After a successful career as a TV writer, Carter Hodges is in a slump.
He can’t write anything, much less sell anything.
His wife has overtaken him as the success of the family.
And his teenage daughter, the one he paused his career to help raise, doesn’t need him anymore.
Then, just as he watches his wife win yet another Golden Globe award, he gets a message from his father Sam, inviting him to a funeral.
Sam’s funeral.
Eight Eulogies for Samuel Hodges asks the questions: How do we honor a flawed life, especially when that life isn’t even over yet? Who has the final say over whether you lived a good or bad life? And can providing a fuller picture of a life alter how others perceive it? Or is it too late?
For 85-year-old Sam, the event serves as an opportunity to reclaim his own narrative, warts and all, offering his family a chance to understand why he is the way he is, while simultaneously giving himself some positive closure at the end of what everyone can admit wasn’t a storybook existence.
His son, on the other hand, had long ago resigned himself to the concept of not having a relationship with his dad, eventually just saying something nice at his funeral, and dealing with it later in therapy. Alas, therapy starts now.
Throughout the course of eight eulogies given by people from the eight decades of his life, Carter and the rest of their family will be introduced to versions of Sam they never knew, from people who experienced him not just as a father, but as a hero, a confidante, a mentor, a lover, and more.
And as each member of the family begins to re-examine Sam’s life, they’re forced to reconsider their own lives as well, both how others see them and how they see themselves.
FORMAT
The limited series will consist of eight 45-minute episodes, blending humor, heart, and pathos equally as a family that has deflected confrontation through sarcasm and jokes their entire lives is suddenly faced with the ultimate reality.
Each episode will follow characters through the course of a single day, concluding with all of them gathering for the day’s eulogy given by that evening’s speaker.
TONE
Funny. Poignant. In the mold of Fleabag, Catastrophe, and Bad Sisters.
THEMES
SUCCESS
From Sam, at the final stage of his life, to Carter, currently second-guessing the choices he’s made in his, one question hovers above all the characters in the series: who is the ultimate arbiter of a life well lived? Who is to say what constitutes success and what constitutes failure? Whether it is work, family, or even just how you see yourself, are you the final judge of your success or are the people around you?
REDEMPTION
From Sam, at the final stage of his life, to Carter, currently second-guessing the choices he’s made in his, one question hovers above all the characters in the series: who is the ultimate arbiter of a life well lived? Who is to say what constitutes success and what constitutes failure? Whether it is work, family, or even just how you see yourself, are you the final judge of your success or are the people around you?
LEGACY
Are we genetically programmed to repeat the mistakes of our parents or can we break the cycle of how we treat our spouses and children? Now that Carter’s father is dying, does he owe it to both of them to try and connect with him? For a family that fears confrontation, does it do more damage to only now start trying to understand each other, or is there truth to the idea that it’s never too late to fix things?
