Summary
- Sitcoms have been evolving and experimenting with traditional conventions, resulting in hilarious and unprecedented shows.
- Shows like Modern Family, Ted Lasso, and The Good Place have pushed the boundaries and brought diversity and new storytelling techniques to the sitcom genre.
- Sitcoms like Aunty Donna’s Coffee Café and What We Do in the Shadows showcase absurdity and genre parody while still delivering side-splitting humor.
Sitcoms have been undergoing significant change in the past few years, thanks to some shows which push the limits of the format. Traditional sitcoms tend to revolve around one of three things. There are workplace sitcoms, family sitcoms, and friendship sitcoms. Each of these subgenres has been experimented with and subverted in recent years, and this has produced shows which are both hilarious and unprecedented.
Some of these changes have been bigger and more obvious than others, but in a competitive TV landscape, most sitcoms have to try something new just to stand out. Some of the most popular sitcoms of recent times represent minor revolutions of the form, and their success has caused a knock-on effect whereby other shows see innovation as a necessity. Sitcoms are becoming increasingly experimental, with every traditional convention of the genre being scrutinized.
12 Modern Family (2009-2020)
The classic family sitcom updated for the 21st Century
Family sitcoms are nothing new. They’ve become one of the most prevalent types of sitcoms since shows like The Brady Bunch first gained popularity. Modern Family’s Dunphy/Pritchett/Tucker clan is far from the traditional TV family, though. The show presents a more diverse definition of family life, with divorce, same-sex marriage, adoption, and other things that break genre conventions. As the cast grew up along with their audience, the young stars contributed just as much to the comedy as their older peers.
11 Detectorists (2014-2022)
A friendship sitcom about middle-aged hobbyists
Detectorists is a strangely bleak comedy, not explicitly so, but in the way that it paints the quiet tragedy of lives half-lived. As two middle-aged friends meet up to use their metal detectors in the fields of England, it becomes clear to everyone except themselves that they are pointing their noses to their ground to avoid the world around them. Lance and Andy find solace in the romantic past, if only to ignore the divorce and financial troubles of their present. Detectorists does eventually give its characters a happy ending, but they achieve this achingly slowly, and partly by luck.
10 Ted Lasso (2020-2023)
A goofy antidote to modern cynicism
In an age of cynical sitcoms, critics and audiences can easily look down upon more optimistic shows as being twee or sickly, but Ted Lasso’s infectious warmth is hard to resist. The show’s message of kindness and inclusion works because every character in Ted Lasso has their own personal journey, even AFC Richmond’s kitman Will, and the bombastic pundit George Cartrick. Ted Lasso deconstructs testosterone-fueled locker room culture and proposes an alternative vision of a world where everyone is a little more thoughtful.
9 The Good Place (2016-2020)
A relatable sitcom about the complex machinations of the universe
The Good Place deals with the fate of human souls and the complex moral equations which pervade every daily decision. It’s a heavy premise in some ways, but The Good Place uses ontological philosophy as a sandbox for hilarious misadventure. Eleanor dies and finds herself in the afterlife’s “Good Place,” although she knows she doesn’t belong there. Across its four seasons, she and the other characters change dramatically. Sitcoms are so often predicated on the idea that everything stays the same for next week’s episode, but The Good Place uses a serialized drama format for hilariously goofy comedy.
8 Parks & Recreation (2009-2015)
Parks and Recreation struggled to find itself in its first couple of seasons, but the show soon worked its way into a reliable groove. Parks and Recreation is part of the industry-wide shift toward small-town sitcoms, along with shows like The Office and Schitt’s Creek. The show also uses a similar mockumentary format to The Office, but the camera crew leave the workplace and often follow the characters all around Pawnee, even into their homes.
7 Aunty Donna’s Coffee Café (2023-)
Pythonesque Australian absurdity
Aunty Donna will do whatever’s funniest and worry about storytelling later.
Australian sketch comedy troupe Aunty Donna expanded their international reach with their Netflix show, Aunty Donna’s Big Ol’ House of Fun, but their next TV project refines their chaotic style. Aunty Donna’s Coffee Café pushes the limits of what can be considered a sitcom, with a string of absurdist sketches all taking place in a trendy Melbourne café. Some of these sketches relate to the plot, and some, like the world championship of people who are bad at noughts and crosses, are just too funny not to shoehorn in. Aunty Donna will do whatever’s funniest and worry about storytelling later.
6 BoJack Horseman (2014-2020)
A journey into the depths of human, and equine, trauma
BoJack Horseman’s colorful aesthetic and wildlife punning sight gags don’t distract from its dark core for very long. As the show progresses, it focuses less on what celebrities would be called if they were animals, and more on the complex tangle of trauma in the unreachable corners of its protagonist’s soul. When it wants to be funny, BoJack Horseman can be as funny as any show on TV. But it can also spend entire episodes using abstract imagery to expose the pain in BoJack’s heart, without a single joke, especially toward the finale of BoJack Horseman.
Non-stop genre parody and meta-commentary
Community is a college comedy for adults, centered primarily around Jeff Winger, a lawyer who must complete his education after his fraudulent credentials are exposed. Community colleges, and colleges in general, are a rare setting for a sitcom, but Greendale is like nowhere else. Dean Pelton and Señor Chang are enough evidence that there is a rot at the core of the institution. Community takes some great characters and a strange setting through dozens of genre parodies across its six seasons, so there’s no guessing how the upcoming Community movie will turn out.
4 Ghosts (2019-2023)
Bringing tired stereotypes to life
Alison and Mike move into a crumbling English manor, but a freak accident gifts Alison with the ability to see the ghosts that have been piling up over the centuries. Charlotte Ritchie is outstanding, playing it straight as oddball stereotypes from British history disrupt her life on a daily basis. Ghosts is a wry lampooning of British cultural pride and innate human foibles, but as the show progresses it adds some depth to the wacky inhabitants of Button House. There are moments of intimate poetry and tender self-reflection, bridging the gap between the past and present.
3 Veep (2012-2019)
Risible political satire that extends beyond D.C.
Few sitcoms have room for such moral complexity and political commentary while still being consistently hilarious.
Armando Iannucci already perfected fast-paced political satire with his British sitcom, The Thick of It, and he transplanted this formula to Washington for Veep. The show features an outstanding ensemble cast, centered around Julia Louis-Dreyfus as a ruthlessly ambitious and morally hollow politician. Veep both humanizes and villifies its self-serving characters. The characters involved in the shady political dealings are bad people, but they are still people. Few sitcoms have room for such moral complexity and political commentary while still being consistently hilarious.
2 What We Do In The Shadows (2019-2024)
An apartment-sharing sitcom with a horror twist
There aren’t many TV adaptations of popular movies which achieve the same level of success as the original, but What We Do in the Shadows may have even surpassed the Taika Waititi movie. Despite involving none of the same characters and being set on a different continent, What We Do in the Shadows retains the same sidesplitting humor, thanks in part to Jemaine Clement, who eased the transition between formats. Besides, any show that gives Matt Berry a platform to pronounce everyday phrases unlike any human in history has a pretty good shot at success.
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1 Fleabag (2016-2019)
Confident and stylish, and hinged on one unforgettable protagonist
Fleabag massively shook up British sitcoms. There have been many imitators, but none have yet managed to recreate Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s idiosyncratic, pithy dialogue. The show’s constant fourth-wall-breaking takes a meta twist in the second season, brilliantly deconstructing the artifice of the viewing experience and pulling the audience even deeper into the muddle of Fleabag’s life. Fleabag only aired two seasons, enough to be binged in a single day, but its impact will last for years.
