If you have recently found yourself with large amounts of free time on your hands for some reason, you wouldn’t be the only one. Bingeing television has quickly become a lot of people’s favourite past times, and hard-hitting dramas may not be the greatest form of escapism right now. With that in mind, here are eight hilarious comedies currently streaming that are worth queuing up in your watch list.
Arrested Development
The show so perfect for binge-watching that it only started to receive the recognition it deserved when Netflix picked it up. Following the downfall of the once-wealthy and entirely dysfunctional Bluth family, Arrested Development uses its camera, editing, and production design to create comedy so dense that repeat watches only build on the experience. The show refined the art of the running gag and gave us such iconic characters as Lucille Bluth, GOB, and Tobias Fünke who have since gone down in the annals of pop culture through memes, GIFs, and instantly quotable one-liners.
Community
Television shows have been using pop culture references and meta-humour for years, but few have so effectively used them as a way to build characters and develop story arcs as effectively as Community. Towards the end of its first season, the show started experimenting with the traditional sitcom format by introducing concept episodes, which heavily satirised specific movie and television genres and tropes in ways that affectionately mocked but never cheapened their source material. Community covered westerns, musicals, animations, documentaries, epic fantasies, Hitchcockian mysteries, and crime procedurals – all within the confines of an entirely non-mystical, semi-realistic sitcom college setting. It quickly gained a cult following, and became one of the most unique comedy shows of the 2010’s.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Perhaps due to its unappealing title, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend struggled to build its ratings over the years – but that doesn’t at all reflect the passion of its fanbase. Its examination of mental illness and what society deems “crazy” behaviour sends the story to some emotional, moving places, but much like Community its hilarious send-up of pop culture through the TV musical format keeps it light on its feet. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend satirises a huge number of music styles and artists, from 70’s disco to 90’s hip hop, pulling off a Marilyn Monroe tribute, a Fred Astaire dance routine, and even an entire episode taking the piss out of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cats. But it is the show’s understanding of the emotions and ideas we associate with each of these music icons and its ability to use them to shape a heartfelt story that makes Crazy Ex-Girlfriend truly inventive, funny, and an absolute joy to watch.
Parks and Recreation
It takes a couple of seasons to find its footing, but from season 3 onward Parks and Recreation really hits its stride. There is something uplifting in seeing these public servants persevere through thankless jobs just so they can make their community marginally better than it was before. It’s this undying spirit of endurance that defines the show, and which is embodied in one of TV’s greatest heroes, Leslie Knope. She knows that there are bigger problems that need to be fixed on a national level, but she also recognises that for now her place is to work on the small issues that no one else can address. Timely themes, given the current crisis.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine
While working on Parks and Recreation, writer and producer Mike Schur played with the idea of the “cutecom” – that is, a subgenre of sitcoms in which the central group of characters will tolerate each other’s flaws on the basis that they are all working towards becoming better people. Conflicts occasionally arise from within the group, but it usually comes from outside forces. With Brooklyn Nine-Nine, he perfected it. Jake Peralta and the assortment of weirdos who make up the police department of Brooklyn’s 99th precinct are the kinds of people you would want to hang out with. Not because they would never frustrate you, but because the only drama that arises between them can be resolved within the space of a 20 minute episode. Brooklyn Nine-Nine has been praised for tackling heavy issues like racial profiling and sexual assault, all while consistently cracking brilliant jokes that never undercut the significance of its themes. But everyone knows that it’s the Halloween Heist episodes that are the real gems of the show.
The Good Place
Following on from Parks and Recreation and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Mike Schur finally channelled all his ideas about what it means to be a good person into their purest, cosmic form – The Good Place. After Eleanor Shellstrop, a terrible human being, finds out that she has died and mistakenly wound up in “The Good Place” (as opposed to “The Bad Place”), she figures that she must try to learn basic ethics so she can fit in and keep her spot. Unlike other sitcoms, The Good Place is much less of a hangout show and a little more plot-driven, but it is this forward momentum that makes the character development in this show so appealing. Like Schur’s other great shows, there is the option to either enjoy the hilarious situations these characters end up in or to dig deeper into its themes, and The Good Place certainly satisfies either way.
The Mighty Boosh
Throwing a bit of an odd one in here, because The Mighty Boosh isn’t to everyone’s taste. It is surreal, nonsensical, and plays by its own rules. It can only be described as a buddy comedy that sends its two main characters, Howard and Vince, off on wonderfully hallucinogenic adventures to the bottom of the ocean, a desert island, the tundra, inside a human body, and to other planets. Sometimes they’re accompanied by their two friends, the mystical shaman Naboo and his talking gorilla, Bollo. Sometimes they face off against the villainous Hitcher, a green-faced cockney who wears a polo mint as an eyepatch. Sometimes the Moon will interject in the middle of an episode with his own rambling monologues. There’s not much rhyme or reason to why this show works as well as it does, but its weird, dedicated fanbase are a testament to its enduring quality over a decade later.
Fleabag
Admittedly there’s not much of Fleabag to binge, but if you’re one of the unlucky few who hasn’t caught up with this yet, you could potentially knock the whole show out in a day. Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s dysfunctional feminist café owner is one of the most iconic TV characters of the 2010’s – a little broken, often petty, trying to be better, and not always succeeding. She frequently breaks the fourth wall in short, quick-witted asides, considering all the big questions of life and their direct impact on her. Religion, sex, grief, and companionship are handled with sophistication and humour, and it’s this sharp balance of tones that has made Fleabag such a huge success.
We are loving Kim’s Convenience. A Canadian sitcom based on a Korean family with both funny a poignant moments.