Greetings, reader!
Today's list is a long overdue one; whenever I've ranked my favorite television shows or favorite television episodes of all time, I've divided TV into comedy and drama. While almost all scripted TV can be fitted into one or the other, as comedy includes everything from Friends and The Simpsons to It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and The Good Place, while drama ranges from Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones to Twin Peaks and Mr. Robot, there are a select few shows that blur the lines so much that I haven't ended up including them in either category.
Today's post is all about celebrating those shows! Any series is eligible, but I've ranked them purely based on how well they combine drama and comedy, which means that it really has to be a good blend: any sitcom that occasionally has dramatic episodes, or any clear drama that has moments of humor on the side, won't make it. Only the shows that blend comedy and drama in an exceptional manner have made it onto this list.
10. One Day at a Time (2017-2020)
Cards on the table, the laugh track coupled with the show's use of classic sitcom tropes and the half-hour runtime make One Day at a Time into a series that is more comedy than drama, which is why it's only at 10th place and not higher. This reboot of the 1970's series of the same name still makes it onto the list, because episodes that deal with serious themes aren't an occasional occurrence like they are in Brooklyn Nine-Nine or Community, but rather a rule with no exceptions for every episode.
No matter how silly the show's style is, every episode deals with very real-life issues such as racism, bullying, sexual harassment, alcoholism and many more. The emotional range of the cast as their characters have to deal with such issues, coupled with the almost slapstick-like comedic touches in the show's atmosphere, make for a bizarre combination of both extremes, but it works like a wonder.
9. The West Wing (1999-2006)
Here we have the same phenomenon but the other way around: Aaron Sorkin's masterpiece The West Wing is clearly more drama than comedy, but the show's comedic side plays such a huge role as well that the iconic political series deserves a spot on this list. While every good drama series has its comedic side, and one could argue that The Sopranos or Twin Peaks could be on this list due to their humorous sides amidst the drama, those shows didn't quite make the cut because the comedy always feels like a side element and never the main focus. With The West Wing, the comedy is an absolutely integral part of the mix, and a surprisingly heavy portion of many episodes.
Very often, if the episode's main story is about something serious like President Bartlett (Martin Sheen) dealing with the death penalty or Josh (Brad Whitford) fighting congress on a gun control bill, the subplot will be something straight out of a sitcom, like Charlie (Dulé Hill) and CJ (Allison Janey) engaging in a prank-off or Sam (Rob Lowe) meeting with UFO experts on Leo's (John Spencer) Big Block Of Cheese Day. While the show doesn't quite qualify as a comedy series, its large chunks of humor do bring levity to every single episode, more so than with most occasionally-comedic dramas.
For the best example on The West Wing's comedic side, watch the season 4 premiere 20 Hours in America. It's funnier than ninety per cent of sitcom episodes, as there were moments that literally had me spitting out the tea I was drinking due to the episode's extremely laugh-inducing nature.
8. Suits (2011-2019)
The further up we get on the list, the deeper we'll dive into shows that are actual 50-50 hybrids between comedy and drama - these first three have been borderline instances of shows that are clearly one more than the other, but mix the two enough in order to be in the discussion. Such is the case with legal drama Suits, which unlike The West Wing, actually has 'comedy' marked as one of its genres on IMDB. No wonder, either - while the show is more a drama than it is a sitcom, the show's dialogue is quite full of humor, ranging from silly plotlines you wouldn't find in more serious legal dramas to the even more dramatic scenes having an abundance of witty comebacks and clever jokes dominating the dialogue.
The show's balance of drama and comedy is personified best in the season 3 episode She's Mine, as the A-story follows a long-term legal battle reaching an intense and dramatic high point, while the equally engaging B-story follows Louis Litt (Rick Hoffman) battling in a mock trial over custody of a cat. Not many shows could fit those two wildly different atmospheres into the same episode so seamlessly.
7. WandaVision (2021)
While the placement of this Marvel series at #7 speaks to it not quite being the very best mix of drama and comedy in TV history, it certainly is one of the most creative instances on how the two can be combined. Essentially, due to sci-fi reasons that I won't spoil here, this superhero series taking place in the Marvel universe follows Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany), as they are seemingly trapped in another plain of existence - one where life is exactly like a TV sitcom. No, really. I swear, if you watch the show, everything ends up making sense.
But, yeah. We also see glimpses of the outside world, and the fact that the sitcom setting is a part of the existing story instead of the show's outermost milieu is enough to qualify this as a drama, not to mention the fact that we go quite deep into character psychology and high-stakes power struggles in a way that typical comedy shows wouldn't. But, as most of the show takes place in the sitcom-based world of Westview, WandaVision does also qualify as a comedy - there's a laugh track, there are physical comedy shenanigans, and there's loads of meta humor in how the series pays tribute to old-school sitcoms with its unique setting. WandaVision is one of those shows that you have to see in order to believe.
6. The End of the F***ing World (2017-2019)
Now we're starting to get to the real hybrids. The series is very much a drama, as it deals with serious psychological topics in an often grim manner and there are no overtly comedic shenanigans, but it is also very much a comedy, with the episodes' 25-minute runtime and the plentiful instances of dark humor in the events and dialogue. The sweetness of the bond between main characters Alyssa (Jessica Barden) and James (Alex Lawther), contrasted with the dark nature of the problems they face in their personal lives and during their misadventures together, make The End of the F***ing World into a proper British comedy-drama.
5. Sex Education (2019-Present)
The way that Netflix's Sex Education mixes comedy and drama is, in a way, an exact reversal of the combination in The End of the F***ing world. Here, the episodes are 45 minutes long and the structure of episodes and seasons are built like a typical drama, but the series is simply light enough to be seen as a comedy as well. The story deals with very important and powerful themes concerning sex, sex positivity and coming of age, but it does so in a wholesome and lighthearted fashion.
Every episode will make you laugh on multiple occasions, while also giving important life lessons and going deep into the realistic and well-written characters. The balance between comedy and drama is clear, as I never know which one to count Sex Education as when making a list of the best comedy shows or best drama shows - it's right there in between, with its light and fun yet quite dramatic and not-over-comedic atmosphere.
4. Gilmore Girls (2000-2007; 2016)
When watching the more intense scenes of Lorelai (Lauren Graham) arguing with her mother Emily (Kelly Bishop), or Rory (Alexis Bledel) recovering from the dramatic fallout of her actions in the season 4 finale, you won't feel like you're watching a comedy series. But when watching Lorelai's workplace bickering with Michel (Yanic Truesdale) or anything that town weirdo Kirk (Sean Gunn) ever does, you'll be sure that you are watching a quirky sitcom.
Essentially, I'd describe Gilmore Girls' genre as "soap opera, but good" - it has the complicated and dramatic character relationships and plotlines of messy family drama et cetera that soap operas are known for, but gone is the trademark low-quality cheesiness of the genre: it's a soap opera, but with well-written characters brought to life by excellent acting performances. This makes the show's drama powerful, while the heavy dose of silliness in each episode balances the more dramatic side out.
3. Ramy (2019-Present)
Okay, to be fair, Ramy is objectively more comedy than drama. But it does both so strongly and combines them so well, that this half-hour modern sitcom about a Muslim family living in New Jersey still makes it to the top three. Not many sitcoms deal with the deepest crevices of faith, from the complexities of modern interpretations of Islam and the balance between being a faithful Muslim and wanting to live a 'normal life' amidst Western norms, all the way to the horrors of religious persecution and instances of fundamentalism.
But this bold series tackles it all, making for episodes that are very serious and thought-provoking at their deepest, while still always retaining a comedic touch in how the story is told. Ramy's balance of serious topics and top-tier humor is nothing short of masterful.
2. Barry (2018-Present)
Bill Hader's HBO masterpiece Barry is another side to the Ramy coin - it is objectively more drama than comedy, but the comedy element is still so strong that the series can't be described as anything but very strongly both. Yes, the half-hour runtime, outrageous dark humor, joke-filled dialogue and overall comedic feel in how the story is told make Barry into a great TV comedy. But the extremely dark backstory of main character Barry (Bill Hader), which continues to come back to haunt him, not to mention the realistic character drama with gritty elements of crime and violence involved, make Barry into an even greater TV drama. Like I said, very much both.
The show's greatest episodes are the ones that drive home the point of the combination by creating tear-jerking drama and laughter-inducing comedy simultaneously. This is made possible by the show's obscure premise, as Barry is all about a former hitman trying to create a clean slate with a career in acting. The crime/drama/thriller elements are provided by Barry's disturbing background and the storylines of gang violence, vengeance and legal issues that come with it, while the comedy is provided by the shenanigans he gets into with his acting career, as well as the sheer absurdity of this double life.
The best individual example of the show's delicate balance is season 2 episode ronny/lily, where an extremely well-directed fight sequence goes on for a ridiculously long time, as the characters resort to creative methods of Tarantino-esque violence - you can't help but laugh at how absurd it all is, even though the fight has very real and grim implications on the characters and story. In short, Bill Hader is a genius.
1. Atlanta (2016-Present)
If Bill Hader is a genius, then Donald Glover is a full-on wizard.
Atlanta isn't so much a mere combination of comedy TV and drama TV, or a sort of halfway point between the two, but rather it transcends the traditional divide in order to create a genre of its own. No other series ever made is like Atlanta, in terms of where it fits on the comedy-drama spectrum. The series is extremely funny, but not in a conventional sitcom way - it's also hard-hitting and dramatic, but not in a conventional TV drama way. The genius of Donald Glover's vision for this series is best described as "Seinfeld meets Twin Peaks meets The Wire meets Ramy". No, really, there's no better way to explain it. It's a strange and artistic show, that has a lot to say about society and culture but does so in an organic and non-preachy way, while being extremely comedic in a subtle, low-key manner, and randomly grabbing elements from all sorts of genres into the mix.
Sure, it's not a fantasy series by any means, but one episode does feature an invisible car because creativity! Then there are episodes that go wildly into the deep end of comedy (like Barbershop, where the whole episode is just Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry) trying to keep up with his barber who goes on side quests amidst a haircut), while others are dead-serious and even uncomfortable to watch (Teddy Perkins you just have to see in order to believe), and some transcend the norms of television (like B.A.N., which is from start to finish presented as an episode of a fictional talk show on a fictional channel, down to the 'commercial break' where we see actual commercials directed by Donald Glover for the purpose of this series). Atlanta is, I suppose, everything.
Thank you for reading! Tune in next week, as I ambitiously rank all twenty-seven movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including the newest instalment Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022). I don't know yet where it will be ranked, as I'm going to see it later today - can't wait!
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