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The series creator is Raphael Bob-Waksberg, best known for "BoJack Horseman." That show, which ran from 2014 to 2020 on Netflix, followed the exploits of a wiseacre, heavy-drinking horse (voiced by Will Arnett) grappling with life as a washout after starring in a popular but cheesy '90s sitcom. "BoJack Horseman" was barbed, surreal, and ruthless in its takedown of fame and celebrity culture.
"Long Story Short" is, ahem, a horse of a different color. Perhaps even more quick-witted, it is also gentler and more direct, largely because people take precedence over talking animals (who, let's be honest, say the darndest things). There's a defining warmth to "Long Story Short," but it never comes easy. The Schwooper family deals with death, Covid, death from Covid, addiction, divorce, and wolves at the local middle school. That is not a metaphor. There are actual wolves. Though they don't talk.
The story nimbly dances back and forth through time; an episode that starts in the year 2000 moves quickly into the year 2022, or 1997 becomes 2021 in the blink of an eye. The approach leads to inspired callback moments and jokes that pay off years down the line. It also creates feedback loops of character development, as relationships come into focus in chronological installments -- an exchange or resentment that initially might seem merely intriguing turns into a major plot point for the dedicated viewer to savor. Bob-Waksberg understands that the plasticity of animation makes it perfect for this approach; when you're drawing characters you can make them age and de-age however you see fit.
Leading the Bay Area-based Schwooper brood is matriarch Naomi (a wonderful voice performance from Lisa Edelstein). Her love language is grievance, and her grievances often come from a place of love. She really likes being the center of attention, which is mostly fine with her go-along-to-get-along husband, Elliott (Paul Reiser).
Their adult children -- Avi (Ben Feldman), Shira (Abbi Jacobson), and Yoshi (Max Greenfield) -- rebel in their own ways. All are fully realized individuals, with their own dramas, but the series really comes to life in the family ensemble scenes, which boast the rat-a-tat verbal rhythms of a classic Hollywood screwball comedy. The best dialogue here, and there's a lot of it, carries the spirit of the Marx Brothers, or Woody Allen when he was funny. A sample, from Avi: "I'm gonna miss my class on subjective idealism. If I'm not there, it doesn't exist."
We have Shabbat dinner with the Schwoopers, and attend bar mitzvahs and funerals. "Long Story Short" is very much concerned with the question of what it means to be an American Jew, religiously, culturally, and socially. But it's even more interested in what it means to be human. In telling a marvelously specific story, it arrives at something close to the universal.
And it gets there with a dark, cackle-out-loud sense of humor. Avi brings his shiksa girlfriend, Jen (Angelique Cabral), to Yoshi's bar mitzvah, where all manner of chaos breaks out. "This is the craziest thing I've ever seen," Jen exclaims. An elderly Holocaust survivor enters the frame with a quick response: "I've seen worse!" Life is long and hard, the show implicitly argues. So you'd best love those close to you and laugh as much as you can until the next argument starts.
"Long Story Short" is such a blast that it makes one wonder: Is this as great as I think it is? Some of the Yoshi episodes wander a little; his knockabout arrested development is as close as the show comes to conventional. Then his character arc turns out to be perhaps the most interesting of the series. So much for that complaint.
This somehow feels like a series that we need right now: effortlessly intelligent, open-hearted, empathetic, and without a trace of saccharine. Also, the music-obsessed Avi Schwooper has a music blog called "Schwoop! There It Is." If that's not a reason to watch, I don't know what is.
LONG STORY SHORT
Starring Lisa Edelstein, Ben Feldman, Abbi Jacobson, Max Greenfield, Paul Reiser, Angelique Cabral, Nicole Byer, Dave Franco, and Michaela Dietz. On Netflix Aug. 22.