The 25 Best Feel-Good Television Shows

Showrunner Quinta Brunson ushered in a new golden age of sitcoms with Abbott Elementary, a fresh take on the mockumentary-style ensemble comedy. The Emmy-winning show follows a group of teachers working at a public elementary school in Philadelphia, where they regularly face the daily struggles of working in education—whether that means dealing with budget cuts, union strikes, or a less-than-enthused student body.

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This show may be set during the Troubles—a roiling and turbulent national conflict that affected Northern Ireland from the late ’60s through the ’90s—but Derry Girls is less concerned with political unrest than it is with teenage angst. While the series certainly makes it clear that its beloved Catholic schoolgirls (and honorary schoolboy) are living in wartime, it doesn’t preoccupy itself too much with lessons on violence or history. Instead, the show is buoyed by the boisterous friendship between Erin, Orla, Michelle, Clare, and James, a one-of-a-kind gang that regularly gets swept up in unbelievably absurd antics (from witnessing the death of a nun during detention to accidentally distributing weed scones at a wake).

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Emily in Paris is the kind of show that works well if you don’t think about it too hard. Emily Cooper, a junior marketing executive from Chicago, moves to Paris for her job. Despite not knowing a lick of French, she immediately rises in the ranks of her French-speaking marketing agency, develops life-altering friendships with her French neighbors, and enters a love triangle with the hottest men in the city. Who wants narrative realism when you could have this—plus some of the most fun and fantastical outfits to have ever hit your Netflix queue?

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The titular character of this Apple TV+ series is a former American college football coach who has been hired to coach another football—erm, soccer—team in England. The only problem? Ted has zero experience with the sport. Despite facing intense public backlash and ire from his own team, Ted’s good-humored personality and upbeat Kansan charm are the only weapons he needs to overcome any Premier League obstacle.

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Small-town charm meets blue-blood drama in this quintessential fall show that follows the lives of single mom Lorelai and her teenage daughter, Rory. When Lorelai is unable to pay the tuition for Rory’s private school, she is forced to reconcile with her estranged parents, the intimidatingly wealthy Emily and Richard Gilmore. Over the course of seven seasons, the family navigates the challenges of relationships, money, work, and school.

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The Great British Baking Show is perhaps the coziest reality television series to have ever graced our screens. Since the show premiered back in 2010, 15 seasons’ worth of contestants have entered the famed white tent for a chance to prove that they’re the best amateur baker across the United Kingdom. Every week features three challenges based on one theme, providing ample opportunity for each baker to pull off delightful and impressive culinary feats.

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Adapted from the best-selling young-adult book series by Jenny Han, The Summer I Turned Pretty is an enchanting and romantic peek into the fictional New England coastal town of Cousins Beach. The show centers on Isabel “Belly” Conklin, a young girl who spends every summer at Cousins with Conrad and Jeremiah, the sons of her mother’s best friend. The summer that Belly turns 16, she signs up for the country club’s debutante ball, a decision that inadvertently launches her into a coming-of-age saga full of unexpected friendships, betrayals, and love triangles.

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Meghan Sussex (née Markle) is going back to her roots. Her new lifestyle series (which, by the way, has already been greenlit for season two) is all about bringing intention, thoughtfulness, and care to life’s otherwise mundane moments—whether that means artfully plating pasta for a friend or peppering fruit salads with flower sprinkles. Come for the how-tos and tips on hostessing, and stay for Meghan’s breezy Montecito style and Nancy Meyers aesthetic.

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New Girl kicks off like any other great story: Boy meets girl, girl meets boy ... and boy ... and boy. After she catches her live-in boyfriend cheating on her, Jessica Day is on the hunt for new roommates. She answers a Craigslist ad for a spare room in a gorgeous Los Angeles loft, which also happens to be inhabited by three single men. Together, the unexpected foursome develop a tight-knit bond that sees them through career failures, romantic relationships, and family drama.

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When it comes to great workplace comedies, Superstore is right up there with The Office and Scrubs.Set in a fictional big-box chain store called Cloud 9, the show follows a group of employees as they deal with the trials and tribulations of customer service and the struggle to climb up the corporate ladder.

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Modern Family is exactly what it sounds like: a portrayal of all the different kinds of shapes and colors families today can look like. Phil and Claire Dunphy represent the prototypical nuclear family: Phil, an overzealous real estate agent, is the family’s breadwinner, while Claire works as a stay-at-home mom to their three kids. Claire’s brother, Mitchell, is a high-strung lawyer who has adopted a daughter with his partner, a music teacher named Cameron. Meanwhile, Jay—Claire and Mitchell’s wealthy dad—is married to Gloria, a Colombia-born woman more than 20 years his junior. Throughout the course of 11 seasons, the members of this unconventional extended family get themselves into a series of hilariously haphazard hijinks.

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This HBO dramedy takes us inside the dorm room of four lovable college freshmen kicking off their college careers at Essex, a fictional university in Vermont. As the title implies, the show explores the fun, frivolous, messy, and complicated sides to entering sexually active adulthood, as well as the ordinary struggles of being a hardworking college student.

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Played by the inimitable Fran Drescher, Fran Fine sets out from her humble hometown of Flushing, Queens, to find employment within Manhattan’s upper crust. Luckily for Fran, she knocks on the door of Maxwell Sheffield, a widowed Broadway producer who just so happens to be looking for a nanny for his three young kids. Don’t expect The Sound of Music; Fran is more Uptown Girls than Maria von Trapp. From her gaudy designer wardrobe to her snappy one-liners, Fran is far from a traditional high-society nanny.

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Determined to rise up through the ranks of her high school’s social hierarchy, 15-year-old Devi is determined to secure her first-ever boyfriend—and she has her sights locked on Paxton, her longstanding crush who just so happens to be the most-wanted boy at Sherman Oaks High. But while pursuing Paxton, Devi will also have to come to terms with other parts of her life, from the sudden death of her father to her tenuous relationship with her Indian-American heritage.

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The Bold Type follows a trio of three best friends who work as a journalist, a social-media director, and a fashion-closet assistant at Scarlet, a fictional women’s fashion magazine based in New York City. It’s kind of like if you took the The Devil Wears Prada and made it into a soap opera. Never mind the fact that these girls are somehow able to pull off the impossible in every single episode—from the girls’ habit of Ubering all across the city despite living off of a digital media worker’s salary to Jane making it on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list while only writing, like, two articles per month. Still, the show doesn’t have to be realistic or believable to be entertaining.

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Continuity be damned—The Carrie Diaries is a great piece of contemporary television, even if it fails to faithfully follow the purported backstory set in Sex and the City. The show only works if you forget that it’s supposed to be a SATC prequel and instead take it in as a delicious romp of a coming-of-age story. Set in the 1980s, Carrie Bradshaw is a wide-eyed high school junior with dreams of one day becoming a famous writer in New York City. Along the way, she’s accompanied by her childhood best friends, her rebellious younger sister Dorrit, and her on-and-off boyfriend Sebastian Kydd. (Big could never.)

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Following in the footsteps of the 2000 John Cusack film adaptation, High Fidelity offers a thoroughly modern and gender-flipped take on the 1995 Nick Hornby novel of the same name. Rob, the owner of a record shop in Brooklyn, is attempting to get over her ex-boyfriend by retracing all of the failed relationships in her self-described list of her Top 5 Most Memorable Heartbreaks. From fourth-wall breaks to understatedly cool Brooklyn street style, the 10-episode series is unbelievably easy to binge through.

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There’s nothing quite like a coming-of-age romance to put you in your feels. British schoolmates Charlie and Nick spark an unexpected connection after being assigned seats next to each other in class. The two develop a close friendship and then, eventually, a relationship, all the while navigating other issues that concern mental health, identity, and the pitfalls of growing up.

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This insanely popular reality show follows Ronald Gladden, a San Diego–based solar contractor who thinks he volunteered to be in a documentary about jury duty. Little does he know that the entire jury trial is fake—and he’s the only juror who’s not in on it. While all of the courtroom drama was completely staged (from James Marsden playing James Marsden to the defense attorney showcasing a terribly animated presentation), Gladden’s wholesome reactions and Ted Lasso–esque energy were not.

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It’s not an exaggeration to say that The Office probably redefined modern sitcoms as we know it. Based on the BBC series of the same name, The Office puts a mockumentary-style spin on the mundane misfortunes and petty dramas that plague the lives of nine-to-five employees of a paper company in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Within the show’s ensemble, there are plenty of characters to root for—or simply laugh at—including friendly sales representative Jim Halpert and impulsive regional manager Michael Scott.

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