Stream It Or Skip It: ‘This Close’ On Sundance Now, A Dramedy About Two Best Friends Who Happen To Be Deaf

One of the genres that streaming networks seem to excel at is the relationship comedy. It doesn’t matter if it’s a romantic relationship or just two BFFs, every streamer has a signature show or two where a man and a woman talk about love, life, happiness and pain. Sundance Now’s series This Close is a pretty typical relationship show with a twist: the lead characters, and the actors who play them, are deaf. Yes, it’s a groundbreaking show, but is it good?

THIS CLOSE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Shots of an art table, and a bearded main plaintively dragging on a joint. Those shots are interspersed with shots of a put-together woman methodically packing for a trip. As she puts on an earring we see a hearing aid in her ear.

The Gist: Kate (Shoshannah Stern) is accompanying her best friend, Michael (Josh Feldman) on a trip to Seattle for a bookstore appearance where he’ll talk about his hit graphic novel. She’s a publicist but has no clients yet because she feels she “isn’t ready.” She just got engaged to her boyfriend Danny (Zach Gilford), but is afraid to tell Michael because he just had a painful breakup with his boyfriend; they were also engaged.

Oh, and by the way, both Kate and Michael happen to be deaf. Michael uses sign language to communicate, which means he tends to talk to the hearing public via interpreters. When the owner of the bookstore hits on him, his visible discomfort is etched across his face, and not just because the store’s interpreter is signing the flirting. Kate has the hearing aid and talks to hearing people, but she’s much more comfortable signing, and she’s really comfortable with Michael, who she tries to get in the “let’s get you some strange!” mode while they wait to board the plane.

Of course, hearing people treat them like you’d expect; at the airport, the gate agent talks loudly and slowly to them and they get put in wheelchairs because they asked for early boarding. But all Kate and Michael want to do is have people look at them as Kate and Michael, not two people who are hearing-impaired.

The in-store appearance doesn’t go well– Michael’s called out for not making his main character deaf, and he replies very candidly by saying that he wanted the book to sell — and he goes off and gets shitfaced, still hurting over his breakup. When he finds Kate’s engagement ring in her bag, he confronts her on the plane the next day, signing violently. They reconcile after he gets escorted off the flight for being stumbling drunk.

Our Take: This Close is getting press because Stern and Feldman, who star in and are executive producers of the Sundance Now series, are both deaf. Somehow, this is a big deal, as there hasn’t been a series with two hearing-impaired leads before this. And the leads’ disability is a factor in later episodes, like when Kate’s boss Stella (Cheryl Hines) sends her to be on a panel about being an actor with a disability, even though she doesn’t act. And we also see that Danny feels like he’s outside the bubble Kate has created with Michael because he can only sign a little bit.

But the refreshing thing about the show is that Stern and Feldman immediately suck you into the lives of Kate and Michael, to the point where their deafness is present but secondary. Michael is distraught over his breakup, and Kate cares about her bestie’s feelings so much that she decides to hide her engagement from him. But we realize that Kate may not be 100 percent happy with where she finds herself, as we find out when she tells the book store interpreter a more romantic version of her engagement story than the real version she gives Michael. That was a genuine laugh-out-loud moment in a first episode that dealt more in the clever than the outright funny.

Stern is especially good as Kate; she seemingly has her life in order, but then she lets loose little bits of vulnerability like mentioning she’s not ready for clients at work. Feldman also does a great job as Michael, though in the first episode all we really see from him is all the pain he’s in.

Sex and Skin: After Michael bolts the bookstore he flirts with a guy at a bar, then meets him in the restroom for a quickie. The guy says “I’ve had sex with a deaf guy before.” Michael derisively signs, “Good for you.”

Parting Shot: After reconciling on the plane, and they get to baggage claim, Danny surprises Kate, who gives him a huge hug. Michael longingly looks at them.

Sleeper Star: The first episode is largely about Kate and Michael, but we’re intrigued by Gilford as Danny.

Most Pilot-y Line: Do people still talk loudly and slowly to the hearing-impaired? If so, then we take back our complaint. But that seems like an easy joke to make about how the hearing cluelessly communicates with the deaf, a trope that’s as old as television itself.

Our Call: Stream It. As we said, we got quickly invested in the relationship between Kate and Michael, and exploring that will be fun. Also, the addition of pros like Gilford, Hines, and Marlee Matlin (who plays Michael’s mother in later episodes) only makes the show better. Sundance Now puts out new episodes every Thursday, and offers a 7-day trial when you sign up. (If you look around, you might even be able to find a 30-day trial code.) But if the relatively-new streamer keeps putting out shows as good as This Close, it may be worth ponying up the monthly fee to keep watching.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.

Watch This Close on Sundance Now