LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – AUGUST 18: Raphael Bob-Waksberg attends Netflix’s ‘Long Story Short’ Los Angeles Special Screening at Netflix Tudum Theater on August 18, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Gonzalo Marroquin/Getty Images for Netflix)
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Raphael Bob-Waksberg, the creator of Netflix’s BoJack Horseman, is back on Netflix with a new series, Long Story Short. The story follows a Jewish family across five generations, from childhood to adulthood, blending laughs and tear-jerking moments, just like in Bob-Waksberg’s other shows. What makes Long Story Short different from his earlier work is its use of circular storytelling. Instead of guiding the audience from point A to point B and then to point C, the story loops back, with the beginning and end of the season starting and ending on similar notes. This approach highlights strong storytelling and ends on a tone that is both somber and hopeful.
Despite being greenlit for a second season, Long Story Short tells a story that feels complete on its own. In today’s streaming era, many shows try to cram as much content as possible into limited episodes, aiming to quickly hook viewers in hopes of renewal. Long Story Short doesn’t seem to do that; it feels organic, and the 30-minute episodes, even some shown out of order, tell a continuous story that leaves viewers feeling like they know these characters intimately.
A Story That’s Circular and Nonlinear
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – AUGUST 18: (L-R) Abbi Jacobson, Ben Feldman, Angelique Cabral, Nicole Byer, Lisa Edelstein, Michaela Dietz, Raphael Bob-Waksberg and Max Greenfield attend Netflix’s ‘Long Story Short’ Los Angeles Special Screening at Netflix Tudum Theater on August 18, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Gonzalo Marroquin/Getty Images for Netflix)
Getty Images for Netflix
The first episode opens with a somber, cold open that includes moments of levity as the main cast, the Schwooper family, drives to their grandmother’s funeral. The subsequent episodes feature events that aren’t in chronological order, with each story set at different points in time. In some episodes, certain characters are at completely different stages of their lives and haven’t even met, even though a previous episode shows character relationships established when they already knew each other. This unique storytelling style hints at what’s to come as the series progresses or creates a sense of sadness when the Schwoopers are together, knowing that, at a future point in the timeline, some characters will inevitably die—adding complexity as each family member copes with that loss—versus watching them happy, fighting, or unaware of what lies ahead.
Then, there are episodes where there’s a kind of soft reset, where the characters transition from the past into the future, and the established canon and relationships are restored. Even with the full picture, viewers can see the different events that led each character to this point in the story. We see broken friendships, growing distance among family members who were once close, divorce, death, and new additions to the Schwooper family through their children. And to top it all off, the circular storytelling finds its completion in the finale when the characters, once again, gather for a funeral for another family member, where it begins and leans heavily on humor and concludes on a somber yet hopeful note, with the characters remembering those they’ve lost. That character appears only in their memories; in the same outfits they wore at different points in the story.
What Long Story Short Gets Right
Streaming has made it harder for shows to stand out, especially with the binging model, and many shows fail because of the quick, disposable, and surface-level content they create. It becomes easy for those stories to be forgotten when so many other shows can achieve the same effect. What makes Long Story Short so refreshing is its circular and nonlinear storytelling that sets it apart. The show asks its audience to think and appreciate the larger storylines it presents, and to see that every scene, no matter how small it seems, serves an important purpose.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/braedonmontgomery/2025/08/31/how-netflixs-long-story-short-uses-circular-storytelling-to-stand-out/
