Tag: Gabrielle Walsh

Close Enough: A Brilliant, Surreal Comedy Series – HBO Max Review

The creator of Regular Show brings us a look at modern parenting and adulting.

SUMMARY 

Emily Singleton (Gabrielle Walsh) is an aspiring comedy songwriter who is married to Josh Singleton (J.G. Quintel), an aspiring video game developer, with whom she has a young daughter named Candice (Jessica DiCicco). They share an apartment with divorced couple Alex (Jason Mantzoukas) and Bridgette (Kimiko Glenn). The five try to deal with the realities of modern life and adulthood in a world where your normal worries can suddenly turn into real physical manifestations. 

Art projects are more fun when reality is surreal.

END SUMMARY

I never watched Regular Show, but after I watched this out of pure boredom I am now going to binge that series. This show was funny, it was insightful, and it was a perfect blend of style and substance. A lot of it is the surreal nature of this series. Stuff always starts out with a normal domestic problem, but somehow that snowballs into the robot revolution or child labor or a house that eats souls. The surreal thing always ties in with the theme of the episode and typically does a good job of reflecting the real-world solution, if there is one. Sometimes, there really isn’t one and the show just wants to give hope.

Sometimes the solution is Alcohol and weed.

The animation is very stylized, but even if you don’t like it at first, like me, it will quickly grow on you. It’s genuinely great at balancing the real and the surreal. The voice acting is top notch, but as you might expect if you’ve been reading this for a while, Jason Mantzoukas and Kimiko Glenn are my favorites. Alex is a community college professor who specializes in Viking studies who was married to Bridgette, a flighty social media influencer. Their odd-couple banter perfectly complements the more solid and normal relationship between Emily and Josh. The fact that the pair still lives together despite being divorced is also a constant source of both humor and drama.

They’re the odd couple on steroids and with sex.

Overall, great show, check it out on HBO Max or on Adult Swim. 

If you want to check out some more by the Joker on the Sofa, check out the 100 Greatest TV Episodes of All Time, Collection of TV Episodes, Collection of Movie Reviews, or the Joker on the Sofa Reviews.

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