There are countless quality shows on the various streaming services, but many are somber, even dark. If you long for some short, funny stuff at a time like this, try one of these:
Schitt’s Creek is a Canadian sitcom conceived by and starring Eugene Levy, whom you may recognize from his roles in many Christopher Guest mockumentaries like Best In Show and Waiting for Guffman. It’s about a wealthy New York family that loses its fortune and is forced to move to a shabby motel in a town deep in hillbilly country. The acting and dialogue are laugh-out-loud funny, but be warned that it takes a few episodes to get rolling. Once you are into it you won’t want to leave, and it’s likely that you will grow to be very fond of the Rose family. Six seasons (which grow in quality), on Netflix.
For something completely different try Curb Your Enthusiasm, in which Seinfeld creator Larry David plays a fictionalized version of himself. Irascible is too gentle a word to describe Larry, who is irritated by almost everything and acts on it, often with disastrous results. In the latest season, he is served a not-so-hot cup in a coffeehouse, and he opens a spite coffee shop next door. This leads to rash of spite shops all over L.A. The dialogue is largely improvised by lots of famous guests, and I doubt you will regret joining Larry as he tools around La La land in his electric Beemer. Ten seasons on HBO and Prime Video.
Humor is tricky, as evidenced by the scads of witless humor videos flying around the internet. Here is one show that I think will please everyone. Derry Girls is a British sitcom about the lives of four teenage girls at a Catholic school in Northern Ireland in the 1990’s. This is a teen show unlike any other. The crazy situations and witty dialogue are hilarious, but there is a serious undercurrent because of The Troubles. Warning: you will need captions to understand the Irish slang. Six episodes on Netflix; you can binge it in one evening.
If none of those appeals, I can only point you toward Hulu, where for $11 a month you can watch every episode of Seinfeld and Mary Tyler Moore.
— Ed Ferman
