''Close Enough'' is an American

animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ...

created by

J. G. Quintel James Garland Quintel is an American animator, voice actor, director, writer, producer, and storyboard artist. He is best known as the creator of the Cartoon Network series ''Regular Show'' (2010–2017), in which he voiced Mordecai and High Fi ...

. Originally intended to air on TBS in 2017, the project faced various delays and setbacks before eventually premiering on

HBO Max HBO Max is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in the United States on May 27, 2020, the service is built around the libraries of HBO, Warner Bros., Cartoon Ne ...

on July 9, 2020. The series has received positive reviews, with critics comparing it favorably to Quintel's previous series, ''

Regular Show ''Regular Show'' (known as ''Regular Show in Space'' during its eighth season) is an American animated sitcom created by J. G. Quintel for Cartoon Network. It ran from September 6, 2010, to January 16, 2017, over the course of eight seasons a ...

''. In July 2022, HBO Max cancelled the series after three seasons. A month later, the show, alongside several other original and non-original content, was removed from the service.

Premise

A couple in their early thirties, Josh and Emily, and their young daughter, Candice, live in a

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

duplex with their divorced friends, Alex and Bridgette. They get into what seem like normal domestic crises, which tend to escalate in surreal (often even

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

-esque) ways.

Cast and characters

Main

* Joshua "Josh" Singleton (voiced by J.G. Quintel) – an aspiring video game developer who works for Plugger-Inners; a television installation company based on

Geek Squad Geek Squad Inc. is a subsidiary of American and Canadian multinational consumer electronics corporation Best Buy, headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota. The subsidiary was originally an independent company founded by "Chief Inspector" Robert Step ...

. His appearance and mannerisms are based on those of Quintel. * Emily Ramirez (voiced by Gabrielle Walsh) – Josh's wife, who works as an assistant for a food corporation called FoodCorp. Emily and Bridgette play guitar and sing at local cafes hoping to become famous. She is based on Quintel's own wife, Cassia. * Candice Singleton-Ramirez (voiced by

Jessica DiCicco Jessica Sonya DiCicco (; born June 10, 1980) is an American actress. She is known for voicing in animated television series and video games. Her first voice role was the announcer for Nickelodeon's educational channel Noggin. DiCicco has since vo ...

) – Josh and Emily's six-year-old (as of "Birthdaze") daughter, who can be very hyperactive and struggles with school work. She attends Chamomile Elementary School. * Alex Dorpenberger (voiced by

Jason Mantzoukas Jason Mantzoukas (, el, Ιάσων Μαντζούκας; born December 18, 1972) is an American actor, comedian, writer and podcaster. He is best known for his recurring role as Rafi in the FX comedy series ''The League'', and as one of the th ...

) – Josh's best friend and Bridgette's ex-husband, who works as a community college professor and a struggling Viking-themed fantasy author. He is a conspiracy theorist. Following the series finale "Match Made in Valhalla", Alex and Bridgette got back together. * Bridgette Hashima (voiced by

Kimiko Glenn Kimiko Elizabeth Glenn (June 27, 1989) is an American actress and Broadway performer known for portraying Brook Soso in the Netflix series ''Orange Is the New Black'', for which she received three ensemble Screen Actors Guild Awards. She also st ...

) – Emily's best friend and Alex's ex-wife. She is a

Japanese-American are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 census, they have declined in number to constitute the sixth largest Asi ...

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social me ...

influencer, and a part-time comedy singer-songwriter in a band with Emily. Her middle name was revealed as "No Stress" in an episode from the first season, which also revealed that it was the result of a legal name change that she authorized while she was under the influence of drugs. * Pearle Watson (voiced by Danielle Brooks) – A retired African-American

LAPD The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officially known as the City of Los Angeles Police Department, is the municipal police department of Los Angeles, California. With 9,974 police officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the third-large ...

police officer, and the landlady of the duplex. * Randall "Randy" Watson (voiced by

James Adomian James Adomian (born January 31, 1980) is an Armenian-American stand-up comedian, actor, and impressionist. He is best known for his work on ''Comedy Bang! Bang!'', ''Chapo Trap House'', '' Last Comic Standing'', ''The Late Late Show with Craig F ...

) – Pearle's adopted

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White ...

son, and the duplex's property manager. He was adopted by Pearle after his biological parents, Wyatt and Deborah Trickle, were arrested for siphoning gas from multiple cars. Randy is revealed to be gay in season 3.

Supporting

* Mr. Timothy Campbell (voiced by

John Early John Early may refer to: *John Early (educator) (1814–1873), Irish-American Jesuit educator *John Early (politician) John Early (March 17, 1828 – September 2, 1877) was a Canadian American politician. Coming to Rockford, Illinois, to practic ...

) – Candice's

hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...

teacher at Chamomile Elementary. * Mr. Salt (voiced by

Fred Stoller Fred Stoller (born March 19, 1958) is an American actor, stand-up comedian and author. He is best known for portraying Gerard on '' Everybody Loves Raymond''. He is also the voice of Stanley in the ''Open Season'' series, Fred the Squirrel in ...

) – Emily's boss at FoodCorp. * Dr. Glandz (voiced by

Cheri Oteri Cheryl Ann Oteri () is an American actress and comedian. A nominee of a Primetime Emmy Award, Oteri is best known for her tenure as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'' from 1995 to 2000. Early life The daughte ...

) – A

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

who works at a hospital called Pretty Good Samaritan. * Dante (voiced by Eugene Cordero) – One of Josh's coworkers at Plugger-Inners who has a

prosthetic In medicine, a prosthesis (plural: prostheses; from grc, πρόσθεσις, prósthesis, addition, application, attachment), or a prosthetic implant, is an artificial device that replaces a missing body part, which may be lost through trau ...

lower arm. * Jojo (voiced by

Mo Collins Maureen Ann Collins (born July 7, 1965) is an American actress and comedian who was a member of the ensemble on FOX's sketch comedy series '' Mad TV''. Collins became well known for several characters during her tenure on the show. She was a ...

) – A biker woman who is the leader of the Cool Moms, and the mother of Candice's classmate, Mia. * Trish (voiced by

Kate Higgins Catherine Davis Higgins is an American voice actress, singer and jazz pianist. Career Music career Higgins earned a degree in music from Auburn University in 1991. She is a trained pianist who studied with the jazz artist Bob Richardson. She rel ...

) – A former member of the Cool Moms and the mother of Candice's best friend and classmate, Maddie. * Ms. Hashima (voiced by

Suzy Nakamura Suzy Nakamura (born December 2, 1968) is an American actress and improv comedian. She is known for her many guest appearances on sitcoms such as ''According to Jim'', ''Half and Half'', ''8 Simple Rules'', ''Curb Your Enthusiasm'' and ''How I Me ...

) - Bridgette's mother.

Additional voices

Guest stars

Episodes

Season 1 (2020)

The first season was originally set to run for 10 episodes, but only 8 episodes were released when the series launched.

Season 2 (2021)

Every episode in this season was directed by

and Calvin Wong.

Season 3 (2022)

Release

The series was announced in May 2017, four months after Quintel's previous series, ''

'', concluded its run on the sibling

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, ...

. The series was originally announced to air on TBS, but was delayed several times. It would later be revealed that TBS had planned to premiere the show as part of its own animation block, but those plans fell through when production on ''The Cops'' was shut down due to Louis C.K.’s admitted sexual misconduct. On October 29, 2019, it was announced that the series would instead move to HBO Max. The second half of the third episode was premiered at the

Annecy International Animated Film Festival The Annecy International Animation Film Festival (french: Festival international du film d'animation d'Annecy, officially abbreviated in English as the Annecy Festival, or simply Annecy) was created in 1960 and takes place at the beginning of J ...

on June 15, 2020. On August 6, 2020, the series was renewed for a second season. The following month, the series was distributed internationally through

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...

as a Netflix Original, beginning September 14, 2020 in

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived ...

. The second season premiered on February 25, 2021 on HBO Max. Prior to the season premiere, a third season was announced on February 10, 2021. The second season was released internationally on Netflix on May 26, 2021. On October 24, 2021, the first two seasons became available to buy digitally on iTunes. The third season was released digitally on May 8, 2022. With the announcement of TBS and

TNT Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...

's Front Row blocks, the series debuted on the former network on October 25, 2021. The third season premiered on April 7, 2022 on HBO Max. On July 15, 2022, HBO Max cancelled the series after three seasons. On August 17, 2022, the service announced the removal of several shows, including ''Close Enough''.

Reception

Review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

reported an approval rating of 100% based on 19 reviews, with an average rating of 8/10, for the first season. The website's critical consensus reads, "Completely absurd and yet, utterly relatable, ''Close Enough'' captures the strange experience that is being an adult." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, it has a weighted average score of 74 out of 100 based on 6 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

References

External links

* {{HBO Max HBO Max original programming American animated sitcoms 2020s American adult animated television series 2020s American animated comedy television series 2020s American sitcoms 2020 American television series debuts 2022 American television series endings American adult animated comedy television series English-language television shows Television series created by J. G. Quintel Television series by Cartoon Network Studios Animated television series about children Television series about couples Television shows set in Los Angeles Television shows set in California