Long Story Short could have been a long story. If it were a novel it would be a generations-long family saga about a Jewish family of about 800 pages. This animated TV series manages to explore the entire family and even a few secondary characters in 10 concise half hour episodes.

Long Story Short is real and funny. It’s full of family stories that tear people apart and bring them together. It’s full of fast talking, argumentative characters who make everything a drama. The story jumps around in time to tell stories for everyone from grandparents to grandchildren.

The voice actors were wonderful. Paul Reiser, Ben Feldman, Abbi Jacobson, Max Greenfield, and Lisa Edelstein voiced the Schwooper family. Elliot (Reiser) and Naomi (Edelstein) were the parents of Avi (Feldman), Shira (Jacobson) and Yoshi (Greenfield).

Avi married Jen (Angelique Cabral) and later they divorced. They had a daughter Hannah (Michaela Dietz). Jen never converted to Judaism but Hannah was thinking about it.

Shira married Kendra (Nicole Byer), who did convert to Judaism. They had two boys with donated sperm.

Additional important characters were voiced by Zoe Lister-Jones, Danny Burstein, Gina Rodriguez, John Cho, Rachel Bloom, Sherry Cola, John Early and others.

The series used almost cartoonish animated characters. The artwork wasn’t beautiful like, say, Arcane. It was effective in relaying emotion and character, however.

It’s impressive how much we learn about this extended family in so short a series – how they love, how they guilt, why they hurt, what they need, what they believe, where they fail, and where they succeed. An exaggerated zany Jewishness coupled with a deep emotional core make the series fast, fun, and heartfelt. The way each episode begins with something from the past that illuminates the present is very effective.

The series has already been renewed for a second season, which is good. There are plenty more stories to learn from this family.

The series was created by Raphael Bob-Waksberg, the creator of BoJack Horseman. You can see it on Netflix.