation of this woman beset with self esteem issues to the core but who can just be a diva at a moment’s notice. Okay, so there’s this other thing I want to do: my friend’s dog Roscoe is in the show.
Lennon: How did that happen?
Jared: We went to college together in Durango, Colorado and now she lives in Chicago. I just happened to see her on Facebook saying her dog was in the show. And then I saw you were writing and directing. Anyway, I was going to critique his performance and then also compare it to Wesley, Iceland’s dog.
Lennon: OK?
Jared: Now I think Roscoe does a better job only because Wesley just gets to eat meat, but I think Roscoe—now hear me out—he sets the tone for the show because season three opens up and Bridget is talking to Roscoe, and Roscoe at once wants love but also wants to be alone, not unlike our main character.
Lennon: Yeah. Well, you’ve nailed it. What else is there to say?
Jared: I thought maybe you’d disagree or something.
Lennon: Well, are you a Wesley person or a Roscoe person? Directing dogs is interesting, because the dogs really have more protections than actors. There are two people on set with the dogs at all times, and they have hours that they have to work, etc, and then to be able to take breaks. But anyway, Roscoe, Roscoe was really a superstar at nailing it. I’m gonna lay on the floor now and then, just stay there. Wesley has more energy, but is very attentive. You know, the shot where they’re walking around the edge of the barn, and they throw the ball to him. We got a bunch where he, like, just really nailed it, and then a couple where he just wants to stay in the barn. So anyway, it was also very cold. They were concerned about his paws getting cut by the icy remains in the field.
Jared: I’m about to take my dogs on a walk across the frozen tundra, and now that’s in my mind. What am I doing to these animals?
Lennon: That’s a good question to keep in mind. I mean, is this a Wesley high energy show, or is this Rosco laying on the floor show? My opinion, it leans in Roscoe’s favor. Where do you stand?
Jared: Probably Roscoe, but we’re working towards more of a Wesley energy.
Lennon: Yeah, there’s not a Wesley without a Rosco.
Jared: I greatly appreciate your patience and insight with my pursuit of dog actor information.
Lennon: Of course.
Jared: With Somebody Somewhere going off the air, what’s next for you?
Lennon: I’m just pushing the show for people to watch it. I feel like people are hearing about it for the first time. I’m hoping that people will go back and start from the beginning, and kind of go on the ride, because I’m jealous of those people that haven’t seen any yet.
Jared: Well, thank you. The readers of our erotic magazine for women will appreciate it.
Lennon: Ha! You can actually still watch Minx. The first and second season are both on Starz. And it’s really good. It’s really, really good. It is a show you should screen prior to showing to family.
Jared: Thank you, Lennon. I just want to get Somebody Somewhere out there and your skills out there. Just awesome. I saw the last episode last night and cried.
Lennon: Let it out, Jared. Let it out. Thanks for watching it and getting it and loving it.
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