1.Curb Your Enthusiasm
Take a neurotic Jew who can’t get anything right, a happy-go-lucky best-friend with a foul-mouthed ranting wife and a group of great comedy actors from the ’80s and ’90s and you have Curb Your Enthusiasm. Created by Larry David who is the neurotic Jew and he plays a fictionalized version of himself and created Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm is largely ad-libbed with the storyline being put together in advance. The acting ability of the amazing cast makes this work so well that you simply can’t tell it isn’t all brilliantly scripted. The show is witty, cringey, dense, and thick will cultural humor.Similar to Portlandia, this show has a fairly politically outspoken creator but, also like Portlandia, it just doesn’t spoil the comedy; Larry David is that good. This is how you make comedy that doesn’t need preach. The show is certainly no friend to every political position, but it is also not vituperative. It is getting harder to find good comedies that don’t take cheap shots; Curb Your Enthusiasm is the best,it will go down in history (in my opinion) as being better than Seinfeld and the best comedy TV series ever contrived.
2.The Office (US version)
It follows the exploits of the staff of Dunder Mifflin, a fictional paper company led by the indomitable Steve Carrell in his best role ever.There is little more to be said of this show: it is the one series that most of you will have expected to see on this list because most of you will agree that The Office (in one of its national forms at least) deserves to be on a list of the best comedy TV series. Oh, and if you want to experience a moment in which two worlds collide, here’s a clip from The Office in which Ricky Gervais bumps into Steve Carrell outside the elevator.
3.Friends
The “Ross and Rachel” saga kept people talking at the water cooler, and time after time the silly comments or mannerisms of the characters entered real life and influenced how we all spoke and behaved with each other. It is true to say that Friends, more than any other entry here, defined a generation.The inclusion was, surprisingly, not that easy as I was very close to including Frasier instead, another favorite that at least gets a bonus spot below. But there is no denying it: a list like this without Friends on it is not a list worth reading
0 Comments