While I’ve trended over the course of many years to focusing on prestige-y dramas as my TV genre of choice, it’s been a joy to let some comedy-centric TV fare back into my life of late.
Now, don’t get me wrong: I love a good laugh. It just so happens that I’ve gravitated toward finding them in dramas that provide a lot of them. And indeed, a goodly chunk of what elevates some of the best TV shows of all time — The Sopranos and Succession among them — is that they’re consistently hilarious
Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat
In any event, I was absolutely delighted and charmed by the second edition of Jury Duty, which runs under the helm of Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat. This is a franchise that isn’t for everyone (my wife among them), for the reason that the concept hinges on the fact that while it’s a scripted show, one of the cast members is completely unaware that they’re the centerpiece of a fictional universe.
So while it’s slightly Truman Show in concept, in practice the casting, set-up, and writing are so well constructed and humane toward the unwitting participant that I think both seasons were executed flawlessly. And just as importantly, the Company Retreat season often felt like peak Parks & Recreation or The Office with regard to both strong laughs and how weirdly drawn I became to both the fictional characters and “non-actor” Anthony Norman.
As I noted, so much hinges on the casting, and Norman, as the temp HR assistant hired to help out with the completely fake Rockin’ Grandma’s Hot Sauce company retreat in Agoura Hills, California, is an absolute grand slam: he’s confident, good natured, naturally funny, and wonderful to behold as he rolls with the increasingly unhinged events the show throws at him.
Very slight spoiler alert: the final episode focuses on the reveal to Norman that he’s been on a fictional TV show for the past few weeks, and I was surprised at how emotional and caught up in the moment I became. It was clear that the cast had developed real world bonds with each other and with Anthony, and the feeling – after the initial shock wore off – was mutual.
Rooster
If you’ve never heard of Bill Lawrence, you’re probably watching or re-watching at least one of his shows right now. It’s not a stretch to call him the current king of TV comedy, with the Scrubs reboot, Ted Lasso, Bad Monkey, Shrinking, and Rooster all having dropped new seasons recently.
Rooster, starring Steve Carell as a popular novelist who takes a college teaching gig to stay close with his daughter (also a professor, played by Charly Clive), has quickly become my favorite comfort watch of 2026.
Everything about Rooster feels so lived in and easy. I have a specific nostalgia for my latter college years, and this show expertly taps into it somehow.
Carell is pitch perfect as Greg “Rooster” Russo, and the rest of the cast is stellar – which includes Scrubs’ John C. McGinley, Danielle Deadwyler, and Rory Scovel, who steals every scene he’s in as a bumbling college town cop.
Hacks
Speaking of lived in, it can’t be repeated enough how great Jean Smart is in Hacks. We’re now deep into its fifth and final season on HBO, and it’s almost spooky how deeply Smart melds into the role of comedienne Deborah Vance.
I’d peg Hacks as a different kind of comfort show. Its rhythms and pace are so well established by now and yet importantly it never veered into boring territory. I think an important reason for that is that each season takes on a new slice of Vance’s career, moving from her Las Vegas residency era to stories focused on life on the road, as a late night talk show host, during a period of crisis and exile, and now a run-up to a hoped-for triumphant return: a sold-out show at Madison Square Garden.
Good Fortune
I’ll squeeze in a blurb about a worthy movie here: Good Fortune, a 2025 comedy written, directed by, and starring Parks & Rec alum Aziz Ansari, and co-starring Seth Rogen, Keanu Reeves, and Keke Palmer.
My wife and I caught this one while staying at a hotel on vacation, and we both couldn’t get over how funny, charming, and winning it is.
I won’t reveal much about the plot of this one except to say that if you generally enjoy Keanu Reeves, you definitely will appreciate his performance playing a sweet but deeply naive angel sent to deal with the very real world trials and tribulations of we mere mortals. And then meanwhile Ansari and Rogen feel like they’ve been a comedic duo for decades.