From Upload to Ted Lasso, here are 10 great comedies to check out on streamers you (probably) already have.
The humble sitcom didn’t appear to be a priority for the streaming world initially. Netflix waited a full two years after launching its first original to truly aim for a high joke ratio (and with a remake of, er, Richie Rich to boot). And although the fledgling Amazon offered the show Betas in its early spate of new programming, it cancelled the Silicon Valley comedy after only a single season. Thankfully, both services (and their newer competitors) eventually realized that not everyone wants to sit down to a prestige drama after a hard day’s work. Here’s a look at 10 of the best full-blown TV comedies to have emerged since. From Breeders and Motherland to Workin’ Moms and SMILF, the small screen has recently been awash with sitcoms documenting the hardship of parenthood. But Apple TV Plus’s Trying is the first to focus on the difficulty of attaining such a status, with its title referring to the struggles of both conceiving and then adopting. It doesn’t sound like rich comic material, but this underrated gem balances its emotive subject matter with a wonderfully playful sense of humour. This is buoyed by naturally charming performances from Rafe Spall and Esther Smith as the central couple and Oscar winner Imelda Staunton as their no-nonsense social worker. Few streaming comedies have provided more bang for your buck than Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. The brainchild of 30 Rock’s Tina Fey and Robert Carlock packs so many laugh-out-loud one-liners, surreal non-sequiturs and niche pop-cultural references into each half-hour episode that you’ll struggle to catch them all even after multiple rewatches. And they’re delivered by a stellar cast of scene-stealers including Tituss Burgess as a self-obsessed aspiring actor, Carol Kane as a hipster-hating landlady, and Jane Krakowski as a socialite far removed from any semblance of reality. Tying all the crazy together is Ellie Kemper’s heroine who, despite spending 15 years trapped in a doomsday cult, emerges with more relentless optimism than SpongeBob SquarePants. Anyone whose favorite Black Mirror episode was San Junipero should appreciate this underrated Amazon original. Created by Greg Daniels (The Office), Upload stars The CW hunk Robbie Amell as Nathan, a computer programmer who, after dying in a suspicious car crash, has his consciousness transferred to a digital heaven.
