In a flood of Netflix originals, it can be easy to miss a series as understated as Long Story Short – it has no immediate hooks, laugh-out-loud gags or immediate draws in the voice cast or artstyle, which is probably why Netflix is riding so hard on “from the creator of Bojack Horseman!”. Yet, if one looks past the cookie-cutter setting – another dysfunctional family, how fun – Long Story Short presents a look at familial relationships, trauma, and growing up that feels like a nice balance between Bojack Horseman and your typical ABC sitcom.
The “Schwoopers” – a compromise in family name, certainly come to after an explosive collision of hot heads – are a middle-class Jewish family who we follow across several different decades in a non-linear timeline. Avi, Shira, and Yoshi all take separate turns in their lives – marriages, divorces, failed businesses – that seem to bring them all together again at just the right moments, unpacking complex familial issues and just maybe, for Avi and Shira, being the parents they always wanted – not that that’s such an easy feat. Yoshi, on the other hand…well, let’s just keep the scamp away from casinos and see where it goes from there.
The series’ timeline brings to light the experiences of each member of the Schwooper family growing up, and even how their perspective on the same event has changed their relationship. While familial trauma certainly won’t be unfamiliar to anyone who’s seen Bojack Horseman, Long Story Short is a little more hopeful in its approach, without downplaying the reality of navigating relationships with family who have hurt you. None of the siblings are as frontloaded with trauma as Bojack, meaning they’re not on constant destructive benders – they’re all just adults trying to get by, who sometimes find that incidents from their childhood make it hard for them to connect or understand people the way they want to. Some parts might be upsetting to those who are a bit rocky with their family, especially dealing with mother Naomi, who does genuinely seem to love all of her children, but has a tendency to criticize as a form of love. From her perspective, this is simply a way to shape all of her children into the best people they could be – “tough love,” if you will. She doesn’t understand the idea of what she considers ‘passive’ love – how can you be passive about someone you feel so strongly for?
While all three of the siblings have their own interesting lives, Yoshi stands out as a positive portrayal of a single, neurodivergent character. While it’s just as easy in real life for neurodivergent people to be sidelined or otherwise mistreated by their family for being ‘difficult’ or otherwise not fitting the mold. The family sticks by and encourages Yoshi, with no one making snide comments about his lack of focus or serious career – not that Avi would have a lot of room to talk, as his later years at a radio company foreshadow his industry becoming less and less relevant. Yoshi isn’t ostracized for his quirkiness, but often stumbles into situations where he’s strangely embraced for it. The negative side of this is that, for those who are in the shoes of Avi or Shira, it can feel like a character like Yoshi is the ‘golden child’ – Naomi’s unprecedented gentleness and his father’s unwavering support, though some of that just comes with being the youngest sibling. We see a smidge of how his mother’s disapproval impacts Yoshi, and some of the difference could be just in the stages of life each of the siblings are in. While Avi and Shira have faced relationship trouble getting into the later parts of their thirties and forties, Yoshi is still a free spirit. There’s still time for him to unpack and perhaps make the same discoveries his older siblings have – and at least, being the youngest, having those who have gone through the same being so close to him.
It’s hard not to make Bojack Horseman comparisons (clearly) when so much of the marketing for the series is centered around “from the creator of Bojack Horseman”, but this is quite a different vibe from Bojack. As grounded in reality as Hollywoo can feel sometimes, it’s still a world full of animal people, outlandish situations, and delightfully devilish wordplay – Long Story Short is a lot more understated, with not a lot of jokes flying in, though there’s probably a bit more humor for those familiar with Jewish culture and traditions. Furthermore, the bottom line of Bojack Horseman is that Bojack is a jerk – while he’s a complicated jerk, and his familial traumas certainly help explain how he got to be the jerk he is, it can be excruciatingly hard to root for him at times. There aren’t a lot of good people in his world, either – when they appear, he tends to drive them away in the most ‘dude, what the heck is wrong with you?’ way imaginable. Long Story Short differs in bringing together a cast of siblings who, while having their flaws, are all people that you want to root for and hope will continue to have a connection through the years. If Bojack Horseman is saying “Having trauma isn’t an excuse for being a bad person,” Long Story Short is how you live out that example. This is evident from early on, when the show presents that Avi and Jen’s marriage is on the rocks and that a swoony French dance teacher is interested in her – the framing initially suggests that an affair might start here, only for her to immediately reject his advances.
Overall, Long Story Short is an enjoyable, easy-to-binge story that never gets quite as heavy as Bojack Horseman. It’s not consistently laughworthy, but it seems more sure of its footing from the beginning than Bojack and has a cast of characters that you want to see make it. Netflix has already ordered a second season for the series, ensuring we’ll get to see more f the Schwooper siblings through the years and where life takes them. Will Shira and Baby ever make up? And how honestly screwed is Avi with the continuing rise of AI?
Long Story Short is available streaming on Netflix.
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