--- title: 'Long Story Short' Reinvents the Animated Family Sitcom description: The creator of 'BoJack Horseman' returns to Netflix with a funny, idiosyncratic, philosophical, warm, generations-spanning family portrait canonical: https://time.com/7311165/long-story-short-review/ author: Judy Berman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-08-22T07:01:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:50:51.110Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: 'Long Story Short' Reinvents the Animated Family Sitcom og:description: The creator of 'BoJack Horseman' returns to Netflix with a funny, philosophical, generations-spanning family portrait og:url: https://time.com/7311165/long-story-short-review/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8d14d55c6bb245bc/6998c930e1ba003a3b98dd6e/Long_Story_Short_n_S1_00_01_25_19.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Long_Story_Short_n_S1_00_01_25_19 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Long Story Short' Reinvents the Animated Family Sitcom twitter:description: The creator of 'BoJack Horseman' returns to Netflix with a funny, philosophical, generations-spanning family portrait twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8d14d55c6bb245bc/6998c930e1ba003a3b98dd6e/Long_Story_Short_n_S1_00_01_25_19.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # _BoJack_ Creator Reinvents Adult Animation—Again—With Netflix's _Long Story Short_ > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Judy Berman](https://time.com/author/judy-berman/)  ## Judy Berman TV Critic Aug 22, 2025 7:01 AM UTC  Long Story Short's young Schwooper family Long Story Short's young Schwooper familyNetflix  by [Judy Berman](https://time.com/author/judy-berman/)  ## Judy Berman TV Critic Aug 22, 2025 7:01 AM UTC The conventions of the animated family sitcom haven’t changed much in the 36 years since [_The Simpsons_](https://time.com/7305104/simpsons-fan-culture/) set the template for shows like _King of the Hill_, [_Family Guy_](https://time.com/archive/6689760/family-guy-offers-hyper-animation-in-triplicate/), and [_Bob’s Burgers_](https://entertainment.time.com/2011/03/30/a-second-look-at-bobs-burgers/). True to the cartoon medium, the characters are outsize and their adventures over the top. And, in a custom that has been key to their longevity, time doesn’t really pass from season to season. Unencumbered by the growing or deteriorating bodies of human actors, these series are set in an eternal quasi present, within which cultural references are constantly updated yet (with the exception of a [recent _Hill_ revival](https://time.com/7306821/king-of-the-hill-season-14-bobby/) that fast-forwards eight years) everyone stays around the same age. In Netflix’s _Long Story Short_, [_BoJack Horseman_](https://time.com/5706156/bojack-horseman-season-6-review/) creator [Raphael Bob-Waksberg](https://time.com/5782922/bojack-horseman-title-sequence/) uses the elasticity of animation to warp time in a very different way, dropping in on a singular Jewish family a couple dozen times from the 1990s to 2022 (and once in 1959). Funny, idiosyncratic, philosophical, and warm, if occasionally more sentimental than _BoJack_ fans might like, it ties together generations-spanning threads of love and resentment to create an intricate web of characters and relationships.  Naomi Schwartz, left, with her nearly grown children, Shira and Avi, in Long Story Short Netflix At the center of that web are siblings Avi, Shira, and Yoshi Schwooper, whose last name progressively combines those of their father Elliott Cooper (voiced by Paul Reiser) and mother Naomi Schwartz (Lisa Edelstein). Eldest son Avi (Ben Feldman) is introspective, self-righteous, determinedly secular. Anger defines Shira ([Abbi Jacobson](https://time.com/4586735/abbi-jacobson-whatever-happened-to-interracial-love/)), the middle child. Their much younger brother, Yoshi (Max Greenfield), is the oddball of a family that, as Avi’s quiet, blond girlfriend notices in the premiere, was never itself a paragon of laid-back normalcy. As it yokes formative scenes from the Schwoopers’ youth to vignettes that trace the impact of those moments on their adult lives, _Story_ takes up [Jewish identity](https://time.com/7011581/between-the-temples-jewish-movies/) as a central theme. Yiddish words pepper conversations. The [Holocaust](https://time.com/6975718/holocaust-tv-shows-trend/) is never far from anyone’s mind. One standout episode recounts Shira’s wife Kendra’s ([Nicole Byer](https://time.com/collection/american-voices-2017/4694010/nicole-byer-american-voices/)) circuitous conversion to the faith. Competing visions of and attitudes toward Judaism arise. (While [Oct. 7](https://time.com/6321849/israel-attack/) falls outside of the first season’s time frame, _Story_ has already been renewed, and I hope it will have the courage in Season 2 to probe this fraught era for Jews around the world.) Naomi is such an archetypal Jewish mother—pushy, controlling, critical, passive-aggressive, self-dramatizing—that she often reads as a caricature. But she is also, we eventually discover, its heart. Bob-Waksberg has an eye for humorous details that ring true. Paired with a great voice cast and scribbly animation that translates the Schwoopers’ angst into visual terms, he gives us sly parodies of ’90s alt-rock posters on the walls of Avi’s boyhood bedroom, a surreal allegory where wolves run loose at a middle school, and lines like “Uh-oh, Mom’s personality is starting.” Yet _Story_ also contains the universal, meaning-of-life-level insights that [made _BoJack_ a classic](https://time.com/5774893/bojack-horseman-finale-recap-review/) and his trippy, underacknowledged Amazon series [_Undone_](https://time.com/5677315/undone-interview-bojack-horseman/) just as [enthralling](https://time.com/5672110/undone-amazon-review/). Like those shows, it is fascinated—and moved—by our subjective experiences of relationships and of time, and how the stories we tell ourselves about those things make us the people we are. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7311165/long-story-short-review/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7311165/long-story-short-review/"},"headline":"BoJack Creator Reinvents Adult Animation—Again—With Netflix's Long Story Short","datePublished":"2025-08-22T07:01:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:50:51.110Z","description":"The creator of 'BoJack Horseman' returns to Netflix with a funny, idiosyncratic, philosophical, warm, generations-spanning family portrait","url":"https://time.com/7311165/long-story-short-review/","keywords":["Television","review","culturepod"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8d14d55c6bb245bc/6998c930e1ba003a3b98dd6e/Long_Story_Short_n_S1_00_01_25_19.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Judy Berman","jobTitle":"TV Critic","url":"https://time.com/author/judy-berman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8d14d55c6bb245bc/6998c930e1ba003a3b98dd6e/Long_Story_Short_n_S1_00_01_25_19.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Long_Story_Short_n_S1_00_01_25_19","caption":"Long Story Short (L to R) Abbi Jacobson as Shira Schwooper, Lisa Edelstein as Naomi Schwartz, Paul Reiser as Elliot Cooper and Max Greenfield as Yoshi Schwooper in Long Story Short. 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