"Somebodies"

”Somebodies” does a very good job of laying out the characters and tone in its pilot; it’s pretty obvious to the audience that the show explores the cultural and racial aspects of a black man trying to graduate from college. Although I am usually not a big fan of sitcoms, I think I liked “Somebodies” because of the Athens backdrop, but to your average viewer, I feel that the show would not be as engaging. I felt that the show played heavily on racial stereotypes and featured only stock characters (I know that most sitcoms do this too, but it doesn’t make any tv show better). The show was humorous, and the episodes did a good job of intertwining multiple story lines.

As far as creating an “arc” goes, a major aspect of “Somebodies” that I really saw as having the potential to be carried throughout multiple seasons was the relationship between Scottie and Diva. Much like the relationship between Ross and Rachel in “Friends”, that between Scottie and Diva could serve as an overarching storyline while remaining simple enough so that each episode could stand alone.

As a whole, the show was funny but didn’t really seem to be about anything all that extraordinary. Jokes based on stereotypes or digs at other characters may be funny, but I felt like the first few episodes didn’t really show me where the show was going.