Close Enough
Entry updated 18 October 2021. Tagged: TV.
US animated tv series (2020-current). Cartoon Network Studios, Studio T. Created by J G Quintel. Directed by J G Quintel, Sean Szeles and Calvin Wong. Writers include Chris Kula, Minty Lewis, Matt Price, Marlena Rodriguez and Deepak Sethi. Voice cast includes Jessica DiCicco, Kimiko Glenn, Jason Mantzoukas, J G Quintel and Gabrielle Walsh. Sixteen 23-minute episodes to date (usually split into two stories). Colour.
Husband and wife Josh Singleton (Quintel) and Emily Ramirez (Walsh) house-share with divorced couple Alex Dorpenberger (Mantzoukas) (author of the unpublished sf novel Future Viking 3030) and Bridgette (Glenn), because the schools in that district of Los Angeles are better for their five-year-old daughter Candice (DiCicco). Bridgette is 26, but the other adults are in their early thirties and very reluctantly circling round the idea they might not be young any more.
Their daily experiences range from the unusual to the outright fantastic. Loving couples sew themselves together when matching tattoos are not enough; Logan's night club brutally murders any of its clientele found to be over 30 – our heroes avoid this fate when the owner references Logan's Run (1976), and they realize he's pushing 50; obscene clown puppetry; a horrific horror house; living in a television sitcom; religious pterodactyls (see Dinosaurs); levitation (see Telekinesis); several Robots; AI Computers; a scientist creating human/animal hybrids (see Genetic Engineering); showroom dummies coming to life; a giant talking spiv slug whose hat causes Time Distortion (including altering the wearer's age); and a glimpse of a Post-Holocaust 2220. There is also some Satire of the commercialization of children's education.
Close Enough is a funny, unnerving but also warm-hearted series whose humour, like that of Quintel's previous comedy Regular Show (2010-2017), often derives from normal events taking very strange turns (see Absurdist SF); but it also frets over how to retain a youthful temperament despite new responsibilities and a loss of vigour. A less memorable second season followed in 2021. [SP]
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