What makes a good sitcom?
And a list of my favorites from the past ten years.
I’ve watched nearly every sitcom under the sun. I love putting them on when I need something light to digest. Something that will make me laugh, make me feel good inside, sometimes even make me learn something. There are some that I return to over and over again for the comfort they give me. I feel connected to the characters, can quote their lines, and think about their show often.
Some sitcoms are less memorable. There are some that I’ve seen, and mostly enjoyed, but wouldn’t watch again. Lately, I’ve been thinking about what makes a sitcom surpass the one-time watch status. What makes them really, really good? And are newer shows able to crack it, or does re-watchability rely on nostalgia?
New sitcoms do have the potential to win the hearts and minds of their audience, but they need to follow a strict program. For situational comedies, the key to success lies in four elements: comedy, environment, characters, and narrative length.
Comedy
Well, this is obvious, but a sitcom needs to be funny! These shows need top notch writers that can weave comedy effortlessly into a larger narrative. It needs to make you laugh in a way that’s genuine. Less like a funny clip compilation on TikTok and more like a wild conversation with your funniest friend.
Modern sitcoms need to be able to tap into Millennial and Gen Z humor in a way that doesn’t make you cringe. They shouldn’t reflect the cliched, over the top caricatures of these generations, but rather represent how they actually speak and act in their day to day lives. The jokes can’t be just whatever meme is trending at the moment; you should be able to rewatch in a year or two and not feel like the whole show is painfully outdated.
Actors with great line delivery skills is also essential here. Again, sitcoms should feel like watching a really funny group of friends or family interact. Some of my favorite lines from sitcoms are often because the actor says them in a really humorous or memorable way.
Environment
I’m really talking about “setting” here, but a setting should feel like a precious and unique environment in a sitcom. It is the ecosystem in which the characters live. The environment is often a character in itself, with a certain personality that shapes the show.
A sitcom’s setting has to be both relatable and interesting, as it explores the day to day lives of the people in a specific situation together. A school, newsroom, family business, or police station, for example, all give viewers a humorous inside look at what life is like in these environments. They provide the backdrop for countless shenanigans and mishaps that the characters wade through.
The specificity and consistency of these environments — since they typically remain the same for the duration of the show — provide a unique opportunity for viewers to learn new things as well. While sitcoms are obviously fictional and dramatized, watching a show like The Paper could help a viewer learn about how small newsrooms function and teach them the importance of local journalism, all while having a good laugh.
Characters
Sitcoms often revolve around an ensemble cast, where a large group of characters share relatively equal screen time. There is no singular main protagonist with supporting characters, but rather the show gives equal importance to each character in the narrative. With a large amount of characters and the goal of being funny, it can be easy to lean into stock character types. But this is boring! Sitcoms need well-rounded and interesting characters just as much as other genres do. The characters should feel like real people who are capable of multitudes. They should be relatable and lovable and emotionally deep when the narrative calls for it.
The heart of a sitcom lies in the relationships that the characters have with each other. The characters should be able to play off of each other with incredible ease, bickering and bantering in humorous ways, wether they’re friends, enemies, or love interests. Comedic timing and chemistry is incredibly important.
The friendships, familial, and romantic relationships in sitcoms need to be well written for the show to work. They should be heartwarming and charming, making the audience root for them. They shouldn’t shy away from petty fights and miscommunications and big blow ups either. The goal is to make these relationships seem as realistic as possible. And they always find their way back to each other (whether that’s realistic or not). These relationships should twinge a bit of longing in the viewer for the beautiful and genuine bonds that they see on screen, while not seeming unobtainable. High standards, not unmeetable ones.
Length
Sitcoms function best when they are binge-able. With the episode by episode plots revolving mostly around isolated comedic instances, it’s important to have a lot of episodes to weave in a larger narrative arc little by little. You need enough time to develop the characters and their relationships organically. Twenty or more episodes per season, and 6-8 seasons, is pretty much the sweet spot. However, TV shows this length are mostly nonexistent in today’s streaming landscape. Platforms have opted for 6-8 episode seasons instead, and bless your heart if you think you’re getting more than 3 seasons.
This is a truly unfortunate trend across all television genres that has been happening for a lot of reasons. But it’s particularly bad for modern sitcoms. There have been a handful of really good sitcoms coming out in recent years, but there’s just not enough meat on their bones. When allowed more episodes and seasons, sitcoms blossom into something unique and meaningful that gets viewers hooked on their world. Good lengthy sitcoms always have things that become fandom classics, lines or scenes or plot points that are infamous as a landmark of the show. Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s “Halloween Heist” tradition, for example.
Sitcoms I love from the last 10(ish) years
Adults (2025-current) is a generous term for this group of 20-somethings living together in New York. They encounter all kinds of responsibilities that they don’t really know what to do with, but they’re trying!
Overcompensating (2025-current) dives into the intense world of an American university, where Benn, Carmen, and their social circle try to figure out who they are and what on Earth they’re even doing.
The Paper (2025-current) is brought to you by the same documentary crew that chronicled The Office. This time their subjects are rookie journalists learning on the job at a struggling Midwestern newspaper.
A Man on the Inside (2024-current) is an undercover gig. A retired professor finds a new purpose when a private investigator hires him to pretend to be a resident at a San Francisco retirement home where a crime has happened.
Abbott Elementary (2021-current) follows a group of teachers dedicated to helping their students succeed in life, and keep their Philadelphia public school alive and thriving despite a multitude of challenges thrown their way.
Ghosts (2021-current) is about married couple Samantha and Jay who decide to turn a run-down country estate into a bed and breakfast. Things get spooky when Samantha begins to see the ghosts that haunt the house after she has a near-death experience! (Various countries have versions of this show; I’m referencing the U.S. one.)
The Sex Lives of College Girls (2021-2025) follows four college roommates as they navigate their new lives, and their new freedom, at Essex. It gets messy, of course!
Derry Girls (2018-2022) is set during the time of The Troubles in Northern Ireland, where a group of teenagers are determined to chart their own paths despite the upheaval around them.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2013-2021) takes you inside a New York police precinct where the detectives nearly drive each other up the walls with their respective antics. Bets, heists, and pranks ensue.
New Girl (2011-2018) follows four roommates and their close-knit network of friends and family in Los Angeles. Each with strong and unique personalities, the roommates get into all kinds of shenanigans together.
Bonus: I’m currently watching Animal Control (2023-current), which is about a group of animal control officers who love all kinds of critters, but sometimes find people a bit harder to deal with.