Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Close Enough’ On HBO Max, About Young Parents And Their Friends Learning The Adulting Ropes In A Tiny Duplex

Close Enough was created by J.G. Quintel to run in an animation block on TBS in 2017, but when an anticipated Louis CK project got cancelled (for obvious reasons), the project sat on WarnerMedia’s shelf until HBO Max’s launch. Quintel, who created the Cartoon Network hit Regular Show, brings his twisted sense of humor to what’s essentially an animated family sitcom. But does that twisted vision work?

CLOSE ENOUGH: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A bunch of chairs and furniture are piled up in a living room. A dad talks about “Candace The Crusher” trying to go for a new record in a household obstacle course.

The Gist: The opening scene of Close Enough sets the tone, as we see five year-old Candace (Jessica DiCicco) run the course, encouraged by her father, Josh Singleton (J.G. Quintel), and she crashes, leading to the thermostat to get stuck on the AC, opening a massive vent to what might just be a black hole. Only Candice’s mom, Emily Ramirez (Gabrielle Walsh) saves them with a precise kick that knocks the thermostat off the wall. “Oh, I just took a picture,” says her disappointed father, who wanted to video the whole thing.

Emily, Josh and Candice live in a tiny East L.A. duplex with Josh’s best friend Alex (Jason Mantzoukas) and his ex-wife Bridgette (Kimiko Glenn) — yes, Alex and Bridgette are divorced but still sleep in the same bed, a mattress tucked in a closet. All of the adults are in their late 20s and early 30s and are trying to figure out how to be responsible adults, and are finding it difficult.

In the first of two segments, Josh and Emily go to L.A.’s fabric district to find material to make a patch for Candace’s class quilt. Emily likes to bargain, but Josh just spends time buying zoot suits and hat-wearing birds. They also discover a trove of 19th-century-style British urchins who just want to be parented. They help make the quilt, but the next morning they turn into monstrous little adults, and Josh and Emily barely make it out with their lives (and the quilt).

In the second segment, Emily goes to neighborhood open houses to escape the chaos that is their apartment. At one open house, she finds a father escaping his triplets and an emancipated child star escaping her fame. Together, they pretend that they’re a family living in the house, but somehow time and space warp and Emily finds herself on a bad sitcom, with the house now a soundstage in the middle of a void instead of in their neighborhood. When Josh comes to find her (riding the 6-person family bike he ordered), he gets trapped as well.

Our Take: Like we said, Quintel’s weird sensibilities are all over Close Enough. Not one episode goes by without everyone involved in some sort of surreal and oddball situation. As you might expect from the marriage of family sitcom with weird cartoon, it works in parts.

There are plenty of funny moments in the two segments, but most of them have to do with the interpersonal relationships between everybody in the duplex, especially the utterly strange Alex and Bridgette. In the first segment, they’re asked by Emily and Josh to babysit Candace while they go to the fabric district. Of course, the two of them immediately lose Candance, who goes to the apartment of the building’s landlord Pearle (Danielle Brooks) and her strange son Randy (James Adomian). Those scenes tended to be more effective than the ones in the fabric district, even as they get increasingly absurd (Street Urchins? Giant rats? Emily and Josh having sex in an alley? A racist parakeet getting decapitated? All of it happened).

The second segment’s surrealism was a bit more earned and smoothly executed, despite its weirdness. Emily so wants to escape her chaotic life that she gets sucked into a sitcom that it seems her two “co-stars” never want to escape. We thought it was especially funny that the dark-haired dad of triplets becomes a blond guy with a bright-colored striped sweater in the confines of the sitcom. Was it weird? Sure. But you need to expect the weird when it comes to Quintel. When you have that expectation coming in, then you just need to sit and enjoy.

Sex and Skin: Not that kind of show, alley sex notwithstanding.

Parting Shot: Josh finally gets everyone to ride the family bike. Bridgette goes, “look out!” and everyone rides into the water towards the sunset, laughing like it’s the last scene of a bad sitcom.

Sleeper Star: We’re very curious about Brooks as Perle, who’s a retired LAPD officer. Her son Randy seems a bit… strange. And Adomian knows how to play strange.

Most Pilot-y Line: Hard to find a “clunky” line or situation in a show that has its main couple fighting off urchins-turned-tiny-monsters.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Close Enough is a strange show, no doubt. But Quintel has created a bunch of endearing characters, and between the bizarre stuff will hopefully be a fun comedy about adults who are resisting having to grow up.

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.com, RollingStone.com, Billboard and elsewhere.

Stream Close Enough On HBO Max