Mix of both light and deeper shows here, mostly character-driven:

Scrubs - Show about a group of residents at a hospital navigating their first few years of training.

Cougar Town - Show about 40somethings in western Florida, the name has nothing to do with the show after the first five or ten episodes. Same creator as Scrubs. Focuses on the core group navigating life at 40 in Florida and their ridiculousness.

Community - Show about a community college in Colorado that gets increasingly experimental in its story telling. Show focuses on the antics of the core group.

Better Off Ted - Another show about 40somethings, this time in the corporate world. The name, like Cougar Town, has almost nothing to do with the actual show. Focuses on how this group tries to keep ahead of their soul crushing jobs for a corporation that’s literally evil.

Happy Endings - This time about 30somethings in Chicago who are all friends, two of whom are about to get married when the bride runs away at the altar. Really turns into putting this group into various scenarios to see how it plays out.

New Girl - Show about a teacher in LA who moves into a loft with three guys (sometimes a fourth) and their subsequent misadventures in the city.

30 Rock - Show about the cast and crew of an SNL-style variety show airing weekly on NBC out of 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York, grows increasingly absurdist over times.

Arrested Development - About the son of a real estate tycoon who gets arrested for so many crimes and how he tries to keep the family business going despite the incompetence of the rest of the family (and occasionally his own incompetence).

Bored to Death - About a writer who solves mysteries with his publisher and best friend (two different people).

Only Murders in the Building - Show about three residents, two older and one younger, of a classic New York residential building that discover they like the same murder mystery podcasts and then start their own true crime podcasts when they discover a murder occurred in their building.

Veep - About a put-upon Vice President of the United States and the general incompetence of her office and the administration. Surprisingly insightful satire of the actual executive branch in the United States.

Silicon Valley - Show about a group of guys in Silicon Valley and their VC partners trying to build a startup.

Happy to recommend more if you’ve got something more specific you’re into.

As someone on the spectrum that lives by his binges of situational comedy shows, allow me to give you my list I rotate through, in no specific order:

• How I Met Your Mother

• Scrubs

• Parks and Recreation

• Brooklyn 99

• 30 Rock

• Community

• New Girl

• The Office

• The Good Place

Some of these I will watch for months before moving on to another. If you have questions about any in particular, feel free to ask.

I’m very critical of comedy, so it’s rare to find a show I like, but some of my favorites are:

Flight of the Conchords

The mighty boosh

Parks and rec

Taskmaster

Arrested development

Seinfeld

Louis

Righteous Gemstones (one of my favorite comedy shows of all time)

Brooklyn 99

Superstore

Community

The Good Place

Parks & Recreation

Ted Lasso is really funny and genuinely heartwarming. I would recommend just about anyone watch it.

• The Good Place (a show about moral philosophy and the afterlife. This may sound dry, but watch the first couple episodes. They’re not very long, trust me)

• Good Omens (based on a Terry Prachett novel about an angel and a demon who become friends and then have to thwart the coming of the end-times to save humanity and their relationship)

• Columbo (it’s more detective show than comedy, but it’s about a bumbling detective who seems to know whodunnit within 5 minutes of showing up to the crime scene, but then spends +45min whittling away at the murderer’s psyche until they either crumble and confess, make a mistake, or he finds the evidence he’s been looking for)

• Monk (also comedic detective show, this one about a detective suffering from severe OCD after his wife died in a carbomb. I know the premise sounds dark, trust me, the shows’ really funny and generally fairly light)

• Psych (aaand another comedic detective show, this time about a man who’s extremely perceptive and tries to help the police out on a case, but is too good at it and is accused of being the murderer. He then comes up with the claim of being a psychic to avoid getting arrested and then proceeds to get contracted by the cops as a psychic detective)

• UK Top Gear/The Grand Tour (comedy car shows)

If you feel like you need something dark and disturbing, but with a bit of humor to it:

• Utopia (2013 UK version, NOT THE 2020 AMAZON VERSION) This series is one of the best shows I’ve watched, but it’s also possibly the darkest, most disturbing TV show I’ve ever watched. The pandemic only made it worse. I put this here, however, because while it’s primarily a conspiracy thriller, there is a fair amount of black comedy in it. I want to recommend watching it, even just for the relatively unique use of framing and cinematography, but jesus christ this show does not shy away from showing you things most directors would leave to the imagination.

Taskmaster

Peep Show

Not sure about what constitutes a light comedy, but The Righteous Gemstones is a fantastic show I just got turned onto a few months ago. Good news is it just wrapped up season 3, so there’s plenty to watch.

I recommend What we do in the shadows

If you want some quirky Britishness you might try Coupling. It was written by Steven Moffat, who you may remember as the head writer for Doctor Who during the Matt Smith era, and if you liked the humor during that run then you’ll probably love Coupling.

Red Dwarf

Superstore is a good comedy/satire about people working at a Walmart-type store.

Letterkenny!

And I suggest you let that one marinate.

Detectorists on bbc. It’s a unique, emotional, and hilarious series.