There are countless scenarios in life that lead us to the point of needing to zone out in front of a belly-achingly funny TV show. Sinking our teeth into the humour or someone else's troubles can offer much-needed reprieve from our own realities. Which is why we're rounding up the best feel good TV shows for your next bout of the blues, below.

 

Fleabag

Phoebe Waller-Bridge's masterpiece Fleabag checks all of the boxes. A POV into the life of a discombobulated (albeit) hilarious woman, "Fleabag", who is navigating life after the death of her best friend. There's bravado, there's grief, there's hot priests, and there is cracking humour.

Broad City

The show we know and love, the show we all wish was a real-life recollection of life in NYC with our best friends. A tribute to what life was like when you could sit on the floor of the subway eating noodles and carrying street-side couches across the city without catching COVID, Broad City follows the messy, lo-fi lives of Abbi and Ilana as they wade through the reality of life, love, and friendship.

 

Chewing Gum

Michaela Coel's debut TV show is often missed in the spotlight of I May Destroy You, but if you're a fan of her work, you'll be a fan of Chewing Gum. Tracey, a repressed 20-something resident of a London housing project, is determined to lose her virginity, and will practically stop at nothing to get the job done. Laden with completely bonkers happenings and humour that will have you staring wide-eyed at your screen, Chewing Gum is truly transportive.

 

Schitts Creek

Endless laughs, endless praise. When the affluent Rose family suddenly and unexpectedly go bankrupt, they are forced to navigate a new life from adjoining rooms in a motel in Schitts Creek - a town that Johnny Rose bought as a joke many years ago. What ensues is priceless comedy.

 

Feel Good

Apt for the title of this story, Mae Martin's stunning television debut is a semi-autobiographical series that follows comedian, Mae, as they navigate a new relationship with the previously straight George, while wrestling with past addiction. Tender, hilarious, and glaringly relatable for many LGBTQI+ folks, Feel Good deals with themes of identity, love, reconciliation and healing.

 

Pen15

The most cringe comedy of all. Two 31-year-olds play themselves in middle school as it really happened. 31-year-olds acting in the bodies of 13-year-olds, surrounded by a cast of 13-year-old's was always going to make for interesting television, and Pen15 couldn't have executed it better.

 

Arrested Development

The original Schitts Creek. When the Bluth family empire is soiled by George Bluth's fraudulent handling of the family fortune, Michael Bluth has to step in to prop the family up, while the rest of them attempt to get on with a downsized life in a model home. Classic, comedic, and chaotic.

 

Sex Education

Otis, an insecure teenager whose mother (to his embarrassment) is a sex-therapist (and also Gillian Anderson), is just trying to make it through high school when he finds he has a unique gift passed down from his mother's profession. Funny, sweet and completely irreverent, Sex Education perfectly captures the absolute awkwardness that teenage life is while championing dialogue around high-school sex and the lack of education we face.

 

Crashing

Phoebe Waller-Bridges directorial debut, and the strangest of shows. Following the lives of six characters in their 20s, a group of young adults become housemates as they squat in a disused hospital based in the city, for not much more than £25 a week. A coming-of-age of sorts, alongside a tale of love and work in a big city as well as, obviously, dealing with the quirks of living in a derelict hospital with strangers.