As nice as it is to venture into the great outdoors, sometimes a dark room, comfy sofa and flat-screen TV are just as appealing, especially when it’s pushing 90 degrees outside.
But it’s summer, which also means you don’t want to be weighed down on that sofa by somber subject matter. You want something you can cycle through quickly, don’t always have to pay real hard attention to (the bingeing bonus is being able to putter around the house while the show continues on in the background, since you can always replay anything you might’ve missed), that will make you smile, laugh or howl out loud. Here’s a breakdown of some bingeworthy new(ish) comedies that range from light and breezy to dark and sleazy, with some healthy doses of absurdity and notes of painful awkwardness thrown in for extra tang.
The Last Man on Earth It’s pretty hard to warm to Phil aka Tandy (Will Forte), the bumbling antihero who brings together a motley crew of survivors after a virus wipes out (nearly) everyone on earth, but Mary Steenburgen is hilarious as wine-chugging Gail, while recurring guest Jason Sudeikis as Phil’s wayward astronaut brother provides some bonus comic relief. The best cameos come from priceless artifacts of the past that have become worthless playthings in this vacant present, like the Back to the Future DeLorean and the iconic green Versace gown J-Lo wore to the 42nd Grammys.
Fargo A TV riff on the film, FX’s Fargo has the same noirish quality as the movie, but amps up the dark humor with unforgettably quirky characters and an A-grade list of stars — Billy Bob Thornton, Bob Odenkirk, Martin Freeman, Kirsten Dunst, Ted Danson, Colin Hanks and Patrick Wilson among them — that make the riveting intersecting plotlines and top-notch writing shine. Keep your eyes peeled for Parks and Rec alum Nick Offerman as a smarmy attorney/auto shop owner in Season 2.
Casual In this Hulu original, a freshly divorced, socially clumsy therapist (played by Michaela Watkins) and her 16-going-on-30 daughter move in with her depressive (and vaguely well-off) brother (Tommy Dewey), co-founder of a popular dating site called Snooger that he uses to find all the wrong women (and that his sibling experiments with when she decides to try dating). Casual is the sort of show that settles into awkward like it’s an old sweater, to hilarious effect.
Broad City A web series picked up by Comedy Central (and streaming now on Hulu) that follows the wacky stoner-slacker adventures of two 20something anti-JAPS (besties Ilana Wexler and Abbi Abrams, the show’s creators and stars) as they live the broke life in NYC amid working (or trying hard not to), dating (or failing miserably at it) and plenty of sophomoric hijinks. Among the vast array of memorable cameos are Tony Danza as Abbi’s dad, Kelly Ripa as a more outrageous, law-breaking version of herself, and Hillary Clinton as a less noxiously campaigning version of herself.
Transparent Jeffrey Tambor deserves all the awards he’s received for his portrait of a middle-aged professor making the awkward but endearing transition from Mort to Maura, but it’s his self-involved, self-destructive yet also endearing adult children (Jay Duplass, Amy Landecker, Gaby Hoffman) who make this Amazon series addictive. The flashbacks to earlier (way earlier) family history deepen the narrative in the second season, and the quality of guest stars throughout (Cherry Jones, Bradley Whitford, and Carrie Brownstein, to name a few) is stellar. —David Warner
Love The Netflix original was created by Judd Apatow, Paul Rust, and Lesley Arfin, and stars Rust as Gus, a geeky writer-hopeful and on-set tutor for the teenage stars of a supernatural soap about witches. Gillian Jacobs is Mickey, the cute yet cynical producer of a radio advice show who has an addictive personality and a self-destructive streak. Their meeting and subsequent attempt at dating sets the tone of the show, about the sometimes humiliating and often dysfunctional realities of modern courtship.
Difficult People It’s the sort of show that alternately makes you cringe and cheer when its protagonists feel the immediate repercussions of their egocentric schemes. Billy Eichner and show creator Julie Klausner play jaded, mean-spirited New York City comedians — he’s a loud, ornery and generally abrasive gay man who hates everything except for Julie, his tactless, self-absorbed bestie sidekick. It’s like Seinfeld meets Will and Grace, minus laugh tracks and with extra snarky bite. Season 2 premieres July 12.
Royal Pains There’s something appealing about watching two boyish brothers romp about the tony Hamptons while the rich and famous do stupid shit to themselves while on vacation. Bonus: Fonzie’s their dad. Well, not the real Fonz. Henry Winkler. This USA Network show is more than a medical drama, with later seasons adding international intrigue including Russians and… Buddhists? Yeah, there’s some unintentional comedy there, but either way, the blue water and over-the-top vacation homes make it an easy way to pass a week or two. Seven seasons available on Netflix. —Cathy Salustri
The Mindy Project It was canceled by Fox after three seasons, but thankfully, the single-camera sitcom created by and starring Office alum Mindy Kaling got picked up by Hulu. Now in its fourth season, The Mindy Project follows the charmingly inelegant antics of a ditzy, self-assured obstetrician/gynecologist with far too much pop-culture savvy and far too little substance. Lots of outstanding guests cycling through, mostly love interests of Mindy or her quirky co-workers, like Glen Howerton of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, or The Walking Dead’s Laura Cohan.
Julian Fellowes Presents Doctor Thorne If you’re a Downton Abbey fan, you’ll lap this one up (and at just four episodes, it’s less of a binge than a nice long Sunday supper). Adapted by Fellowes (progenitor of all things Downton) from Anthony Trollope’s 1858 novel, Doctor Thorne is as concerned with issues of class and marriage as Downton was, but it’s got a bit more of a satirical edge, finding comedy in gorgon-like grandes dames conspiring to marry off their progeny to big bucks in order to buffer the family fortune. Tom Hollander is the epitome of decency as the eponymous doctor, Ian McShane has a juicy turn as a rail magnate who’s too fond of the juice, and Stefanie Martini and Harry Richardson are doe-eyed young lovers from different stations. —DW
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt This Tina Fey-helmed Netflix original finds a strong, sharp cast led by Ellie Kemper as the titular character, kidnapped by a doomsday cult in eighth grade and rescued after spending 15 years holed up in a bunker with three other headline-making “Mole Women.” Her unflagging optimism and boundless naiveté as she acclimates to life in modern-day NYC spurs the show’s humorous (and often ludicrous) plotlines, the recurring guests and cameos (including Fey as a therapist with Jekyll-and-Hyde drinking issues) up the laugh factor ever more, and the theme song — which mimics those viral YouTube videos that make absurd news stories into song remixes — is not only clever, but catchy as hell.
More binge-worthy comedies: Better Call Saul, Catastrophe, Orange Is the New Black, Grace and Frankie, The League, Togetherness, Flaked, Master of None, Red Oaks, Community (picked up by Yahoo! Screen), Deadbeat.
This article appears in May 26 – Jun 2, 2016.
