Deaf creators tell compelling tale of identity, fitting in

TV REVIEW

“This Close” is a groundbreaking series, but that’s not why you should watch it.

The six-episode first season — premiering tonight on Sundance Now, the streaming platform for AMC’s premium content — is about a straight woman (Shoshannah Stern) and a gay man (Josh Feldman) who are best friends.

Both are deaf, as are both actors, who also created the show.

The groundbreaking part is this: Much of the show’s dialogue is in sign language with subtitles. It takes about a minute to get used to the subtitles, then you’re engaged with the compelling and complicated lives of the two friends and their friends.

Kate is engaged to Danny (Zach Gilford), and Michael has just broken up with his fiance, Ryan (Colt Prattes). In various ways, the series is about fitting in without losing one’s identity.

Kate and Michael lead normal lives, filled with many of the elements of any ordinary life. The fact that they’re deaf doesn’t change how they feel or what they want from the world.

Hearing people, on the other hand, often treat them in ridiculous ways.

A sales clerk shouts, as if that might help Kate better read her lips. Strangers express sadness and pity upon learning that Kate is deaf. Her boss, Stella (Cheryl Hines), makes a big deal of having hired a deaf employee, but it’s all for show.

Kate’s deafness doesn’t limit her skills in the high-powered Los Angeles talentmanagement company that Stella runs, but Stella hasn’t allowed her to manage clients.

In the world, Kate and Michael are in a minority. Among their friends and lovers, though, the equation changes.

Inevitably, Kate and Michael fall into signed conversations that no one else can join. Danny feels excluded, and we understand that.

At the same time, we now see how Kate feels when she’s out with Danny’s hearing friends and he makes no effort to connect her to their conversation.

There’s a message here, yes, but perhaps a more important theme centers on communication in a larger sense.

Danny is learning to sign, but he isn’t very skilled at it. Is he trying hard enough, or does he demonstrate a hearing person’s sense of entitlement? The idea that he might not be trying hard enough mirrors deeper communication issues in his relationship with Kate.

Ryan has made more of an effort to learn to sign. He’s able to have entire conversations with Michael and Michael’s mother, Annie (Marlee Matlin), by signing. Yet actual communication isn’t as important as honest communication.

The series has some weak spots. There’s an urge at certain points to preach rather than dramatize the message that Stern and Feldman want to deliver about being deaf in a hearing world.

One episode finds Kate having to substitute at the last minute for Genovese on a panel of differently abled actors. Kate feels out of place, but the episode is meant to deliver the valid message that a physical-ability issue shouldn’t keep a performer from being hired for a job he or she is otherwise qualified for.

Overall, though, “This Close” isn’t a public-service message. It’s a tender and realistic story about modern relationships.

Its charm comes through loud and clear.