1y ago

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?

170 comments

Ted Lasso
- This is the answer right here. Show made me so happy I cried, regularly. Just absolutely fantastic all around.
- Take it from a die-hard cynical realist, Ted Lasso is heartwarming and inspiring in just the right measure without being terribly saccharine or campy. Very well written as well. The third season faltered a bit in the beginning, I thought, but it ended well.
- One of the most wholesome shows out there

Parks and Recreation!
- Came here to say this. Great show!
- This is a great suggestion! A show with a great heart. Start with season 2 though. Season 1 tried to be like The Office and that turned a lot of people off. Parks and Rec finds its own voice in season 2.
- Anything created by Michael Schur really, along with Parks and Rec he also did Brooklyn Nine Nine and The Good Place, both of which are funny and full of heartwarming moments compared to a lot of other shows these days.
  He did The Office too but I think he hadn’t quite hit his stride when he did that show, it has its moments but to me The Office leaned way too heavily on secondhand cringe humor.

Schitt's Creek
- Oh this is a fantastic show! While I do re-watch it, I would give anything to re-watch it from "scratch" again.

Try Better Off Ted. It only ran for a season and a half but it was funny.
- Extremely underrated

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.
- Taskmaster and WILTY are fantastic. These are some of my favorite "I want to watch something that I'll enjoy but don't need to actually care too much about" shows.

Bluey pretends to be for kids but it's surely for adults.
- It's so funny. Bandit is the best. I haven't dentified with a cartoon dog so strongly since Mr. Peanutbutter.
- For parents and kids, not childless adults.
- No
  
  Yes.

Psych
- You know that's right.
  
  I know, you know, that I’m not telling the truth.
- Came to add this, glad to see it's here, just finished the series, now I'm trying to find the 2nd and 3rd movie.
- Monk

Star Trek: Lower Decks
- Worth noting: you don't have to know Star Trek to love this show! Sure, it helps, you'll get a few deep cuts here and there, but it is still an absolute joy.

My Name Is Earl is my favorite go-to light-hearted and positive sitcom. Follows the story of a rather silly, ignorant redneck that begins to believe in karma, and so writes a list everyone he has ever wronged and goes about fixing it one by one.
It's pretty good.
- One of my favorite shows of all time. The jokes are non stop. Many are in-your-face slapstick, but others are subtly slid into the dialogue. It's a smart comedy about stupid people. I consistently found myself hoping that everything would work out for this bunch of morons, but at the same time, laughed when they got what they deserved.
- "Everybody just calm down!"
  The only real down note in the show.

Good Omens.
- Just season 1 tho season 2 goes nowhere
  
  Season 2 was written purely as build up for season 3 tbf.
  
  It was pretty popular in my house, but we're all frightfully silly here.
  
  S2 was still fun!
- Awesome, also read the book if you can.
  
  That was years ago :)

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
- Wow we might be the same person, except I haven't watched Black-ish or Black Books. I'll have to look into those.
  
  Please watch them - they're very different but both great. What shows not on my list would you recommend?

Schitt's Creek (was already mentioned but is worth mentioning again
Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Superstore
Derry Girls
Wellmania (sadly Netflix did a Netflix and discontinued another great show after only one season)
Or just rewatch The Office or Parks & Recreation once again 😄
- Superstore is severely underrated

Community! If you like The Good Place you'll love it. It's my favorite show of all time

Scrubs
New Girl
- Scrubs can get pretty heavy sometimes. Surprisingly so. The organ transplant episode comes to mind.

Detectorists
- Ya if OP likes The Good Place he'll love The Detectorists, great show.

Our Flag Means Death is upbeat in the first season. The second is more dramatic, but also fucking phenomenal. A romantic adventure comedy becomes a romantic adventure dramedy.
- Great cast too! Surprisingly a lot of NZ & Maori representation

British panel (game) shows like Would I Lie to You and 8 out or 10 Cats Does Countdown. The game element is just an excuse for funny, interesting people to crack jokes and have a good time.
- QI with Stephen Fry was absolute gold! Sandi is great too. Anything with David Mitchell is awesome. I think my favorite is Johnny Vegas, that guy is a riot. Bill Baily, Phill Juputus,Sean Lock coming to think of it there wasn't anyone on that show I didn't love.
- I'll add Taskmaster on the list, available for free on Youtube
  
  Not a single person I wouldn't recommend taskmaster to! This guy knows.

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
- I wanted to propose it too, but it can get a bit dark from time to time too. It's been a great show though. Very funny and all the characters are adorable.

Star Trek the next generation
Brooklyn nine nine
One piece

Letterkenny and Shorsey if not Archer. Trailer Park boys

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
- Exaxtly what i came here to say. Such a good show.
- They alive damn it.

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.

Bob's Burgers.

Pushing Daisies. If you like death mixed with comic book sweetness

Happy Endings
Cougar Town
Community
Derry Girls
Parks and Rec

Schitt’s Creek and Letterkenny deserve some spots here

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.

Letterkenny!
- Jesus, Katy, put some clothes on.

Scrubs in addition to a bunch of the great suggestions in here.
- From around the same eara Chuck and Eureka are pretty fun and lighthearted as well.

Ted Lasso, can't recommend it enough.
- Hard agree - upbeat, funny, heartwarming!

Eureka is kind of a disaster of the week pseudoscience problem show with a lot of heart. Don't go looking for true scifi, but it's so damn charming and the cast has exceptional chemistry.
- I really loved Eureka, but the whole everyone thinks Carter is an idiot schtick makes it hard for me to rewatch.

The Venture Brothers is hilarious.

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.

Scrubs

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!

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??
- If we're talking Paul F. Tompkins we should also recommend the original run of Mr. Show (starring Bob Odenkirk and David Cross). A hilarious and extremely influential sketch comedy show.
  And if we mention David Cross we should also recommend the original seasons of Arrested Development. One of the most well written sitcoms ever.
  
  Believe me, I'm always down to talk about Paul F. Tompkins! I thoroughly agree with both recommendations, with a note that some bits don't hold up super well. But for the most part they're both still golden!

'Ghosts' on CBS/Paramount+ is sweet, funny, lighthearted for the subject matter, and overall very enjoyable. I don't think it will win any awards, but its a great alternative to all the dark and cynical stuff out there!
- Also try to catch the British iteration, after the first episode it's an entirely different show!

Kim's Convenience on Netflix.
- Beyond frustrated that they got cancelled so suddenly. I wish they could have made a real final season
  
  Oh, I didn't know they got cancelled! That explains the underwhelming ending.
- Loved this show. Wish there was more.

It's Always Sunny?
On the surface, it contains terrible people doing terrible things, but it's both comedic and condemns those terrible things

Letterkenny
- Pitter patter.
  
  How 'r' ya now?

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.

Joe Pera Talks To You

How to with John Wilson, 30 Rock, Malcolm in the Middle, The Office, Nathan for You, Parks and Rec, Joe Pera Talks to You, Ted Lasso, Baskets (LOVE it, but can be a little sad and heartbreaking in addition to being hilarious and sweet)
- Joe Pera and MITM definitely stand out to me on this list. Nathan as well but can be a little dry. Baskets is incredible but it does have it's downer moments.
- Nathan for You is amazing. But it does not belong on this list.

Close Enough.

The Great North, if you want to watch a fun and wholesome cartoon.

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.
- If you're gonna open it up to anime, then yeah, you crack open like a whole universe of "palate cleanser" shows. Anime likes to get really, really dark sometimes, and after a really rough episode sometimes you just need some sunshine and calm. Non Non Biyori is the example I always think of.
- Yotsuba&! might be the most precious thing I've ever seen. Anime-wise, I think "Sweetness and Lightning" comes closest.
- There’s a large overlap with “slice of life”, and a lot of these are set in school for whatever reason - YMMV.
  I do enjoy anime, but a lot of them are like this and the reason's pretty clear: the target audience is often skewed younger (i.e. teens/young adults). Are the ones you've suggested set in school, or...? It's not a dealbreaker fwiw just not my first choice.
  Cromartie High School is one of my occasional fallbacks for something silly & lighthearted, after all.

Parks and Recreation. So funny. If you like the office you’ll love it!

It is cancelled now, but Last Man on Earth is such a great show.
- I found it really hard to get into. If I had something else I wanted to watch I wouldn't have started season 2. By the time it ended I was hoping for just one more season.
  
  I've not made it through the first season. It is so cringe to me at this point. It does get better then?

Upload
- One of my favorite shows! Definitely recommend
- I'm quite enjoying it too but I think it borders on horror with the themes of where the modern world will end up.

Lots of good suggestions so far, but not seen The Great mentioned. Filthy AF and one of the few shows I laugh out loud to (well, more like cackle loudly). I'll also second the suggestion for Better Off Ted.
- Season one of The Great was, well, great. It was funny and interesting. But then it got dark AF. No spoilers, but it made me ugly cry at one point, then it just got depressing and boring.
  
  Sounds light-hearted!

170 comments