Quirky comedy gives two misfits sense of purpose

Television comedy comes in many forms, but among the most popular is what I like to call “comedy of the annoying” — sitcoms about people with whom you probably wouldn’t want to spend a lot of time.

Think "Difficult People."

"Alone Together" — written by comic Esther Povitsky, Benji Aflalo and Eben Russell — centers on two difficult people, Povitsky and Aflalo, who are made for each other.

Perhaps for each other, as viewers will see when the show premieres Wednesday night on Freeform.

"Alone" focuses on Esther (Povitsky) and Benji (Aflalo) who don’t fit in with the ultra-chic in Los Angeles. Benji lives in the Beverly Hills mansion of his older, hipper brother, Dean (Chris D’Elia), where he dreams of getting his brother’s dating handme-downs but will settle for most anyone.

When he meets a female prospect, Benji — securely insecure — pretends to be as rich and suave as his realestate-broker brother.

But his true nature soon emerges — as with, for example, a disparaging remark about having been born with his mother’s hips.

Meanwhile, Esther is crushing madly and futilely on Dean, so much so that she poses for photos with him

as part of a scheme to help him rid himself of a woman he has been dating for a few weeks.

Esther and Benji are both rather sad characters, even willing to demean themselves, yet there is a kind of defiance at the root of their self-focus.

They aren’t quite as insular as Billy Eichner's and Julie Klausner’s characters in "Difficult People," but they feel completely free only when they are tossing brainy, artfully constructed deadpan one-liners at each other.

“Alone Together” — produced by, among others, Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer — skates very close to being too annoying but holds on to its appeal because of the writing and because Povitsky and Aflalo remain credible at all times — not only in their spot-on performances and comic timing but also in their looks and movements.

They go out of their way to tell strangers that they aren’t a couple and have never had sex. It’s important that that particular "shark" remain "unjumped" for the show to work.

Esther and Benji, I fear, would lose their appeal if they ever became "Together Together."