The critically acclaimed animated sequence Lengthy Story Quick has been resonating with me ever since Netflix dropped all 10 episodes of its first season in late August. Created by Raphael Bob-Waksberg (BoJack Horseman), the present takes the acquainted rising pains and household issues of a sitcom and reshapes them via an ingenious, time-jumping format. It’s been tugging at my heartstrings and grief journey whereas making me snort in between moments of poignant relatability.
The present follows the Schwoopers, a Jewish household within the San Francisco Bay Space. Their surname is a portmanteau of matriarch Naomi Cooper (voiced by Lisa Edelstein) and patriarch Elliot Schwartz (Paul Reiser), handed right down to their three youngsters: Avi (Ben Feldman), Shira (Abbi Jacobson), and Yoshi (Max Greenfield).
Not like different animated sequence about households, Lengthy Story Quick exhibits these characters at totally different ages, leaping throughout time to seize snapshots of parenting, loss, faith, rites of passage, and shifting dynamics. Even the opening titles, set to Jesse Novak’s plucky theme music, characteristic totally different photographs of the Schwoopers in every episode. (Resist that “skip intro” button!)
Watching these sequences feels lots like what I have been experiencing on my grief journey after shedding each my dad and mom inside three years. I’ve been rewatching outdated residence movies and flipping via household photographs I haven’t seen in a long time, time-traveling from the comforts of my sofa, reliving holidays, birthdays, and holidays, reuniting with long-lost family members and faces I haven’t thought of in years.
Credit score: Hiko Mitsuzuka
Credit score: Hiko Mitsuzuka
Lengthy Story Quick superbly — and fairly actually — illustrates the passage of time and the sophisticated feelings that include it. The present looks like an train in want success, tapping into the will to see my household from an nearly omniscient viewpoint: to rewind and fast-forward via moments, drawing parallels between previous and current and seeing how they form one another.
Recollections, meatloaf, and Michael Bolton
In Episode 4, “Shira Can’t Cook dinner,” Shira struggles to excellent her mom’s knish recipe for a faculty potluck. She needs to make Naomi proud, and in a single scene, Shira tears up whereas reviewing her mother’s handwritten directions, realizing how a lot love went into Naomi’s cooking when she was youthful.
Each infrequently, I attempt to recreate my late mom’s signature meatloaf, a dish she served each Monday for our prolonged household. She cherished internet hosting meals, particularly in the course of the holidays, in our condo in New Rochelle, New York. I’ve carried on the custom in my very own method, with an annual vacation cocktail social gathering in my L.A. condo. I even dug up her handwritten anisette cookie recipe — her favourite Christmas deal with — and hold it posted to my fridge as a reminder of her love.
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These stirred-up recollections do not feel that distant, however time marches on as a result of that’s what it does. Opening the nostalgia floodgates has introduced me face-to-face with the fragility of life, reminding me of a music lyric from Michael Bolton, certainly one of my mother’s favourite artists: “Nothing heals a damaged coronary heart like time, love, and tenderness.”
Reuniting with my youthful self to heal myself
Lengthy Story Quick additionally touches upon the aftereffects of the pandemic via passing references (see: “Wolves” and “Uncle Barry”), which made me mirror on the time with my dad and mom that felt stolen from me again then. Whereas I finally tried to make up for that misplaced time, it by no means felt like sufficient, as a result of I quickly misplaced my father in 2021 after which my mom in 2024. It is an emotional wrestle much like what the older Schwooper siblings wrestle with as they mirror on their very own losses.
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Nevertheless, watching my household’s outdated residence movies has proven me that I bought to spend so much of great moments with my dad and mom. Despite the fact that my awkward, pre-pubescent self tried to keep away from the digicam in any respect prices (I by no means appreciated the sound of my very own voice), I can now sit again and respect the recollections that have been captured. I can be glad about what I had with them. And if I may, I’d give my youthful self an enormous hug, letting him know he’ll finally discover his voice, his confidence, and extra causes to really feel safe in himself.
Watching Lengthy Story Quick whereas revisiting these recollections has finally helped me develop extra compassion for myself, for what I went via, and for the place I used to be at sure factors in my life. That compassion stays, particularly whereas I proceed to grieve my dad and mom.
Confronting so many “if solely I had knowns”
In Episode 2 of LSS, “Hannah’s Dance Recital,” Avi and Shira notice they bear in mind a household journey to the Jersey Shore very in a different way. For Avi, what appeared like an harmless resolution to depart his sister and play with some youngsters on the seaside seems to be a hurtful act of abandonment for Shira when she’s left alone and practically drowns within the harsh ocean waves, changing into a traumatic second she carries into maturity.
Whereas I fortunately by no means had a near-death expertise like Shira’s, my youthful cousin (who’s all the time been like the child sister I by no means had) as soon as revealed how scarred she was from a haunted home journey my very persuasive mom and I had dragged her onto whereas visiting the pier at Seaside Heights, NJ. What my Mother and I assumed was a enjoyable, harmless household outing become a horrible evening for an 8-year-old who’s afraid of haunted homes to today.
In hindsight, she’s grateful that my mother pushed her to face her fears and check out one thing new as a result of that’s simply how my mother operated. One piece of recommendation she left me with stays: “Preserve broadening your horizons.” These 4 easy phrases have formed how I method the remainder of my life. They assist me look ahead to new alternatives, new experiences, and, in fact, new recollections.
And within the meantime, I can look ahead to extra hilarious and human tales from the Schwoopers; Lengthy Quick Quick has been renewed for a second season.
Season 1 of Lengthy Story Quick is now streaming on Netflix.
