From a "Motherland" spin-off with a dazzling cast to a hit comedy drama about the lives of five Black students who win scholarships to an elite boarding school, these are some of the funniest TV shows to watch in 2025.
"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". Now, 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
The scholarship students of St Gilbert's are back for a second series of this hit BBC Three satire. We follow up on the five Black teenagers who, as part of a social outreach programme, have swapped their inner-city schools for an Eton-like boarding institution. They face the "bizarre rites and rituals" of initiation and are "bullied, underestimated and objectified", said Leila Latif in The Guardian, but the drama broadens out beyond class and race and is a "fun, funny and complex coming-of-age story" with a cast full of "future stars". BBC iPlayer
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This "sidesplittingly funny yet dark" show is inspired by comic Mo Amer's life as a Palestinian refugee growing up in Houston, said Hannah J. Davies in The Guardian. Series one introduced us to Mo Najjar who – like the real-life Mo – fled the Gulf war with his family and moved to the US as a child. The second season picks up in Mexico where Mo is "stranded" after having left Texas in a bid to "outrun a people-smuggling coyote gang". Now he's trying to make ends meet working as a "lucha libre wrestler and playing with a mariachi band".
Mo's appeal lies in its ability to capture the "small absurdities of everyday life", said Ed Power in The Independent. While "immigrant trauma" and the "long shadow of the conflict in the Middle East" might not seem like the typical ingredients for a "charming sitcom", what's most "impressive" about Amer's show is the way it "holds up a mirror to 21st-century America" while delivering regular "belly laughs". In all, it's an "immensely likeable chuckle-fest" that demonstrates how "humour can bring warmth and empathy to even the bleakest scenarios". Netflix
A Man on the Inside
A Man on the Inside | Official Trailer | Netflix - YouTube
Michael Shur's latest comedy about a retired professor (Ted Danson) who goes undercover in a retirement home to catch a jewel thief is "funny", "sweet" and "heartwarming", said Ferdosa Abdi on Screen Rant. The show doesn't shy away from tackling the "emotional anxieties of getting old" – but it does so with plenty of "fun".
Danson has "perfect comic pitch" and brings just enough sadness to his portrayal of Charles to turn the "retiree-turned-amateur shamus" into a believable character, said Benji Wilson in The Telegraph. "Mawkishness and nostalgia are rarely breeding grounds for hilarity" but Shur (one of the creators of "Parks and Recreation"), has pulled it off, delivering a "winning amalgam of sharp lines and heart", that balances "trenchant commentary on ageing" with a "regular drumbeat of good gags and daft set-ups". Netflix
Alma's Not Normal
Alma's Not Normal: When it's time for a career change – BBC - YouTube
Sophie Willan's semi-autobiographical show is a "triumph of writing and performance" that "beats anything the streaming giants can produce", said Benji Wilson in The Telegraph. Willan delivers "brilliant" social commentary "sugared" with "superb" writing as Alma Nuttall, the show's protagonist, who tackles sex work, "dodgy" boyfriends and chaotic family life.
The first instalment saw Alma leave her "frequently grim" job as an escort for a tour with a local theatre company, said Rachel Aroesti in The Guardian. Season two is here and Alma is back in Bolton, where her grandmother is holding her mother's schizophrenic boyfriend "semi-captive" and Alma has found herself "blacklisted" from the escort industry. Watching Alma struggle for her big break is "TV at its most beautiful, furious and hilarious" and "pretty much the perfect comedy". BBC iPlayer
Only Murders in the Building
Only Murders in the Building | Season 4 Trailer | Hulu - YouTube
On paper, it's an unlikely cast for a comedy: a couple of comedians in their 70s, teamed up with a former Disney Channel child star, but there "aren't many things more enjoyable on TV than the sight of Steve Martin and Martin Short riffing with one another," said the Financial Times' Dan Einav.
In this fourth series of this Disney+ production, the intrepid trio of amateur sleuths (Selena Gomez completes the team) try to find out who would want to kill avuncular Charles-Haden Savage (Martin) after the former TV star's long-serving body double becomes the latest victim to meet their end at New York’s Upper West Side Arconia apartment block.
Their hit podcast means that death is their business. "We've been very lucky with people dying in our building, " says Savage. The plot is "well-crafted" and the characters "richly drawn". Disney+
This "textured and inviting romantic comedy" is a "real find", said The Times. Two "slightly daft" people, Ashley and Gordon, meet when Gordon – "distracted after Ashley flashed him her breast as a reward for giving her right of way on the road" – hits a dog. The pair then have to look after the animal, who they name Colin from Accounts. The show is "charming", and "soars thanks to the chemistry between the leading pair", played by husband and wife duo Harriet Dyer and Patrick Brammall, who also co-wrote and directed the show. BBC iPlayer
British TV has been "crying out for comedy like this", said Radio Times drama writer Morgan Cormack. The BBC has "a comedy gem" in this six-part series by Adjani Salmon, who also stars as lead character Kwabena, a "hopeful filmmaker" who is "pulling out" the stops to get his first movie made. "The laughs" are balanced with "prevalent conversations and everyday explorations about what it means to be Black in Britain" in a way "other comedies can only learn from", said Cormack. "Dreaming Whilst Black" is a series that "won't be forgotten anytime soon". BBC iPlayer
Jury Duty
Jury Duty - Official Trailer | Prime Video - YouTube
"Jury Duty'' is a "prank reality show" about "that most dreaded of civic duties", said Time Out. An "average Joe" called Ronald Gladden is one of 12 jurors being filmed as part of a documentary about the American justice system – or so he thinks, said Mashable. The other 11 people he finds himself sequestered in an LA hotel with are actors – so is the judge, the lawyers and the bailiff, who are all "improvising to see how he'll react". The outcome is "winsomely heartwarming", and Gladden's "accepting nature" makes the show "into something more than even the producers anticipated – and ends up all the funnier for it". Amazon Prime
The Change
Pushed to the Edge by Her Own Family | The Change | Channel 4 Comedy - YouTube
Bridget Christie plays Linda, a wife and mum who embarks on a "mid-life road-trip" to "rediscover herself" in the Forest of Dean – but on arrival, it's "not quite the bucolic ideal she had in mind", said Chortle. A "musing menagerie of weirdos" awaits her, and there's an "otherworldly sheen" to the events that unfold. "The Change" encompasses a seemingly "unlikely" combination of "light-touch social commentary and a magical realism drawn from English folk mythology" that "works well". It "proves itself repeatedly funny in ways large and small". Channel 4
The Big Door Prize
The Big Door Prize — Official Trailer | Apple TV+ - YouTube
This "thought-provoking" comedy has the "Ted Lasso" formula of "saccharine sentiment offset by salty humour", said The Telegraph. The story takes place in "smalltown America", with the "mysterious arrival of an arcade machine at the local store". The Morpho machine can tell you your "life potential" – and "unsurprisingly" proves "an instant smash hit with locals", who suddenly find "purpose" in their "humdrum lives". This "thought experiment" stars Chris O'Dowd, and the performances "across the board are superb". Apple TV+
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