From a quirky menopausal comedy to Dawn French’s charming new sitcom, these are the best comedy series on television now.
Can You Keep a Secret?
Dawn French’s new show is “a lot of fun, and the best work she’s been given since ‘The Vicar of Dibley’”, said Anita Singh in The Telegraph. When her husband William is mistakenly declared dead after a “comic misunderstanding” with the family doctor, Debbie (French) “spies a £250,000 life insurance opportunity” and fakes his death, continuing to live with him at their West Country home. Plenty of “farcical” scenes follow as she attempts to “cover her tracks”, while William hides in the loft. The set-up is “ridiculous” and the family “eccentric”, but the writing is excellent and paints a “wonderfully observed portrait of a certain kind of couple in retirement”. Serious themes are tackled with a “light touch” and French’s comic timing is perfectly matched by her on-screen husband and son. “It’s all pleasantly silly.”
BBC iPlayer
The Change
Bridget Christie’s “quirky” comedy is a “hearty and pleasant reminder” that British television is still able to deliver “small, hugely personal visions” that stand out in a sea of formulaic shows, said Ben Dowell in The Times. Christie stars as Linda, a “menopausal woman who, fed up with her lazy and selfish husband”, hops on her motorbike and heads to the Forest of Dean to “find herself while living in a caravan”. Mackenzie Crook (the “mastermind” behind “Detectorists”) co-directs the second season, bringing his “sensitive, uncluttered eye” to proceedings and allowing the “lovely landscapes” and “English mythos to seep through the show like a summer breeze”. Tricky subjects are addressed with “deftness and delicacy”, while a “tender” message of “growth and redemption” makes this feminist sitcom a “joyous” watch. Channel 4
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Daddy Issues
“Brilliantly acerbic though the first series of ‘Daddy Issues’ was, you sensed it never felt entirely at ease with itself,” said Sarah Dempster in The Guardian. Now, in its second season, the father-daughter sitcom has “found its feet”. At the end of the first instalment, pregnant Gemma (Aimee Lou Wood) finally “booted out” her hapless dad Malcolm (David Morrissey) from her flat. Series two sees him return to the “dilapidated bedsit of his terminally divorced friend (and ‘emotional support dickhead’) Derek”, while Gemma adjusts to the “joys of single motherhood”. Packed with “sublime one-liners”, this warm-hearted parenting comedy has “enormous affection” for its characters – “for all their buffoonery, these are complex and believable souls.”
Overcompensating
Benito Skinner went viral during the pandemic for his impersonations of celebrities from Sabrina Carpenter to Kourtney Kardashian. In his hilarious college comedy series, he stars as Benny Drama, a closeted freshman trying to convince his peers he isn’t gay. The eight-part show is an “absolute hoot”, said Maddy Mussen in London’s The Standard. Based on his personal experience, Skinner “mines endless humour from an objectively depressing situation, playing on his failed sexual escapades with women, his foray into hyper-toxic frat culture and his agonising first crush on a straight man”. With a “stellar supporting cast”, the series is filled with “countless laugh-out-loud moments”. It’s “utter gold”.
Amazon Prime
The Chair Company
“It is quite something to build an entire comedy series around a broken office chair,” said Carol Midgley in The Times. But that’s exactly what kicks off Tim Robinson’s “utterly original” eight-part comedy series. The star of “I Think You Should Leave” plays Ron: an Ohio corporate manager with an “extremely short fuse”, who is “furious” when the office chair he is sitting on collapses, ruining his speech. He becomes hell-bent on “tracking down the company” who made it to call out their “shoddy workmanship”. The premise might sound “dementedly thin” but, if anyone is able to transform a “middlingly embarrassing office occurrence into a crazed theatre of the absurd, it is Tim Robinson”.
Sky
The Paper
This mockumentary about an Ohio newspaper is a “charming” spin-off of the US version of “The Office” that “deserves to be just as big a hit”, said Caryn James on BBC Culture. With the same “droll humour” and a “similar ensemble of characters”, it is nonetheless “distinctly itself”, reflecting how times have changed in the two decades since the US version of “The Office” was adapted from the British original. Ned Sampson (Domhnall Gleeson) is the “earnest” new editor at the “pointedly” named Toledo Truth Teller. Less “acerbic” than both David Brent and Michael Scott, he gives the show a “warmer” feel and helps make it “just the kind of soothing escapism today’s fraught times might call for”.
Sky
Funboys
“Fans of quirky, off-the-wall comedy” are in for a real treat with “Funboys”, said Vicky Jessop in London’s The Standard. This “heartwarming” show about a group of young men living in a “tiny” Northern Irish town is “well worth a few hours of your time”. A “worthy successor” to “Our Country”, the show’s success hinges on the excellent “chemistry” between the main characters. “Beautifully bizarre, quirky and desperately bingeable”, it’s one to add to your watchlist. “Four episodes isn’t enough: more please.” BBC iPlayer
Platonic
Season one of “Platonic” made for a “slyly surprising” show that was “all the better for refusing to follow the predictable rules of engagement”, said Rebecca Nicholson in the Financial Times. The action followed Sylvia (Rose Byrne) and Will (Seth Rogen), two estranged friends who reconnected in their early 40s after an earlier falling out. Somewhat refreshingly, viewers expecting a “will they/won’t they dynamic” instead discover a thoughtful exploration of male/female friendship. In the second season, Will is preparing to wed Jenna (Rachel Rosenbloom), Sylvia is planning his engagement party and the old friends “get involved in a series of low-stakes capers”. This is “silly, self-aware slapstick” at its best, held together by the “charm of its two leads”. Don’t be fooled by its “laid-back” feel, though; the twist at the end of the second episode reminds us of the show’s “darker side”, and sets up “Platonic” as “one of the better comedies of the year”.
Apple TV
Such Brave Girls
Kat Sadler’s Bafta-winning series about a dysfunctional family is back for more. The show’s appeal lies in watching the mother-daughter trio “plumb the lowest emotional depths” and make some “frankly woeful decisions”, said Katie Rosseinsky in The Independent. From mental illness to parental estrangement, “nothing is off limits here, and it’s all attacked with an almost feral comic energy”. Watching the siblings – played by Sadler and her real-life sister Lizzie Davidson – spur each other on to make dreadful life choices is an “unhinged delight”. Darkly humorous and “refreshingly realistic”, it’s “truly brave TV”.
BBC iPlayer
The Studio
This “witty, knowing and cameo-jammed” satire follows “hapless” Hollywood exec Matt (Seth Rogen) as he struggles to produce a “billion-dollar blockbuster while not pissing off ‘the talent’”, said Nick De Semlyen in Empire. A “fizzy, acidic” spoof of the “inherent daftness of the movie business”, it’s a “triumphantly funny” series that feels like it could easily “run and run”. At the point Martin Scorsese is “sobbing in the arms of Charlize Theron”, “The Studio” will likely have you hooked.
Apple TV
Hacks
When this scooped its “thoroughly deserved” Emmy for best comedy last year, I “cheered”, said David Mack in Slate. The “hilarious” show follows the lives of two women, at very different stages of their comedy careers, who form an unlikely friendship. Now in its fourth season, “Hacks” is a “masterclass in meta-exploration”, thoughtfully examining the “very same questions as its characters”: “what do you do when you’re on top?” The latest batch of episodes is a “riot”, cementing its status as one of the “funniest shows” on TV.
Amazon Prime
Amandaland
“Spin-offs are always a risk,” said Chitra Ramaswamy in The Guardian, but “Amandaland” was a “sure bet”, with the “best character” in the BBC winner “Motherland” providing ample opportunity for exposing “the worst excesses, blind spots and hypocrisies of the posh, white, west London middle classes”. Following her divorce, Amanda has upped sticks from Chiswick to the far less chi-chi south Harlesden. Gone are the old gang of Julia, Liz and Kevin, but Anne is back as the put-upon best friend. Amanda’s mother is played by Joanna Lumley “with Ab Fab levels of relish” and with gags covering the likes of “Gloria Hunniford, the Just Seventeen problem page and Sinn Féin”, this is a very British comedy.
BBC iPlayer
Sign up to the Arts & Life newsletter for reviews and recommendations.
-
Political cartoons for January 19Cartoons Monday's political cartoons include Greenland tariffs, fighting the Fed, and more
-
Spain’s deadly high-speed train crashThe Explainer The country experienced its worst rail accident since 2013, with the death toll of 39 ‘not yet final’
-
Can Starmer continue to walk the Trump tightrope?Today's Big Question PM condemns US tariff threat but is less confrontational than some European allies
-
Can You Keep a Secret? Dawn French’s new comedy is a ‘surprising treat’The Week Recommends Warm, funny show about an insurance scam is ‘beautifully performed’
-
Let these comedians help you laugh your way through winterThe Week Recommends Get some laughs from Nate Bargatze, Josh Johnson and more
-
Man vs Baby: Rowan Atkinson stars in an accidental adoption comedyTalking Point Sequel to Man vs Bee is ‘nauseatingly schmaltzy’
-
The 8 best dark comedies of the 21st centuryThe Week Recommends From Santa Claus to suicide terrorism, these movies skewered big, taboo subjects
-
8 of the best horror comedy films of all timeThe Week Recommends From parodies to ‘requels,’ these movies will make you laugh and scream at the same time
-
Leonard and Hungry Paul: ‘beautiful, heartfelt’ televisionThe Week Recommends Julia Roberts narrates this ‘charming’ and ‘unexpectedly profound’ adaptation of Rónán Hession’s novel
-
I Swear: a ‘warm-hearted’ comedy-dramaThe Week Recommends While ‘inescapably hilarious’, the drama also lifts the lid on John Davidson’s experiences with Tourette syndrome
-
Is The Inbetweeners reboot a good idea?Talking Point The cult classic sitcom is set to return over a decade after its final episode – but not everyone is happy
