This Close

This Close is a dramedy television series written by and starring deaf creators Shoshannah Stern and Josh Feldman that premiered on Sundance Now on February 14, 2018.

Background
This Close began as Fridays, Stern and Feldman's Kickstarter web series, and then premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival's Episodic Showcase as The Chances. It was Sundance Now's first straight-to-series order, and centers on two deaf best friends navigating their twenties in Los Angeles. Josh Feldman and Shoshannah Stern are the first deaf TV showrunners. According to the creators, approximately 25 of the cast and crew are also deaf.

Stern says when they were coming up with a title for the TV show, the network kept trying to pitch "words [that] they were trying to use to capture the deaf experience, like 'The Sound of Silence' [or] 'Deaf Like Me.' But I said, 'I think we’re working backwards... instead of trying to find an English word that captures the deaf experience, we should be thinking of a sign'." Stern and Feldman came up with the title, This Close, as a translation for a sign that's "your index finger and your middle finger crossing." According to Stern, it's a sign that has many different translations: "We’re showing something that’s intertwined... [it's] a sign used for “best friends, “like this” or “this close”. So we came up with “this close” from that."

It was renewed for a second season in April 2018. This Close is developed and produced by Super Deluxe.

Main

 * Shoshannah Stern as Kate
 * Josh Feldman as Michael

Recurring

 * Colt Prattes as Ryan
 * Zach Gilford as Danny
 * Cheryl Hines as Stella
 * Nyle DiMarco as Ben Genovese
 * Moshe Kasher as Jacob
 * Marlee Matlin as Annie
 * Colleen Foy as Taylor
 * Marcia Cross as Blythe
 * Camryn Manheim as The Therapist
 * Steven Weber as Michael's Dad
 * Austin Nichols as Shep
 * Lisa Rinna as Ryan's Mom
 * Margaret Cho as Zagat
 * Millicent Simmonds as Emmaline
 * Marylouise Burke as Hollis
 * Jessica Tuck as Carol
 * Will Murden as Nathan
 * Colleen Foy as Taylor
 * Shaylee Mansfield as Margaret
 * Bryan Michael Nunez as Jimmy
 * John P. McGinty as Blaine
 * CJ Jones as Craig
 * Joseph Haro as Noah
 * Dot-Marie Jones as Judy/Judith

Reception
This Close is the first television series created, written by and starring deaf artists and has garnered attention for its representation of the deaf community. Mike Hale of The New York Times called it "funny and poignant in ways we haven't seen before...deftly directed and impressively cast." It was featured on Vulture's "Best Shows of 2018" list and was described as a "terrific, quietly groundbreaking series."