Once you’ve had your fill of turkey, stuffing, and strained conversations with relatives this week, you might consider retreating to a bedroom to watch TV. If you aren’t in the middle of a series, it can be a pain to find something new, so why not take our advice and watch one of the TV shows we’ve listed below? These are all light and breezy comedies — nothing that you can’t walk away from when you’re inevitably called into the other room. They’re also slightly under the radar, so you might have missed them the first time around.
Extraordinary (Hulu)
What if My Hero Academia was a live-action sitcom? That’s basically the gist of Extraordinary, which follows the powerless 25-year-old Jen as she watches her superpowered friends gain the ability to talk to spirits, rewind time, and shapeshift. Unlike most superhero TV shows, the stakes aren’t quite so high in this one, so you get the fun of the comic book storytelling with the relaxed pace of a coming-of-age comedy. Plus, it’s already been renewed for season 2.
Great News (Netflix)
If you love sitcoms like The Office, Parks and Recreation, and 30 Rock, you have to watch Great News. We’ve written about this hidden gem before, but if you haven’t seen it, now is a great time to binge both seasons. Great News was created by Tracey Wigfield and executive produced by Tina Fey and Robert Carlock. It follows Katie Wendelson (Briga Heelan), a producer for a cable news show called The Breakdown in New Jersey, and her cartoonishly silly coworkers at the station. But the real star is Andrea Martin, who plays Katie’s mother, Carol. She’ll have you laughing so loud that your family will come to check on you.
Jury Duty (Freevee)
You’ve definitely heard about Jury Duty, but have you actually sat down to watch it yet? If not, it’s only eight episodes, it’s free to watch (with ads) on Freevee, and it might be the funniest show of 2023. This series is about a regular guy named Ronald Gladden who believes that he has been summoned for jury duty, but it turns out that everyone else is a paid actor, from the judge to his fellow jurors. But what starts as a ridiculous prank turns into a fascinating and heartwarming character study of the man being pranked.
Killing It (Peacock)
Craig Robinson (The Office) stars as a down-on-his-luck bank security guard who gets roped into a snake-hunting contest by his Uber driver (Claudia O’Doherty). For every snake they kill, the state pays them, so they team up to start killing pythons. The first episode is free to stream on Peacock, so even if you don’t have a subscription, you can sample this one.
Our Flag Means Death (Max)
Our Flag Means Death is a period piece, a workplace comedy, and a rom-com all in one. Set in the early 18th century, the series stars Rhys Darby (Flight of the Conchords) as Stede Bonnet, a man who abandons his family and his cushy life to become a pirate. He and his disorderly crew try to make their mark aboard the Revenge but are way out of their league.
Upload (Prime Video)
In 2020, Parks and Recreation co-creator Greg Daniels launched two new shows: Space Force on Netflix and Upload on Prime Video. Three years later, Upload is still going strong. Upload is a sci-fi sitcom set in 2033. Humans can now decide which virtual afterlife they want to be uploaded into after they die. Just before computer programmer Nathan Brown dies after a car accident, his girlfriend Ingrid convinces him to upload his consciousness into the fancy Lakeview afterlife, but once he arrives, he realizes that “heaven” isn’t quite what he expected.
