These five situational comedies on Netflix will make you laugh out loud and also make you ponder on the problems faced by the lead characters. They revolve around the lives of families and friends and are a comfort watch anytime anywhere. The best bit about these shows is that you can take it slow and watch one episode at a time and come back for more when you feel like it.
Kim’s Convenience
A five-season sitcom, Kim’s Convenience is directed by Ins Choi and based on a play written by him. At the centre of Kim’s Convenience is a Canadian-Korean family of four and the convenience store they run in Toronto.
The Canadian show’s uniqueness lies in its portrayal of different Asian characters while retaining authenticity in the use of accents and ideologies that are comical but never mocking.
It is the parents — Appa (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee) and Umma Kim (Jean Yoon) — who steal the show in Kim’s Convenience with their inquisitive nature of questioning modern ideas without refuting them.
Aspiring photographer Janet (Andrea Bang) and their estranged son Jung (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings star Simu) provide a comical but real look at the children’s frustration with their parents, especially the ones with immigrant parents.
Crashing
Writer-playwright Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag and Killing Eve are critically acclaimed shows that have found a cult following. However, before Fleabag came Crashing, a one-season British comedy show of six episodes. Waller-Bridge was the creator, writer and executive producer of the show, where she also played the character of Lulu.
Crashing is a take on the superhit sitcom F.R.I.E.N.D.S. but here the six friends battle with real-life issues such as not being able to afford rent. They become the property guardians of an abandoned hospital. The friendship between Sam (played by Jonathan Bailey of Bridgerton), who is heterosexual, and Fred (played by Amit Shah), who is gay, is a throwback to Chandler and Joey from F.R.I.E.N.D.S. but with a twist. The dynamic between Sam and Fred subverts the trope of sexual tension between a gay man and a straight man by showing Sam’s ambivalence about his sexual preferences.
Community
This six-season American sitcom created by Dan Harmon puts together seven unique individuals who come together to form a study group in Greendale Community College. The way the show uses meta humour and pop culture references to portray television cliches makes it stand out.
One of the characters, Abed Nair (Danny Pudi), is a film student whose eccentric but blunt nature of pointing out character flaws and insights become the basis of the plot for a number of episodes. The most memorable one is where Abed sees all his friends become stop-motion animated due to his underlying fear of spending Christmas alone.
Derry Girls
Derry Girls is a British show around the life of five teens growing up in Derry, Northern Ireland, amidst ‘The Troubles’ — an ethno-nationalist war conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted from the late 1960s to 1998. The Irish girls — Erin, Orla, Michelle and Clare — attend an all girls’ Catholic school called Our Lady Immaculate College.
There’s a turn of events when Michelle’s (Jamie-Lee O’Donnell) male cousin James (Dylan Llewellyn) has to join the girls’ school as the only male pupil because he is from London and his accent makes it unsafe for him to be at the local Christian Brothers School. With a unique nostalgic setting of the ’90s, Derry Girls spotlights women within the narrative of a war-like situation where the focus is on men.
Superstore
Superstore is an American show set in a superstore called Cloud 9 and explores the life of the employees who work for the big-box chain store. The cast includes America Ferrera (Amy), Ben Feldman (Jonah), Lauren Ash (Dina) and Colton Dunn (Garret) among others. It is Dunn’s Garret McNeil, a black disabled man, who stands out with his humour and sarcasm. Superstore remains one of the few comedy shows that gets representation just right without the need for it to become preachy.
