Lighthearted, upbeat shows for adults?
Lighthearted, upbeat shows for adults?
Recently I've been catching up on tv and some of the more mature/adult shows, which I've been...Enjoying? Seems like the wrong word, but they've all generally been cynical or dark.
For reference, I've just finished Better Call Saul, which got me to finally get around to finishing Breaking Bad, and I've also been doing a rewatch of the anime Monster as it's been years since I last watched it.
So basically back to back dark shows.
I've already watched The Good Place, which nails what I'm describing, but it's a little blunt with the sweetness, while I've watched some of Bee and Puppycat which seems like it's closer to a nice middleground of sweet and real.
What are some of your go-to shows for this kinda vibe?
Taskmaster
Would I Lie to You?
Avatar The Last Airbender
Loremen podcast
Edited to add:
One Punch Man first season is hilarious.
The trifecta of 2010s animation: Regular Show, Steven Universe, and Adventure Time. There's jokes and themes in these that are pretty adult, but the darker stuff is generally avoided.
1980s: Dogtanian and the 3 Muskehounds. Mysterious Cities of Gold. Best theme tunes ever, and very easy watching.
I highly recommend Bob's burgers!
I love sitcoms but beneath their light exterior they always have a heart of darkness, or at least a trace of one. But given your OP, I figure you can handle a teensy bit of a shadow side. Here are some generally upbeat shows with lots of laughs.
Catastrophe- I think it strikes the right balance of optimism in the face of doubt. It's light but not saccharine. It's my favorite sitcom.
It Crowd
Black Books
30 Rock
Black-ish
Adventure Time
Mentioned in lots of other replies:
Parks and Rec
New Girl (extremely underrated)
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Brooklyn 99
Taskmaster
WILTY
Community! If you like The Good Place you'll love it. It's my favorite show of all time
Ted Lasso for the win
Bob's Burgers.
Star Trek the next generation
Brooklyn nine nine
One piece
I love "the good place". It's light comedy, it actually makes you think a little, it's a lot of feel good and it's one of those shows where you can see that everyone is having a blast making it.
Edit: I should finish reading the post before commenting, lol.
Agree about Parks & Rec and Black Books
Adding Boston Legal
Permanently Deleted
Letterkenny and Shorsey if not Archer. Trailer Park boys
If you love "the good place", then I can only recommend "parks and recreation". That is my all-time favorite show
Also recently I have started watching "Chuck". It's a action/comedy/spy series, there is ofcource action, guns and bombs. But Iam laughing so much each episode, I find myself rewatching some scenes.
Happy Endings
Cougar Town
Community
Derry Girls
Parks and Rec
Pushing Daisies. If you like death mixed with comic book sweetness
I don't think there is a more light-hearted show than Detectorists
Schitt’s Creek and Letterkenny deserve some spots here
Not adult, but The Owl House was a surprisingly good one. One of those multi-audience shows. Makes me think a lot of about the type of parent I want to be someday!
I haven't seen anyone say galavant, that's a shame, somehow it got 2 seasons, and it's brilliant the whole way through. If princess Bride had more back story arcs, fewer restrictions on how over the top they could make their characters, and was a musical, you'd have galavant.
Going for the more obscure: Bajillion Dollar Properties. Originally made for a dead streaming service, now exists on PlutoTV for free (and can be purchased through Apple et al). It's a satire of real estate reality shows with phenomenal guest stars throughout. Main cast includes a few folks before they got their bigger roles (like Tawny Newsome, Drew Tarver, and Eugene Cordero) but also includes the GOAT, Paul F. Tompkins.
Very related, I would also suggest the Comedy Bang! Bang! TV show that ran for 5 seasons on IFC. It's a treasure trove of comedic goodness, lots of great guests, and who doesn't love Reggie Watts, Kid Cudi, then Weird Al as the band leaders??
Joe Pera Talks To You
Close Enough is a really great animated tv show by the creator of Regular Show. It's basically almost the same, but for adults.
Also, Workaholics
Scrubs
Parks and Recreation. So funny. If you like the office you’ll love it!
Recently I watched and enjoyed Parks and Recreation and One Day at a Time (netflix series). Light hearted engaging content. Another recommendation: Schitt's Creek.
It's Always Sunny?
On the surface, it contains terrible people doing terrible things, but it's both comedic and condemns those terrible things
Frasier
Trailerpark Boys
If you're a weeb there's an entire genre of this stuff: iyashi-kei ("soothing type/genre"). I've enjoyed a bunch of them, though some of them get pretty saccharine if that's a worry. There's a large overlap with "slice of life", and a lot of these are set in school for whatever reason - YMMV. I like Azumanga Daioh, though the anime adaptation is a little aged. Nichijou is adorable and leans more into absurdism if that's your thing. "Yotsuba&!" is freaking precious, but manga only - same guy as Azumanga Daioh.
For non-weeb stuff I'll mention Brooklyn Nine-Nine, also Parks and Recreation once it hits its stride.
The Great North, if you want to watch a fun and wholesome cartoon.
Close Enough.
Letterkenny
I'd highly recommend Avenue 5.
It's only one season, but Wonderfalls. It's pure joy. And all the episodes are on Youtube.
Bee and puppycat
It's very light-hearted and campy. Well, at least the first season is.
"Miracle Workers" hasn't been mentioned yet, it has a similar vibe, romantic comedy, some mild philosophy, very upbeat. Each season is a different storyline with (almost) the same cast, so if the first season doesn't grab you try the next. The creator had an earlier show "Man Seeking Woman" as well, that's fun too.
Doc Martin
Obscure show, but watch Traffic Light on prime.
Community Great British Baking Challege (in US, it's Bake-off everywhere else) Brooklyn Nine Nine Thirty Rock And seriously, The Golden Girls
Dead to me starts off as if it's going to be dark but is actually pretty lighthearted
Broad City is pretty light-hearted
Gilmore Girls is a classic feel good show that I'm surprised hasn't been mentioned. Its pretty campy occasionally, but sometimes that's what you need.
Also Ed.
A lot of great shows mentioned. To add to the list of upbeat the gf and I are working our way through Modern Family. The early seasons are pretty upbeat and lighthearted. I do wonder where they will end up in the later seasons as the families age.
Working Moms is something the gf watches and what I've seen had been pretty great and has some good fun shock value. I'm surprised where they go with some of the humour. Usually only animated shows get away with this.
I would add Archer but I haven't finished the last couple of seasons so I'm not sure where it ends up on the fun and outrageous scale.
American Dad, starting at season 2, is complete gold.
The first season is rough, since the political comedy elements aren’t quite finetuned, which makes the characters a bit annoying, and Roger doesn’t have wacky disguises yet. Season 2 onwards the show has just right right wavelength of bizarre non-sequitur humor that always makes me smile. The jokes can be dark and/or adult, or just require context to understand but I think they are great.
Poker Face
The Good Witch
Check out Wonderfalls. It's one of the stranger things I've seen, but quite brilliant. The Good Place reminded me of it in many ways, although they are very different shows.
I haven't seen a recommendation for Tacoma FD. Made by two of the Super Trooper crew. Far more toned down. Great cast. Awesome guest stars. Silly, fun and pretty wholesome.
Shrinking
Steven Universe (it's accessible to adults on a different level than kids)
Thermae Romae Novae is novel and hilarious
We always just watch Gogglebox if we don’t want to be depressed by something.
Not sure what you mean by shows but if you like cars, the grand tour with the 3 amazing top gear brits.
I'm not even a big fan of cars, I just find them interesting and love watching people talking about them with so much passion. Also, my curious mind just thinks cars are neat and I like to see how they work even though I'm too afraid to even do the tiniest thing as an oil change on mine c:
The Good Place
Sorting from 1 being the worse and 6 being the best
in my opinionthese are the shows that I found entertaining and recommend you giving a watch-
1 better call saul
drama -
2 breaking bad
drama -
3 still game
comedy -
4 it's always sunny
comedy -
5 it crowd
comedy -
6 father ted
comedy
You may find it difficult to understand what the characters are saying in still game due to the cast being entirely Scottish I won't spoil it for you just give it a watch
-
Go outside.