Joe Swanberg has been one of the biggest names in independent filmmaking for the past few years. His ability to imitate the subtleties and strangeness of real life is truly remarkable. Swanberg’s first series for Netflix is “Easy” and has an ensemble cast to bring his slice of lifestyle to the small screen.

“Easy” has one main theme: sex in the modern day. Each episode focuses on a different couple, ranging from traditionally married people to millennial hipster lesbians all in different parts of Chicago. The individual stories intersect and weave in and out of one another that gives off a “big city, small world” feeling, a feeling Swanberg has mastered          putting on-screen.

He shows the depths of individual lives and that even the random strangers in the background can have vast and interesting histories. Characters do not need to be action heroes or intense doctors to be the focus. The problems and complications of real life can be more effective dramatically than manufactured epic stories.

Each episode focuses on different people, which brings an ensemble of talent to be used here. Marc Maron (“Maron”), Aya Cash (“You’re The Worst”), Dave Franco (“Neighbors 2”), Michael Chernus (“Orange is the New Black”), Malin Akerman (“Watchmen”), Jake Johnson (“New Girl”) and Emily Ratajkowski (“Gone Girl”) are just some of the names that have a role in Swanberg’s Chicago.

The immense amount of talent brings life to these interesting little anecdotes of modern love, but it’s almost as if they are wasted. It’s as if the characters leave too soon since the series is only eight half-hour episodes and only two of the episodes are directly related. The audience feels like the characters are not given enough time for their stories and that they are sadly           cut short.

Some of the characters focused on do not deserve their own episodes. There were episodes that should have stayed more connected like “Brewery Brothers” and “Hop Dreams” did, even though they were five episodes apart. “Controlada” and “Utopia” certainly deserved a connecting episode, rather than having the less-than-mediocre episodes included at all.

One of the coolest parts to this show is the handmade “Easy” title screens at the beginning of each episode that were designed specifically for that episode and its characters, each made by a different Chicago artist. Maron plays a graphic novelist in his episode and real life cartoonist Jeffrey Brown created all of Maron’s character’s artwork. The weird blend of real life art being incorporated into a television show and having the outcome is superb.

Swanberg can truly bring real life onto the screen, a fascinating glimpse into these individuals’ lives. Granted, some of these stories are more interesting than others, the show still impresses because they choose to use characters that come from the diverse and small parts of real life rather than artificially made situations. If only Swanberg could have trimmed some of the fat and had more of a focus on the first season rather than an array of usually stories that often do not connect.