It’s 2004, and Avi Schwooper (Ben Feldman) is flying home for his little brother’s bar mitzvah. Sitting next to him — on an era-appropriate plane with adequate legroom and extra seats filled by casually strewn bags and coats — is his girlfriend, Jen (Angelique Cabral), cradling a CD player in her lap, half-listening to Paul Simon’s “The Obvious Child” and half-listening to Avi explain why the song is so good.
“‘Sonny gets married and moves away’?,” Avi exclaims, quoting the lyrics. “He was just born! How did he– It’s because that’s time. One moment you’re young, you’re free. The next moment, Sonny gets married and moves away.”
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It’s 2022, and Avi Schwooper is sitting in his car, alone. The brown, bouncy curls once atop his head have tumbled down above his ears, leaving just a few strays to crown his suddenly expansive forehead. Jen is nowhere to be seen, but the song she was listening to on the plane is playing on the radio. Does Avi remember their conversation from 18 years prior? Does he recognize the lyric’s intention has come to life — his life? Does he feel the same excitement over Simon’s song now as he did then?
It’s hard to say, given the image lasts a few fleeting seconds, but the poignancy evoked is powerful. Even though Avi’s expression is somewhat inscrutable, its dour contrast to his past exuberance is enough to make you reach for the tissues. Whether his life panned out as planned, whether he’s still with Jen or once again on his way to see his family, there’s a pronounced regret present in Avi’s aging; in his abrupt transformation from bright-eyed twenty-something to a silent, solitary forty-something; in the inevitable passage of time, wrought upon Avi as it is wrought upon us all.
Such a reaction, brought about so quickly, would be easier to explain away if Avi’s life was definitively a tragedy. Nobody wants to get old, get divorced, or get bald. That’s sad! But “Long Story Short” brilliantly and repeatedly embraces the idea that the tragedy isn’t found in life’s disappointments; it’s found in the fact that when it comes to life within a loving family, it will never feel like enough. What you get is largely beyond your control, and you’ll always end up wanting more.
The same can already be said about the series itself. Raphael Bob-Waksberg’s 10-episode first season is an immensely moving, blisteringly funny temporal travelogue. “Long Story Short” follows the Schwooper siblings across three decades, bouncing back and forth between childhood lodestars and adult crossroads, alongside their parents and partners, friends and enemies, children and one prominent uncle named Barry. The individual episodes engross you in an enchanting mix of absurd situational humor and customary family crises, with each nestled closely next to poignant reminders of time’s passing.
It’s a savvy, almost inevitable structure for Bob-Waksberg to embrace, who’s always loved classic TV sitcoms and long marveled at the tricky nature of time. Be it his landmark Netflix original series “BoJack Horseman” — which often mined BoJack’s thorny past for clues to his present tumult, never better than in the Season 4 episode, “Time’s Arrow” — or the time-bending magic trick that was “Undone,” the writer keenly identifies the power of accumulated experiences, especially as it applies to TV.
Why do people endlessly rewatch “Friends” and “The Office” if not to exist in a frozen stretch of pure joy? And why do those silly comedies carry such intimate significance for us if not for how long we’ve spent with them in our living rooms, season after season, year after year? Time is one of television’s unique advantages as a medium, just as animation is an ideal medium for depicting temporal shifts without distracting makeup or CGI.
Rather than mine nostalgia by resurrecting the past (as Hollywood loves to do these days), “Long Story Short” starts from scratch, building connections by telling a story uniquely unburdened by answering the question, “What happens next?” so much as it’s doubly invested in the significance of each and every happening, minor and major, even the goofy ones — especially the goofy ones.
For instance, in between Avi’s 2004 plane ride that starts the episode’s main arc and its last-second flash-forward to 2022, the premiere revels in the rapid wordplay of a gentile girlfriend meeting a vibrant Jewish family and the general tomfoolery of a jubilant bar mitzvah. Jen tries to make a good impression with Avi’s mom, Naomi (Lisa Edelstein), by bringing her a vase, but all the put-upon mom can see is another thing for her to do. (“My parents taught me to never show up empty-handed,” Jen says. “So you show up empty-vased!,” Naomi quips back.) Elliot (Paul Reiser) is well-meaning and kind, but he’s completely bowled over by his wife, and thus unable to offer the overwhelmed Jen any shelter.
Avi doesn’t fare much better. The chaos of the Schwooper household is normal to him, and he quickly falls into familiar patterns: bickering with his younger sister, Shira (Abbi Jacobson); ignoring his wacky baby bro, Yoshi (the bar mitzvah boy); and letting his mother alternate between fawning over her beloved son and making him feel guilty for, well, everything.
But “Long Story Short” isn’t beholden to any one perspective. Subsequent episodes are positioned behind Shira, as she tries to start a family with her wife, Kendra (Nicole Byer), or maniacally preps for a school pot luck. Other entries center Yoshi (and thus Greenfield’s jaunty, vulnerable vocal performance), as he goes on a spontaneous first date across San Francisco or has to hide a sizable secret from his entire family. Each half-hour episode starts with a scene from childhood that frames the events to come, the bulk of which take place when the kids are at various stages of adulthood.
There’s a twist to the formula here and there, like when we get a brief glimpse of Naomi’s upbringing to better contextualize her own parenting style, and future seasons could benefit from a bolder, less chronological approach to time’s odd little loops and pivots. But as a foundation, the first season tills fertile ground with rich initial results. The cast is excellent, with Greenfield and Edelstein as stand-outs (and Reiser an exciting, underutilized option for Season 2). The humor is clever and sharp, with a half-dozen jokes per half-hour guaranteed to elicit a chuckle or more. (Just wait for the Gary Oldman line in Episode 5.)
And the animation, designed by “BoJack” producer and “Tuca & Bertie” creator Lisa Hanawalt, is an adventure all its own: Big, block colors and blurred background characters put extra emphasis on the leads and their chosen priorities, but a treasure trove of subtle jokes and telling details lie tucked away behind those focal points. (There’s a “Rats” play poster, a la “Cats,” that feels ripped straight from Princess Carolyn’s office.) The lighting and movement, framing and staging, all keenly evoke memories. Sometimes you’re straining to put all the details in place, sometimes you’re enmeshed in a fully-realized flashback. But no matter what, it’s easy to get swept away.
In “Long Story Short’s” first scene, it’s 1996 and the family is driving home from Naomi’s mom’s funeral. Avi tries to comfort his grieving (read: irritable) mother by saying at least his grandmother and grandfather are together again in Heaven. But Naomi isn’t hearing it. “Jews don’t believe in Heaven,” she says. “For Jews, we focus on this life,” Elliot says, eager to comfort his kids without lying to them. “You don’t lead a good, meaningful life for some reward later. You lead a good, meaningful life so that you… lead a good meaningful life.”
Watching the series, it’s easy to appreciate the value of a good and meaningful life. By the time the finale circles back to 2022, expanding on Avi’s reflective moment in the car, it feels like you’ve known the Schwoopers forever, yet can’t get enough. It doesn’t matter if he’s still married or long divorced, if he’s on his way to see his family or about to move away. You want him to be happy, of course, but what you really want, knowing where that happiness stems from, is a little more time.
Grade: A-
“Long Story Short” premieres Friday, August 22 on Netflix. All episodes will be released at once. Season 2 has already been renewed.
