4 out of 5

Created by: Benji Aflalo, Esther Povitsky and Eben Russell

covers season 1

Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Office introduced us – and inured us to – self-aware cringe comedy, until meme culture and recessions put some bite into things, as represented by the self-effacing snark of Always Sunny and its ilk.  Comedy has somewhat ping-ponged between these styles, guard-railed by laff tracks on one side and timely references on the other; there’s some really funny stuff out there, but high turnover on our attention spans has prevented anything from really standing out.

While I don’t want to name Alone Together as that new champ – it’s indebted to all of the above, blended with the aw-shucks nerdy charms of its Lonely Island producers – I do think it comes across as especially fresh and spirited, and as crafted by a relatively young crew (stars and co-creators Benji and Esther), gives me faith in the current generation of sitcom-fueling comedians.

There’s not much premise here: Benji and Esther are friends, both equally aware of and embracing their outsider statuses but humorously not above pimping themselves out for attention or money, Esther mooching off of Benji’s rich boy lifestyle (his bossy brother Dean is around; parents are never seen), and week to week their self-serving natures mingle with the vacuousness of LA living for hijinks.  But it’s certainly enough for 30 minutes of laughter, striking a deft, damned organic balance between dumb and smart and truly investing in its characters’ contrariness: these are not the Abeds or Charlie Days you actually wish were in your life; these are the friends yous likely roll your eyes at and wish were elsewhere who yet prove to be great TV fodder.  (You know, when you don’t have to actually deal with them.)  Mind you, they’re cool with the arrangement: Esther and Benji, for all their wishes-to-be-liked,  would rather hang out with each other than you anyway.

The above mentioned hijinks occasionally feel forced – as television hijinks are ought to be – but again, the grooving, organic rhythm of all those different comedic notes is really exciting.  (And funny!)