Tuesday, March 31, 2020

TV in the Time of Corona (comedy edition)

There are lots of lists out there of what to watch. Here's mine. I haven't included any brainless guilty pleasures--these listed are all solid in my opinion. Many will make you cringe and there's an overlap with F-bombs and sex. In alphabetical order.

Some of these we watch on our DVR but I've researched the streaming opportunities. See below for a key to the networks' abbreviation.

Straight up Comedies, the briefest of explanations, and a cast member or two:
  • Alpha House (AM) Republican senators sharing a DC apartment. John Goodman +
  • Black-ish (AB HU) Upper middle class black family in LA. Anthony Anderson, Tracy Ellis Ross +
  • Breeders (HU) London couple struggling to cope with two kids. Martin Freeman, Michael McKean +
  • Brockmire (HU) Alcoholic Major League Baseball announcer publicly melts down and moves to the minors. Hank Azaria, Amanda Peet +
  • Brooklyn Nine-Nine (HU NB) Police ensemble. Andy Samberg, Andre Braugher +
  • Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee (NF) Jerry Seinfeld interviews comedians and drives interesting cars.
  • Community (HU) Diverse group of community college students. Chevy Chase, Joel McRae, Alison Brie, Donald Glover +
  • Curb Your Enthusiasm (AM HB HU) Larry David playing a version of himself. Jeff Garlin, Susie Essman, J.B. Smoove +
  • Episodes (HU NF SH) British writing team/couple working in crass Hollywood. Matt LeBlanc +
  • Flight of the Conchords (AM HB HU) Folk-rock duo from New Zealand searching for stardom and performing hilarious musical parodies. Jemaine Clement, Bret McKenzie, Kristen Schaal +
  • Good Place (HU NB NF) Random people go to heaven. Kristen Bell, Ted Danson +
  • Grace & Frankie (NF) Elder ladies become friends when their husbands marry each other. Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Martin Sheen, Sam Waterston +
  • High Fidelity (HU) Lovelorn female record store owner (based on the movie). Zoe Kravitz, Jake Lacy +
  • Jim Gaffigan Show (AM) He plays a version of himself, a married comedian with five kids in NYC.
  • Married (HU) American couple struggling to cope. Judy Greer, Nat Faxon +
  • Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (AM) 1950s housewife turned stand-up comedian. Rachel Brosnahan, Tony Shaloub +
  • Master of None (NF) East Indian-American actor navigates personal and professional life in NYC. Aziz Ansari, Lena Waithe +
  • Modern Family (AB HU) Three generations in Los Angeles. Ed O'Neill, Sophia Vergara +
  • Mom (HU) Recovering alcoholics in ensemble. Anna Faris, Allison Janney + (occasionally this dips into the next category, but not often)
  • The Office (NB NF) A mockumentary on a group of Scranton office workers, with ego clashes, inappropriate behavior, and tedium. Steve Carell, John Krasinski +
  • Parks and Recreation (AM HU NB NF) Absurd antics of small town's public officials. Amy Poehler, Nick Offerman, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Pratt, Rashida Jones, Rob Lowe +
  • Schitt's Creek (HU NF) Wealthy family has to cope in backwater town. Catherine O'Hara, Eugene Levy, Daniel Levy +
  • Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll  (HU) Formerly famous rock singer, his talented daughter, his old bandmates. Denis Leary, John Corbett +
  • Sex Education (NF) English teenage virgin boy with sex therapist mother runs an underground sex therapy business with his crush. Asa Butterfield, Gillian Anderson +
  • Silicon Valley (HB HU) Awkward computer nerds trying to make it big. Kumail Nanjiani, Martin Starr +
  • Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (NF) Sunny naive woman, freed from captivity, lives in NYC. Ellie Kemper, Jane Krakowski, Carol Kane +
  • Veep (AM HB HU) Female Vice President can't get respect. Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tony Hale, Anna Chlumsky +
Dramedies--mostly funny but with varying degrees of drama:
  • Atypical (NF) Teenage boy on the spectrum, parents, and sister. Jennifer Jason Leigh, Michael Rapaport, Keir Gilchrist +
  • Better Things (HU) Single mom/actress and three daughters in LA. Pamela Adlon +
  • Californication (AM HU SH) Venice (CA) writer, ex-wife, daughter, and questionable choices. David Duchovny, Natascha McElhone, Evan Handler +
  • Catastrophe (AM) Unplanned pregnancy makes a new family out of an Irish woman and an American man. Sharon Horgan, Carrie Fisher (late and briefly) +
  • Fleabag (AM) Snarky English woman. Phoebe Waller-Bridge +
  • GLOW (NF) Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling. Marc Maron, Alison Brie +
  • Happy-ish (HU NF) Adman coping with turnover at work. Steve Coogan, Kathryn Hahn +
  • High Maintenance (AM HB HU) Weed delivery man in Brooklyn. Ben Sinclair +
  • The Kominsky Method (NF) Acting teacher and lawyer, 70+ best friends, survive pitfalls in LA. Michael Douglas, Alan Arkin +
  • Mozart in the Jungle (AM) New York symphony with quirky conductors. Gael Garcia Bernal, Lola Kirke, Bernadette Peters, Malcolm McDowell +
  • One Mississippi (AM) Comedian Tig Notaro plays a version of herself returning home after her mother's death and deals with her own health problems and her girlfriend.
  • Orange Is the New Black (NF) Upper class white woman navigates diverse women's prison. Taylor Schilling, Donna Prepon +
  • The Riches (HU) Gypsy family steals the identities of dead wealthy family and moves into their new house. Eddie Izzard, Minnie Driver +
  • Shameless (NF SH) Poor family makes ends meet and gets into shenanigans in their own poor neighborhood. William H. Macy, Emmy Rossum + 
  • United States of Tara (HU SH) Woman with multiple personalities and her family. Toni Collette, John Corbett, Keir Gilchrist, Brie Larson, Patton Oswalt +
  • You're the Worst (HU) Toxic, self-destructive friends in LA. Chris Geere, Aya Cash +
We subscribe to or watch the following:
AB ABC (free with ads)
AM Amazon Prime
AP Apple TV+
HB HBO
HU Hulu
NB NBC (free with ads)
NF Netflix
SH Showtime

Feel free to add your own in the comments.

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