Long Story Short Review

As someone who firmly believes that BoJack Horseman is one of the greatest television shows of the 21^st century (and probably of all time), I was beyond excited to hear that BoJack’s creator and showrunner Raphael Bob-Waksberg was back at Netflix with a new series. Sure, there aren’t any anthropomorphized characters in this one – it’s strictly starring cartoon humans – and it’s not a satire aimed at Hollywood, but Long Story Short is (for my money) easily one of the best shows of the year.

Telling the story of the Schwooper family in a non-linear, time-hopping manner, the series manages to hit on a host of universal truths that will hit home for most folks. While I’m not Jewish (unlike the Schwoopers – whose Jewishness factors into the storytelling in crucial ways without ever feeling exclusionary toward a non-Jewish audience), I certainly understood the push and pull of parents wanting their kids to stay connected to their religious heritage – and the quiet disappointment when that doesn’t happen. Or the less-than-quiet disappointment when a child grows up to not mirror the person their parents wanted them to be – from simple things like not wanting to dress the way the parent would prefer to not having the life they envisioned for them. There’s a universality to parental guilt and disappointment – both real and imagined by children – that sits at the heart of this well-crafted story.

The Schwoopers – parents Naomi and Elliot (a great Lisa Edelstein and Paul Reiser) and kids Ari (Ben Feldman), Shira (Abbi Jacobson), and Yoshi (Max Greenfield) – are such an interesting, complex set of characters that you get to the end of the season still wanting to know more about what really makes them tick and just how they got to where they are (despite everyone getting their fair share of screen time). And the storytelling choice of having the narrative jump around throughout their lives (although all jumps within each episode track with that particular story being told) allows the story to feel almost like looking through a photo album or listening to someone recount how they got from Point A to this exact moment in time. And the more we learn about each character, how particular relationships were impacted by particular moments, how regrets led to choices that led to them becoming who they are in the present, the unspooling of that narrative over the course of the season is a masterstroke of writing.

It’s rare that I come across a series that grabs me from the opening moments – in this case, the Schwooper family, in the car, coming home from the shiva for Naomi’s mother – and keeps me hooked until the final moments of the season finale (which, perhaps unsurprisingly for those of us who loved BoJack, circle back to that opening scene of the season in a truly spectacular call back). For a show about the ever-changing nature of family, the deep feelings of love and loss, and how you can think you know and understand those within your family only to realize that, aside from the fact you all share DNA, you’re pretty different people, there’s so much hidden within the basic episodic framework that this is a show where you can watch it multiple times and still get something new. And yes, there are some really stellar visual gags in the background, as well.

I honestly don’t want to get too much into the ins and outs of the story being told, because so much of what felt amazing about the series was getting to watch each episode reveal the pieces of character development and history slowly. But suffice it to say, I cannot recommend this series highly enough. I laughed, I cried, and I identified a bit too much with Shira. But, most importantly, I was able to take away a couple of life lessons that I think I’m going to use in my own life. The best art, after all, tells us a bit about ourselves while telling its story. And Long Story Short is a truly special piece of art.

Long Story Short is streaming on Netflix. All ten episodes are available.