SERIES PREMIERE: SundanceTV’s streaming platform,
Sundance Now, presents its first original TV production with this six-episode series, based on a web series called
Fridays. Both are created, written by, and star Josh Feldman and Shoshannah Stern – who, like the characters they play, are deaf. In
This Close, Stern plays a Hollywood publicist, whose boss (played by
Curb Your Enthusiasm co-star Cheryl Hines) barely makes an effort to accommodate her hearing-impaired employee. Feldman plays a graphic novelist who happens to be depressed, alcoholic, gay, and deaf – none of which, he insists, defines him every moment of his days. The strength of
This Close is that it explores deafness by not putting it front and center, but allow it to be just one more trait of these already complex characters. And for that,
This Close is a TV breakthrough.
For a full review, see David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower.