The best comedy TV shows to watch in 2025

Danson has 'perfect comic pitch' as a retired professor who goes undercover in A Man on the Inside

(Image credit: Alamy / Netflix / Everett Collection Inc)

Jump to category:

Mo
A Man on the Inside
Alma's Not Normal
Daddy Issues
Here We Go
Only Murders in the Building
Mr. and Mrs. Smith
Colin from Accounts
Dreaming Whilst Black
Jury Duty
Everyone Else Burns
Shrinking
Platonic
The Change
The Big Door Prize

last updated 3 February 2025

From Ted Danson's hilarious portrayal of a retired professor-turned-undercover agent to a semi-autobiographical series about a Houston-based Palestinian refugee, these are some of the best comedy TV shows to watch in 2025.

Mo

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". Watch on Netflix

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

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.

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". Watch on Netflix

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". Watch on BBC iPlayer

As Gemma tries to "cope" with her pregnancy, "snare" a sugar daddy, pay the rent and heal her relationship with her father, Malcolm learns "not to mop up bin juice with his jacket", joins a boxing club "for depressed men", and tries dating. The BBC Three sitcom is jam-packed with oddball characters, each giving "stereotypes a twist". With "high jinks" in abundance, "Daddy Issues" is "a comedy for our times" and you will laugh", but "you might also cry". Watch on BBC iPlayer

Paul (Jim Howick of "Ghosts") is an out-of-work former Olympic archer, trying to find control in his life, while his wife Rachel (Katherine Parkinson) is "trapped in frustrated suburbia". Filmed through the eyes of teenage son Sam, who loves nothing more than catching his family out at their most ridiculous, we see a series of mishaps. The best of these include a pool filled with hair dye, a school prize-giving interrupted by an outbreak of piles, a salsa class descending into an all-you-can-eat buffet and a night-vision camera catching an accidental sex tape. It's "low stakes farce" in a show that is "deliberately unadventurous". But sometimes the biggest risk you can take in comedy is "none at all". Watch on BBC iPlayer

Starring Donald Glover and Maya Erskine – in place of Phoebe Waller-Bridge who dropped out due to "creative differences" – this TV remake of the 2005 film is a "subversive, seductive, slow burn", said Esquire. The eponymous couple are thrown together by a secretive spy agency and forced to live as a married couple carrying out missions around the world. It is "a great demonstration of the charm and intelligence that infuses the whole that they pivot from strangers to colleagues to lovers so seamlessly", said The Guardian, in what is ultimately a "fast, fun and witty" show. The way the eight-part series "wrestles with the idea of compatibility makes this feel like a show about dating first and spying second", said Vox, but it is also genuinely laugh out loud at times. It boasts the "sort of lived-in, daring jokes we need more of in television: not quippy, not a Succession-style insult, just funny", said Esquire. Watch now on Amazon Prime

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. Watch on 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". Watch on BBC iPlayer

"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". Watch on Amazon Prime

A "family of worshippers" join an "overzealous Christian doomsday sect" in this six-part comedy, said Barbara Ellen in The Observer. "Inadequate control freak" David (played by Simon Bird with "a distracting pudding bowl haircut") is "a kind of Captain Mainwaring of evangelism" who's wont to getting his family "out of bed for apocalypse practice". But "it's not a comedy going for cheap laughs about Christianity", said The Telegraph. "It's a great premise", the characters are "well-written" and "every line has a comic payoff". Watch on Channel 4

At its heart, "Shrinking" is a "family story", said NPR. It follows a recently widowed therapist and the life of his teenage daughter, as they "reconfigure their relationship in a new way, shaped by his grief and hers". It's an "ensemble comedy-drama" with a "genuinely stupendous cast" – including Harrison Ford, who takes his performance to "a whole new comic gear". This show is "a bright spot in a very crowded landscape". Watch on Apple TV+

In "When Harry Met Sally", Nora Ephron posed the question of whether men and women can "really be just friends", said Lucy Mangan in The Guardian. The "mighty" writer's answer was "in essence, no" – but the Apple TV+ series "Platonic" "posits that the answer these days might be yes". "Bad Neighbours" co-stars Rose Byrne and Seth Rogen reunite in this 10-episode series about two former best friends who "fall back into their old ways" five years after their fallout. The leads are afforded "equally meaty, equally comic" roles and their chemistry is "a joy to watch". Watch on Apple TV+

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". Watch on Channel 4

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". Watch on Apple TV+

Explore More

Julia O'Driscoll is the engagement editor. She covers UK and world news, as well as writing lifestyle and travel features. She regularly appears on “The Week Unwrapped” podcast, and hosted The Week's short-form documentary podcast, “The Overview”. Julia was previously the content and social media editor at sustainability consultancy Eco-Age, where she interviewed prominent voices in sustainable fashion and climate movements. She has a master's in liberal arts from Bristol University, and spent a year studying at Charles University in Prague.