From a warm-hearted parenting sitcom to an absurd show about a broken office chair, these are the best comedy television series to watch now.
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.”
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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
Film Club
This “deeply intelligent comedy about two film buff friends with unspoken feelings” is “impeccably cast”, said Lucy Mangan in The Guardian. The show follows Evie (Aimee Lou Wood) and Noa (Nabhaan Rizwan) who have been best mates since university, and continue to hold their weekly film club every Friday night. Now, though, it’s held in Evie’s mum’s garage, and is “usually just the two of them”. The garage has become something of a “cocoon” and “refuge” for Evie, who “hasn’t been able to leave the house since her ‘wobble’” a few months before. But when Noa is offered a job in Bristol, it becomes harder to ignore how they really feel. “Film Club” is “quietly confident TV that brims with insight”. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable watch.
BBC iPlayer
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 Tolledo Truthteller. 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 Rogan), 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”, 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
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