‘Close Enough’ Will Make You Feel Good About Getting Old

No matter how you cut it, getting old sucks. Joints you never knew existed start hurting, your bedtime gets earlier and earlier, and suddenly The Great British Bake Off becomes something you look forward to even when you’re not hungover. No show understands the frustration and pain of realizing you’re an adult better than J. G. Quintel’s new HBO Max series Close Enough. But rather than turning maturity into something to be mourned, it turns aging into an adventure.

Stylistically and humor-wise Close Enough is similar to Quintel’s other creation, Regular Show. This time instead of a blue jay and a raccoon, the animated comedy follows the lives of new parents Josh (Quintel) and Emily (Gabrielle Walsh), their daughter Candice (Jessica DiCicco), and their two recently divorced roommates Alex (Jason Mantzoukas) and Bridgette (Kimiko Glenn). Anyone who’s familiar with Regular Show already has a clue about the intense turns this series takes. Each 15-minute saga starts with a small, relatable problem, like Josh and Emily going to a club in an attempt to feel young again. But by the episode’s end that simple setup snowballs into something astronomical, in this case a club literally named Logan’s Run that murders anyone over the age of 35. It’s very silly, very extreme, and very entertaining.

But unlike Regular Show, Close Enough consistently channels its random energy and silly characters to make a bigger, more interesting point. Watching Emily and Josh struggle to reclaim their youth and the forgotten dreams of their 20s is difficult. Time and time again they try to act like they did when they were in their 20s, getting too high and going on insane haunted house adventures, only to reconcile with the fact they aren’t “cool” anymore. Yet the sacrifice of that past life brought them something even greater. Together they have a loving family, great friends, and an incredible daughter. None of that could have happened if Emily had devoted all of her energy to her comedy musical career or if Josh dropped everything to be a video game developer. That’s a detail stories about maturity often miss.

Close Enough isn’t about the wide-eyed aspirations of youth or the wisdom that comes with old age. It’s about those messy years in between when nothing quite adds up, and who you are becoming is still at odds with who you wanted to be. Yes, getting older sucks, and yes it’s disheartening to see old dreams die. But rather than framing this as something to be upset about, Close Enough reconstructs this entire metamorphosis into an adventure in its own right. So next time you skip that third glass of wine because you want to go hiking the next morning, don’t get mad at the lame-o you’ve become. Take a page out of Close Enough’s book and embrace the excitement of getting old.

Watch Close Enough on HBO Max