Watching comfort shows, with characters and incidents that take you back to the good old days of childhood, could be a great way to celebrate Children’s Day. We bring you five such family shows to binge-watch to relive your childhood memories and have a good laugh.
Young Sheldon
Young Sheldon, the prequel to the popular American sitcom The Big Bang Theory, follows the early life of physicist Sheldon Cooper. The series, created by Chuck Lorre and Steven Molaro, presents Sheldon as a nine-year-old coming to terms with life’s wonders in Texas. Iain Armitage’s Sheldon is a geeky and adorable boy with a goofy charm.
Being a genius since his childhood, Sheldon gets to skip four grades and study at the same level as his elder brother George (Montana Jordan). This comes with its pros and cons as Sheldon realises his intellectual prowess isn’t as important as the church and football in Texas. His Meemaw (Annie Potts) is a continuing support system to all three of her grandchildren. Sheldon’s sister, Missy (Raegan Revord), is like any other sibling — a constant irritation in Sheldon’s life but just as protective about him.
Watch it on: Prime Video
The Middle
The Middle revolves around the Heck family and their middle-class life in Indiana. The series, created by Eileen Heisler and DeAnn Heline, stars Everybody Loves Raymond actress Patricia Heaton and Scrubs actor Neil Flynn as the parents of three very different kids. Brick (Atticus Shaffer), the youngest sibling, is an introverted bookworm who spends hours in the library. Sue Heck (Eden Sher), the middle child, is a teenager who struggles with her awkwardness. The eldest sibling Axl (Charlie McDermott) isn’t as booksmart and is the laziest of the three. The Middle is a must-watch for anyone who grew up with their siblings in a middle-class family.
Watch it on: Prime Video
Fresh Off The Boat
This American sitcom follows a Taiwanese-American family that moves to Florida in the 1990s. Loosely based on Eddie Huang’s memoir Fresh off the Boat, this is the first US television sitcom starring an Asian-American cast. The Huang family, consisting of a hip-hop-loving Eddie Huand (Hudson Yang), experiences a culture shock soon after moving to Orlando from DC’s Chinatown in an attempt to pursue the ‘American dream’. The story takes interesting turns as the kids have new experiences in Orlando, often at the risk of making their strict Asian mother Jessica Huang (Constance Wu) angry.
Watch it on: Disney+Hotstar
Modern Family
Modern Family is told from the perspective of a documentary filmmaker, much like The Office. The sitcom is based on three different units of a large family. The first unit consists of Phil (Ty Burrell) and Claire Dunphy (Julie Bowen) who are parents to three children just as unique as the kids from The Middle. The second unit has Claire’s dad Jay Pritchett (Ed O’Neill) who is married to a young Gloria (Sofia Vergara) and becomes the stepfather to Manny (Rico Rodriguez). The third unit is Jay’s son Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and his partner Cameron (Eric Stonestree) who adopt a little girl from Vietnam to bring up as their own. The multi-cultural family and their trials and tribulations make Modern Family a hilarious comedy with all the elements of drama thrown in.
Watch it on: Disney+Hotstar
Malcolm in the Middle
Before Young Sheldon, it was the child prodigy Malcolm in Linwood Boomer’s Malcolm in the Middle who gave us a peek into the life of a genius kid. A bright and intelligent Malcolm (Frankie Muniz), in his pre-teens, gets admitted to a special class for genius kids but is too cool to be like the other nerdy kids. He has three brothers, one of whom is in the military while the other two cause chaos at home with their antics. Malcolm’s mother Lois (Jane Kaczmarek) is tired of looking after the boys and their father (Bryan Cranston from Breaking Bad), who is almost as childish as his kids. If you are a ’90s kid, Malcolm in the Middle is bound to bring up some nostalgic memories for you.
Watch it on: Disney+Hotstar
