Season Review: Close Enough Season One

Very few shows have had the bad luck going for them that Close Enough has had. Created by JG Quintel, also known for the briefly longest running show on Cartoon Network “Regular Show”, Close Enough was announced mere months after that show’s conclusion and was initially planned to air on TBS as part of their animated line-up that included “Final Space”, “Tarantula”, and Louis CK’s “The Cops”, but once CK’s career went down when allegations of harassment emerged and “Tarantula” was quickly burned off and cancelled, Close Enough ended up being shelved and forgotten for years. Thankfully the announcement of HBO Max finally gave an outlet worth putting the show on, so now we can finally begin enjoying the show as it comes out week to wee-

…wait, the whole season’s already out?! And it’s only EIGHT EPISODES?! Uh-oh.

Well, er, the plot of Close Enough follows Josh Singleton, Emily Ramirez, their daughter Candice, and all of their friends as they deal with raising a daughter in their mid-30’s while trying to retain their dwindling youth, with pop culture based surrealism popping out of every corner and sometimes threatening their lives. In a way, it’s kind of like a natural progression from Regular Show, which had that same surreal humor but focused mainly on a bunch of dudes working at a park, while here it’s about a married couple and their child. Besides that detail, the main carryover from that show is, naturally JG Quintel himself, who voiced Mordecai in that show and Josh here. It probably wouldn’t have been that hard to make this a proper sequel to Regular show if that had been the plan, which would blend in pretty well with “Adventure Time: Distant Lands”, which is also on HBO Max, but for whatever reason, that wasn’t the decision. And just as well, as it allows for this show to build its own world and characters and signature jokes, which it does quite well for only having eight episodes.

Being a more adult show, the subject of the episodes moves from things like beating a video game high score or buying giant omelets into things like looking at open houses, being friends with your kid’s friends’ moms, and vasectomies, stuff that is often covered in shows like American Dad, King of the Hill, The Simpsons, and so on. It really does feel like the audience who watched Regular Show as it aired would naturally move onto watching this, which they probably would have if it had aired when it was originally supposed to. In fact, viewers may notice that there are odd moments in each episode where the episode will cut to black for a second, most likely being where the ad breaks would go for a show airing on network television in 2017 and not a streaming service in 2020. God, do you remember 2017? Kinda sad that looks way brighter than now.

Speaking of kinda sad, Josh and Emily often find themselves trying to balance their adulthood and being parents, which permeates their dilemmas throughout the season. They’re both very much in love, making them a pretty wholesome married couple among their animated peers, and Candice is both adorable and hilarious, so every time she’s around is a delight. Same with their friends, kinda sorta B-couple Bridgette and Alex, who are a recently divorced couple who are still friends. It’s an interesting dynamic to explore since the two have history while acting as a parallel to Josh and Emily while also having functioning dynamics with them as well. Each of the main adult characters have their own passions and interests that are becoming increasingly impractical as they get older and have more responsibilities, which I imagine is pretty relatable for those in their age range who are probably finding this balance out in their own lives too.

It’s a real shame that it’s taken so long for this show to finally come out since a lot of the jokes hold up pretty well. Aside from some passing references fidget spinners and Pokemon Go (which I still play, dammit!), it feels like this could have come out this year. I certainly hope that the crew that put this together is still on for more episodes, because the fact that all eight of these dropped at once is giving me some bad vibes. The cynic in me wonders if this wasn’t just a way to finally unload the already finished episodes and be done with it like they did with Tarantula, with no intention of doing any more. I feel like if they intended to build up the show, they’d be putting it out week to week to see what people are saying instead of just dumping it out entirely. I have no way of confirming this either way and I certainly hope I’m wrong, but it’s not looking great. It would be a damn shame for this to be all we got of the series because it’s pretty much what I was hoping for and a little bit more.

Close Enough lives plenty to the hype it set for itself, which was basically a more adult Regular Show. If you enjoyed Regular Show, you’re very likely to enjoy this, especially if you’ve gotten older while watching it. I guess the main flaw with it is that there’s not a whole lot to watch, even after this long a wait, and I fear that there might not be interest in doing more. We can only speculate how Close Enough will take off or if it will make enough of a buzz to encourage HBO Max to make more, but if I had to make a wish on a monkey’s paw…well, I’d probably ask for a Harley Quinn renewal first. But AFTER that…well, I’d probably ask for more Luke Cage. But after THAT, more of this show. There has to be more story left to tell, and with HBO Max seemingly becoming the home of director’s cuts, I can’t imagine this would be an exception. Release the Quintel Cut!