Quiet Comedy: Somebody Somewhere and Rothaniel

I have been spending a lot of time catching up on TV shows and have a slew of recommendations headed your way. To ease you in, let's start with two small, wonderful, heartfelt comedy gems. One is a sitcom, and one is a stand-up special, but both will find ways to make you laugh and break your heart.

Somebody Somewhere: Set in the small town of Manhattan, Kansas (not my Manhattan), for seven episodes you will follow Sam (the brilliant Bridget Everett) who moved back to her hometown to take care of her sister, but is now at loose ends following her death. She is a little bit aimless, going through a midlife crisis in her 40s and frustrated that she doesn't quite know what she should be doing with her life, but as the series progresses, she slowly starts to discover people and things that make her happy. There's her wonderful friendship with co-worker Joel (the marvelous Jeff Hiller) and her tenuous relationship with her sister, Tricia (Mary Catherine Garrison), and her parents, Mary Jo and Ed (Jane Drake Brody and Mike Hagerty), which go through peaks and valleys as she tries to sort out what exactly she wants and needs from these people.

This show is quietly funny and quietly devastating, a look at how people can be both kind and cruel to each other but are essentially just stumbling along trying to do the right thing. Created by Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen, it is also produced by the Duplass brothers, with Jay Duplass directing some episodes. It reminded me so much of watching their movie Jeff Who Lives At Home, which was also a sweet surreal film about finding your place and discovering your purpose. These are difficult questions that I wrestle with daily, so any time I can find pop culture that deals with it in a deft and funny way, I'm sold. The familial relationships are all tangled up in keeping secrets and keeping things private, but there's a wonderful throughline about chosen family and getting the right people around you so that you finally know how to ask for help when you need it. Given how short and sweet this show is, I can't give away much plot, but all I can say is that you need to let it wash over you.

Rothaniel: Settle in for a topsy-turvy hour of secrets and revelations. Comedian Jerrod Carmichael sits down on a stage and tells us a captivating story about his family, how he was raised, secrets he has kept, and secrets he will no longer be keeping. If you have seen or heard anything about this special, it's probably about how this is the hour in which Carmichael comes out as gay, but that revelation is only the beginning of what makes this show so special. Instead, what's more important is how that news is received, by his family, by his friends, and even by this audience that he is currently telling this story to. 

The special is directed by Bo Burnham (who made the devastatingly great Inside), and despite it featuring a man on a stage telling "jokes" to a room full of strangers, it feels intimate and personal. Audience members routinely talk to Carmichael, asking him how he feels, if he wishes he had done things differently, or offering up words of encouragement and reassurance. The show doesn't quite feel like comedy, it feels like catharsis; it reminded me of Hannah Gadsby's groundbreaking Nanette, which was yet another show where a comedian came to grips with who they were and took the audience on a sometimes uncomfortable but thoroughly revelatory ride. So check out Rothaniel. It's a wise, moving, funny, and eye-opening hour.