15 Best Sitcoms Streaming On Netflix Right Now

There's nothing like a good sitcom when you want to bask in soothing, well-put-together entertainment to be enjoyed in small helpings. In addition to its ample offerings of shows in various other wheelhouses (including several other comedy subgenres), the U.S. Netflix catalog features a wealth of great, varied options for those looking to dive into a new sitcom — and, here, we're shining a light on the best.

This list compiles the 15 unranked best sitcoms currently available on Netflix, sticking to a relatively orthodox definition of the genre as consisting of half-hour, comedy-driven shows; no dramedies here, with all love to them. Whatever specific alchemy makes up your sense of humor, you'll definitely find something here to laugh at.

"The Cosby Show" spin-off "A Different World" is one of the best and most underrated American sitcoms of all time. Originally following Denise Huxtable (Lisa Bonet) as she goes off to the fictional Hillman College in Virginia and gets to know college life alongside roommates Maggie Lauten (Marisa Tomei) and Jaleesa Vinson-Taylor (Dawnn Lewis), the show transformed dramatically from Season 2 onward following the departure of both Bonet and Tomei.

Under the guidance of producer and director Debbie Allen, "A Different World" distanced itself from "Cosby" to become a self-possessed piece exploring every corner of life in a historically Black college. By extension, the show also mined humor and emotion from the numerous complexities of coming of age in the '90s, broaching topics that no sitcom before had dared touch, and taking on a savvy, whip-smart, cosmopolitan perspective that meshed with the skillful sitcom writing to create one of TV's most comprehensive and entertaining portraits of young Black life at that point in American history. All six seasons are available on Netflix, and are well worth getting through the relative roughness of Season 1, especially given the streamer's "A Different World" sequel already has a series order.

The best "Seinfeld" episodes are still as close as any sitcom has ever come to blissful, platonic mastery of the form. Created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld as a sort-of extension of Seinfeld's observational stand-up act, the show carried itself for a near-decade on NBC with very little in the way of a "premise." The gist couldn't be simpler: Three guys and a lady living life in New York City, getting into mundane mishaps, and experiencing the absurdity of being alive. The kicker that made it so brilliant: No sentiment or morality whatsoever are involved.

Where the majority of U.S. sitcoms both prior to and during the run of "Seinfeld" angled for a feel-good ethos through lessons, reconciliations, jolly gatherings, and an overall optimistic slant, the proverbial "show about nothing" refuses to give its protagonists any development, any lasting life wins, or any semblance of a conscience — unless it's to make their eventual downfall into abjection funnier. Humor is the only imperative, pulled off through some of the sharpest, most scathing comedy writing ever. Give its nine seasons a shot on Netflix, and see for yourself what the deal is.

Created by the legendary Australian comedy duo of Jane Turner and Gina Riley, "Kath & Kim" is one of the defining sitcoms of the 2000s, and one of the absolute funniest shows you can watch on Netflix today. Turner and Riley themselves star as Kath Day-Knight and Kim Craig, a mother-daughter duo living in the Melbourne suburbs — a casting decision made hilarious by the fact that the two actresses are the same age in real life.

That's only the first of the gleeful gestures towards absurdism on "Kath & Kim," a show that presents a comically exaggerated version of Australian everyday life, yet does it so dryly and with such wicked, unsparing intelligence that its over-the-top satirical scenarios unearth a truth of their own. The idiosyncratic speech patterns with which Kath and Kim brave the challenges of modern social and romantic life have become pop culture legend in Australia, and are a veritable goldmine to be discovered by comedy fans around the world. 

With just 32 half-hour episodes spread across four eight-episode batches (all of which are available on Netflix), it's the kind of show you can burn through in a couple of afternoons — and chances are you'll want to.

"The Vince Staples Show" is a series that combines the situational awkwardness of "Curb Your Enthusiasm," the volatile surrealism of "Atlanta," the political bite of Boots Riley, and the diagrammatic visual choreography of Edgar Wright — while boasting enough of the inimitable personality of its titular star to chart a comedic path all its own. Acclaimed rapper and comedian Vince Staples co-created this Netflix original series alongside Ian Edelman and Maurice Williams, and stars as a highly fictionalized version of himself: A savvy, scrappy, overwhelmed musician weathering the myriad cosmic ironies of L.A. showbiz life while continuously teetering on the edge of superstardom.

Anyone who's familiar with Staples' discography and persona will be unsurprised to learn that his  feverishly clever sense of humor maps amazingly to sitcom form. Although the adventures of fictional Vince and his friends and relatives persistently bend — and often break — the edges of the genre, their unbridled, rule-averse absurdity is like a path opening up into verdant comedic possibilities. Some of the funniest TV episodes on all of the Netflix catalog are here, as well as some of the streamer's most artistically bracing output. It's a shame that only two short seasons were made before Netflix pulled the plug — but that does make it possible to breeze through the whole show in one binge.

Leave it to one of her generation's premier comic geniuses to spearhead one of Netflix's best original series of all time. Informally remembered by many as "the underrated Maria Bamford Netflix sitcom," "Lady Dynamite" was co-created by Pam Brady and "Arrested Development" mastermind Mitch Hurwitz, and stars Bamford as her own fictionalized self — here, an actress and comedian who returns to Los Angeles for a fresh start in the entertainment business after a six-month stint treating bipolar disorder in a mental health facility.

Not scripted by Bamford herself but largely inspired by her life and patterned after her unmistakable style of abrasive, exuberantly discomfiting stand-up, "Lady Dynamite" avails itself liberally of surrealism, nonlinear structuring, and even full-blown fantasy. The show's zigzagging of sitcom rules and expectations is plenty exhilarating by itself — but what cinches "Lady Dynamite" as great television is the way it deploys that irreverence to better accommodate Bamford's generational talent for dark, shockingly honest, surreptitiously emotional first-person comedy. At just two seasons and 20 episodes, it's a can't-miss Netflix hidden gem.

Between 2017 and 2018, rising comedy star Tim Robinson and underappreciated "Veep" breakout Sam Richardson (who later reunited with Robinson on various "I Think You Should Leave" sketches) teamed up on the short-lived but excellent Comedy Central sitcom "Detroiters," which now has both of its 10-episode seasons up on Netflix. Co-created by Richardson and Robinson alongside Zach Kanin and Joe Kelly, the series follows best friends and neighbors Sam Duvet (Richardson) and Tim Cramblin (Robinson), who work together creating cheap TV commercials at a Detroit ad agency belonging to Tim's family.

With fantastic writing across the board and a pitch-perfect equilibrium of dry humor and warmth (including plenty of infectious love for the titular city), "Detroiters" is the epitome of low-key comedy done right. Richardson and Robinson are both in such affable, charismatic form that just hanging out with them proves fun enough — and then, before you know it, the mastery of offbeat humor for which they'd later become notorious on "I Think You Should Leave" will suddenly rise to the fore and have you laughing out loud.

One of precious few North American sitcoms centered around Asian families, "Kim's Convenience" is a Canadian TV gem that can be watched in its entirety on Netflix. Adapted from the eponymous 2011 stage play by Ins Choi and developed by Choi alongside Kevin White, the show focuses on a family-owned convenience store in Moss Park, Toronto.

Kim's Convenience is managed by Sang-il (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee) and Yong-mi Kim (Jean Yoon), who worked as teachers in South Korea before moving to Canada. Their children are Janet (Andrea Bang), an artist and photography student who helps them out at the store, and Jung (a pre-Marvel Simu Liu), a car rental store worker who's estranged from his father as a result of a troublemaking youth.

By following the family's day-to-day interactions with customers at Kim's Convenience while also making space for the complexities of their highly specific family dynamic, the show manages to meld the strengths of a family sitcom and a workplace sitcom, opening up a cozy little TV space that can be visited like a second home — while still sustaining a high level of wit and acuity in its depiction of the Korean Canadian experience.

Created by Bill Burr and veteran "The Simpsons" writer Michael Price, "F Is for Family" ran for five seasons on Netflix, and is worth mentioning as one of the best adult animated sitcoms of the 21st century. Set in the 1970s, the show stars Burr as the voice of Frank Murphy, an aggrieved Korean War veteran and family man; Laura Dern as his hardworking wife Sue; and Justin Long, Haley Reinhart, and Debi Derryberry as their kids Kevin, Bill, and Maureen.

Although the Murphys live in a sunny Pennsylvania suburb straight out of a lifestyle magazine, their day-to-day existence is anything but aspirational: In addition to countless relationship issues amongst themselves, the family must deal with the assorted bigotries, dysfunctions, and latent crises of 1970s American society. 

"F Is for Family" is utterly unsparing in both its jokes and its underlying social commentary, going so far as to question the structural imbalances of the sitcom-template nuclear family, while still acing just the right mix of scathing wit, vulgar humor, sobering honesty, and genuine heart to make for first-rate comedic storytelling.

Another great Australian sitcom that can be enjoyed in full on Netflix is "Upper Middle Bogan." Created by Robyn Butler and Wayne Hope, this daffy satirical series follows the culture clash that ensues when a posh Melbourne woman finds out that she's related by blood to a raucous working-class family from the outer suburbs.

The first episode follows Bess Denyar's (Anne Maynard) discovery that she's adopted, followed by the even more shocking discovery that her biological parents Wayne (Glenn Robbins) and Julie Wheeler (Robyn Malcolm) are the leaders of a drag racing team. Angered at her snobbish and overprotective mother (Robyn Nevin) for hiding the truth from her, Bess is determined to get closer to her newfound birth parents and three siblings — even if it will take some adaptation.

Although the show is about as trenchant and unsparing as you'd expect in its portrait of the Australian class system and its general buffoonery, the guiding directive is to offer up a wealth of big-happy-family antics founded on strong writing and ensemble chemistry — something "Upper Middle Bogan" does exceedingly well across its three seasons.

Years before Mo'Nique was winning the Oscar and every other Best Supporting Actress trophy under the sun for her once-in-a-generation dramatic work in Lee Daniels' "Precious," she was already one of the most iconic comedians of the '90s and 2000s, with a body of work ranging from trailblazing stand-up to a number of beloved studio comedy films. And that body of work also included "The Parkers," a definitional turn-of-the-century sitcom starring Mo'Nique alongside Countess Vaughn.

A spin-off of "Moesha" created by Ralph Farquhar, Sara V. Finney, and Vida Spears, "The Parkers" follows Nikki Parker (Mo'Nique) and her daughter Kim (Vaughn), who are both attending Santa Monica College together. The two headlining stars make the most of the various outlandish situations pulled by the writers from that relatively unusual setup, scoring heaps of huge laughs and creating one of TV's best mother-daughter dynamics in the process; there's a purity to the commitment of "The Parkers" to always putting humor first that makes it a refreshing, still-endearing watch nearly three decades later.

One of the best ongoing Netflix original shows hails — like so much great TV — from the mind of Mike Schur, and once again brings him together with Ted Danson on a highly offbeat mélange of sitcom tenets and off-genre sensibilities. Counting two seasons so far with a third one on the way, "A Man on the Inside" stars Danson as Charles Nieuwendyk, a widowed, retired college professor in San Francisco who finds a new purpose in life by becoming a private investigator under the tutelage of the younger but experienced Julie Kovalenko (Lilah Richcreek Estrada).

Charles is initially hired due to his age, which makes him suited to the mission that makes up Season 1: Infiltrating a retirement community and getting to the bottom of an elaborate theft that occurred within its premises. Schur and his writer team expertly modulate between wry humor, gentle pathos, and genuinely well-assembled detective plotting, and the season's emphasis on a charismatic, well-developed ensemble of senior citizens is a refreshing change of pace from typical sitcom engineering. Season 2, meanwhile, brings about a new case, but preserves the rarefied craftsmanship.

Created by Meredith Scardino and executive produced by Tina Fey, "Girls5eva" is a short-lived but hilarious showbiz comedy that keeps laughs going at one of the steadiest, most reliable clips of any show in the past decade. The all-star quartet of Sara Bareilles, Busy Philipps, Paula Pell, and Renée Elise Goldsberry play four vastly different women banded together by a shared past: They were once Girls5eva, a briefly successful '90s pop group that has vanished from the limelight since disbanding.

Versed in the best lessons from the work of Fey et al. on "30 Rock," "Girls5eva" layers gags on top of gags on top of gags as its protagonists get an unexpected shot at a comeback when popular rapper Lil Stinker (Jeremiah Craft) samples one of their songs. Naturally, innumerable digs at the pop music industry and its changes since the '90s are in order, but plenty of the humor is also based on character eccentricity — a trait enabled as much by the witty, resourceful writing as by the effervescent brilliance of the show's four stars. Netflix carries both the original two Peacock seasons and a third one produced in-house following a cancellation and revival.

Known in Spanish as "División Palermo," the Argentinian series "Community Squad" is one of the most out-there Netflix originals. At first, it's a relatively straightforward sitcom: Jewish Argentine Felipe Rozenfeld (Santiago Korovsky, who also created the show) accidentally wanders into an interview room while trying to file a police report, and ends up being hired as part of a newly-created civilian force made up entirely of people from social minorities.

Although the show's humor is willfully edgy, the comedy is never — or at least very rarely — at the expense of the characters' marginalized traits. Instead, the joke is on the police, the government, and their willingness to cynically pack outcasts into a marketing stunt while giving them no real respect or authority. Despite its inflammatory-looking exterior, "Community Squad" is a sincere attempt at humanizing people rarely seen on TV, while critiquing tokenism and the re-entrenchment of social inequalities it engenders. The irony that makes the show an especially compelling watch is that, as its two seasons unfold, the squad gets caught up in an unexpectedly serious case with stunningly high stakes — at which point "Community Squad" evolves into a propulsive action-thriller series without losing any of its whip-smart, pointedly empathetic humor.

As Tina Fey and Robert Carlock's even more absurdist follow-up to "30 Rock," "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" still ranks high among the best Netflix original comedies — if not the best Netflix originals, full-stop. Applying Fey and Carlock's buoyant, elastic, silliness-prone cartoon humor to counterintuitively dark subject matter like PTSD and cult survival, this show manages to square the circle: It's very serious and very affecting when necessary, but for the most part it gets away with being a breezy, uplifting hoot.

Ellie Kemper stars as the titular Kimmy Schmidt, who gets rescued from an underground bunker along with three other women after being held captive for 15 years by a doomsday cultist (Jon Hamm). Determined to rebuild her life, Kimmy moves to New York City, rooms with aspiring actor and singer Titus Andromedon (Tituss Burgess), gets hired as a nanny by socialite Jacqueline White (Jane Krakowski), and throws herself into the crazy, beautiful world she's been missing out on — while still grappling with various manifestations of trauma. It's a show that shouldn't work, but, thanks to hugely skilled comedic writing and one of the most talented and tight-knit ensembles in sitcom history, its four seasons and one interactive special all work beautifully.

For eight seasons, the Netflix animated sitcom "Big Mouth" managed to negotiate a unique, inimitable space between wicked humor, unappealing grossness, and heartfelt emotion. Created by Andrew Goldberg, Nick Kroll, Mark Levin, and Jennifer Flackett, the show tackles the ugliest, most awkward, most fussily undiscussed parts of puberty through the story of a group of middle schoolers who find themselves increasingly overwhelmed by their physical and emotional changes.

At once endearing and bizarre in its animation style, with frequent forays into a dense fantasy mythology made up of emotion-personifying creatures (and a host of musical numbers to go along with the comedy), "Big Mouth" allows itself to be brutally honest and unabashedly disgusting in ways that make almost every other show about growing up seem comparatively tame. At the same time, its tart, discomfiting humor is always deployed for earnest means: As surreal as their predicaments may become, the kids at Bridgeton Middle School always have their knotty emotions and anxieties taken seriously, and their stories become disarmingly moving as a result.