Best Comedy Series Of The Decade
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30 ROCK
In the fall of 2006, which behind-the-scenes-at-a-network-sketch-show series seemed like more of a sure thing? The hourlong drama written by The West Wing's creator and starring one of the Friends? Or the half-hour comedy created by and starring a former SNL head writer? Against all odds, Tina Fey's 30 Rock not only bested its in-house competition (see ya, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip) but thrived over seven hilariously meta seasons at NBC. Along the way, it cemented Fey's position as a wickedly funny comedy writer and star, revitalized Alec Baldwin's career — as network blowhard Jack Donaghy, Baldwin was the best he's ever been — and built a deep supporting bench with the likes of Tracy Morgan, Jane Krakowski and Jack McBrayer. And then there were the jokes! For a moment, try to imagine a world in which you'd never heard of "Rural Juror," "Werewolf Bar Mitzvah" or "Night Cheese": Who'd want to go to there?
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ATLANTA
It's not easy to describe Donald Glover's low-key chronicle of life in the ATL, because it prides itself on being indescribable. Dazzlingly innovative and masterfully filmed, Atlanta is constantly pushing boundaries and playing with form, gleefully bouncing from buddy-comedy ("Barbershop") one week to Gothic horror ("Teddy Perkins") the next. But through all the genre-hopping, it also tells the compelling story of Glover's Earn, who's trying to make a name for himself by managing his cousin Al's rising rap career. Glover weaves all of these influences into a sharply observed mosaic that delivers huge laughs along with keen cultural insight. (Season 1 was great, but Season 2 topped it with one of the strongest seasons of TV in recent memory.) We're still not sure it's strictly a "comedy," in the classic sense, but we are sure it's one of the decade's very best shows... however you classify it.
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BOJACK HORSEMAN
A cartoon about a talking horse is admittedly an unlikely candidate to make this list, and BoJack did start out as a solid but unremarkable Hollywoo(d) send-up. But then a funny thing happened: The writing began to dig deeper into the gnarled psyche of washed-up former sitcom star BoJack Horseman, and that cartoon about a talking horse surprised us by evolving into one of TV's most emotionally penetrating portrayals of mental illness. Thankfully, it's always been hysterically funny, too — we love you forever, Mr. Peanutbutter — and delivered superb voice work from stars Will Arnett, Aaron Paul, Amy Sedaris and Alison Brie. (Plus, BoJack's grueling climb back toward stardom has yielded some of the most vicious showbiz satire we've ever seen.) It's the courageous, clear-eyed look at BoJack's cripplingly self-destructive tendencies, though, that has made this cartoon about a talking horse truly special.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine - Season 6
BROOKLYN NINE-NINE
Most sitcoms begin to show their age five or six seasons in — but not Brooklyn Nine-Nine. If anything, the Fox-turned-NBC comedy has only gotten better with age, with a joke-per-minute ratio that is virtually unmatched by its broadcast-network brethren. It boasts one of the best ensembles on television, with Andre Braugher in a league of his own as precinct captain Raymond Holt. Along the way, B99 has also proved itself to be adept at tackling hot-button issues, with standout installments focused on Terry being racially profiled, Rosa's coming out and, most recently, Amy's #MeToo story. And lest we forget, it features some of the best cold opens out there (see: that Season 5 Backstreet Boys singalong). If it manages to stay the course, B99 will go down as one of the all-time greats.
TV Community
COMMUNITY
Dan Harmon's comedy about a makeshift family of community college students was a wholly unique beast — a wildly inventive series that, one week, could immerse viewers in a campus-wide paintball game stylized as a spaghetti western and, another week, invite viewers to navigate Abed's peculiar psyche in a rich character study modeled after My Dinner with Andre. At its best, Community's cleverness was buoyed by genuine sentiment; there was never any doubt that the Greendale 7 (and later, the #SaveGreendale committee) cared deeply about one another, even when Britta's name was used as a verb. Sharp writing was matched by a veritable dream team of comedic actors who singlehandedly kept the show afloat during that gas leak year. And while we never got that movie, we somehow got six seasons, and that's pretty cool. Cool cool cool.
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CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND
The CW's musical comedy began with a simple premise (and a giant pretzel): Rebecca Bunch was moving to West Covina in pursuit of happiness. Across four seasons, though, the situation became a lot more nuanced than that, and the show blossomed into one of television's most unique offerings — even if the ratings were not representative of its quality. Against the backdrop of hilarious and imaginative musical numbers, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend delivered an honest, thought-provoking portrayal of mental illness not often seen on TV. And it did so with a dynamite cast: Star Rachel Bloom gave a fiercely committed performance as Rebecca, while the show's supporting players populated West Covina with warm, lovable weirdos. In short? We were totally crazy for this quirky, risk-tasking gem, which never met a problem it couldn't solve with a little song and dance.
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HAPPY ENDINGS
It wasn't a hit by any ratings measure, and it never got nominated for a single Emmy... but with the benefit of hindsight, ABC's goofy, fast-paced hangout comedy now stands as one of the most rewatchable, quotable, laugh-out-loud hilarious shows of the century. Dismissed early on as yet another Friends clone, Happy Endings found its own groove by assembling one of the tightest comedy ensembles in TV history — seriously, our favorite cast member is a six-way tie — and pummeling us with a relentless onslaught of rapid-fire jokes that had us constantly rewinding because we were laughing too hard to catch them all. (You know how a lot of TV comedies aren't funny anymore? This show was funny.) Its life was tragically cut short after just three seasons, and its cast continues to delight us in new projects... but if we had the power to greenlight one TV revival, we'd put this ah-mah-zing gang back together in a heartbeat.
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PARKS AND RECREATION
There's no shortage of #PeakTV comedies that center on cynical people doing awful things to those around them. Parks and Recreation was, thankfully, the antithesis of that: Leslie Knope was a driven, kind-hearted (if a bit intense) woman who just wanted to help her community, and Pawnee, Indiana was full of genial goofballs who tried to do the same. Though Parks and Rec initially endured endless comparisons to The Office — the perils of using talking heads! — the comedy carved out its own place in pop culture history, thanks to its warm sincerity, enduring humor (#TreatYoSelf) and ensemble of eccentric characters. What's more, the comedy capped its seven-season run with a deeply satisfying series finale, a sentimental hour that brought closure to the lives of Leslie and company — no easy feat in any decade. Here's to you, Parks and Recreation: We loved you and we liked you.
The Good Place - Season 3
THE GOOD PLACE
From the start, The Good Place had everything we'd want from a best-of-the-decade comedy series: Kristen Bell! Ted Danson! Weekly philosophy lessons! But the NBC comedy really blew our forking minds with the Season 1 revelation that the Good Place was really the Bad Place, a twist that has since allowed the show to reach new creative heights. In its first three seasons, the show has struck a heavenly balance between light, goofy humor and cerebral discussions of thorny topics; that one of TV's funniest shows can also tackle the ethics of capitalism is a true testament to its sharp writing. And that cast! Every single member of The Good Place's ensemble truly shines, from Danson as a demon with a heart of gold, to Manny Jacinto as the delightfully dopey Jason, to D'Arcy Carden as the chipper not-a-robot Janet. The Good Place might be coming to an end soon — but it's sure had one hell of a run.
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VEEP
No lobbying was needed to persuade us to include Armando Iannucci's pitch-black political satire in our list of the decade's best comedies. For seven seasons, the HBO hit remained as funny as it was brutal — and it was, as most of its characters would've put it, f—ing merciless. As Selina Meyer, the titular VP whose presidential ambitions were thwarted more often than realized, Julia Louis-Dreyfus performed like an actor possessed. On her way to winning six (and, soon, likely seven) Emmys for the role, she hurled insults like they were grenades, launched into tirades so blistering, she should've needed treatment for burns afterward, and toggled between self-congratulation and self-pity with the effortlessness of only one real-life visitor to the Oval Office. And though we would've voted to keep the show going, we're also glad that Louis-Dreyfus and showrunner David Mandel ended it well before it pulled a Jonah Ryan and overstayed its welcome.