1. Superstore

Former Ugly Betty star America Ferrera produces and plays the lead role of Amy in the ABC comedy Superstore. The hit show, about the employees of a superstore called Cloud 9, has just completed its 4th season on the network.  

The show centers around Amy, a woman in her early thirties who has been working for Cloud 9 since she unexpectedly got pregnant in high school. In the pilot episode she meets Jonah (Ben Feldman) who is Cloud 9’s newest employee. Jonah is working there to pay his bills while his parents think he is away at medical school. The two have a bit of a rocky beginning but ultimately become very close.

The store manager, Glenn (Mark Mckinney), is a sheltered man who desperately wants to be liked by his employees. He far too often says the wrong thing when he should just stay quiet. Even though he is the store manager, he is usually the one left out of the Cloud 9 loop. Dina (Lauren Ash), the assistant manager of Cloud 9, is known for her unapologetic rudeness and honesty. She loves to pick on Amy. when it comes to Cloud 9 drama, Sheyenne (Nicole Bloom) and Mateo (Nico Santos), the teen mom and gossiping fashionista are always the go to source of information. The shows large and diverse ensemble creates the perfect forum for situations gone awry.

Superstore will return this fall on NBC and is available to stream on Hulu.

2. The Mick

You may know her as Dee from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, but I know her as Mickey Molng. The comical genius, Kaitlyn Olsen, plays a free-spirited party girl who never settled down in the Fox comedy The Mick. The show provides farcical drama when Mickey is asked to take care of her sister’s three children when she flees the country with her husband to escape prosecution for fraud and tax evasion. After moving into her sister’s Greenwich mansion, Mickey quickly forms a friendship with the housemaid named Alba (Carla Jimenez). Mickey and Alba work as the perfect pair as Mickey recruits Alba along with her preposterous plans to teach the kids lessons.

In the second episode of the series, Mickey’s on-and-off partner, Jimmy (Scott MacArthur) comes to stay at the mansion and tries his hand at being a father figure. Jimmy often brings up the fact that he would have been a pro baseball player if it was not for getting his butt burned on a lit cigarette. He loves watching sports, drinking beer, and giving his skewed definition of fatherly advice.

The eldest daughter, Sabrina Pemberton (Sofia Black-D’Elia), is a seventeen year old spoiled brat who won’t take orders from anyone. This creates an ongoing problem for Mickey throughout the show. However, it also provides for great on-screen comedic chemistry between Mickey and Sabrina. On night one, in the pilot episode, Mickey offers Sabrina a shot of liquor infused with Nyquil put her to sleep so she can’t sneak out of the house. After that, Sabrina tries to get her back creating the never ending feud of pranks amongst them.

Chip Pemberton, played by Thomas Barbusca, is the middle child. He is a middle school lacrosse player who desperately wants to be more popular. Chip often seeks Jimmy’s advice when dealing with girls or the other jocks, yet Jimmy often just ends up making matters worse. Chip and Sabrina only get along when plotting against Mickey.

The youngest child, Ben (Jack Stanton), often gets neglected, which is understandable considering he is a seven year old surrounded by mostly delinquent adults. Alba tries the hardest to take care of Ben but she often falls short. The rest of the household is merely attempting to keep Ben out of trouble enough so he can keep living with them.

Unfortunately, in 2018 Fox cancelled possibly the best show ever to bless their network. The good news is The Mick is available to stream on Hulu.

3. I’m Sorry

Created, produced, written, and starring master comic Andrea Savage; truTV’s I’m Sorry demonstrates the raw truth of being a mother, wife, and comedy writer in present day Los Angeles. Savage and her on-screen husband, Mike (Tom Evrerett Scott) do their best to raise their daughter Amelia (Olive Petrucci) to be a polite and independent woman. Andrea’s character shows us that we can still have fun and be silly while being a kick-ass mother.

One of the main themes of the show is Andrea’s never-ending attempt to teach her five year old daughter about feminism and gender equality. Andrea’s on-screen mom, played by Kathy Baker, cooks dinner for her husband every night and feeds it to him in bed. Andrea is constantly sharing her disapproval of this to her, yet her mother ceases to understand the problem with it. In season 1, Andrea tries to get her daughter to stop watching The Sound of Music because she doesn’t like that Mr. Von Trapp falls for the young hot nanny, Maria. Andrea is constantly attempting to shelter Amelia from this type of submissive and gendered behavior.

Season 1 is available to stream on Netflix and season 1 and 2 are available to stream for free on truTV.com. As of now the show has not been renewed or cancelled, so be on the lookout for the premiere of season 3.

4. Grace and Frankie

The Netflix original, created and written by Marta Kauffman, is a refreshing comedy about two women in their seventies who are shocked to discover their husbands, Sol (Sam Waterston) and Robert (Martin Sheen) are in love with each other. Frankie (Lily Tomlin) is stuck in the 70’s as artist who loves kale smoothies and yoga. Grace (Jane Fonda) is an uptight former business woman who can’t fathom the concept of relaxation. The two are forced to live together in the beach house their husbands bought together. The woman drive each other completely nuts with their polar opposite personalities.

Each couple has two children. Robert and Grace have two daughters, Mallory (Brooklyn Decker) and Brianna (June Raphael). Sol and Frankie have two sons, Coyote (Ethan Embry) and Bud (Baron Vaughn). The four children spend a lot of their time worrying about their parents new adjustments when they should be dealing with their own personal lives. Brianna owns a cosmetics company she inherited from her mother. Mallory is busy with her four children and struggling marriage. Coyote is an alcoholic, and Bud is the seemingly-perfect lawyer.

This groundbreaking show about changes and growing old is exactly what we need in our lives. Make sure to catch up on seasons 1-5 on Netflix. Season 6 will be coming to the streaming platform in 2020.

5. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Created and produced by the one and only Tina Fey, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is everything you would expect and more. Kimmy, played by Ellie Kemper, moves to New York City after being rescued from a bunker she had been trapped in since she was a child. She was trapped by a man known as ‘The Reverend’ played by John Ham. Due to her extended isolation underground, Kimmy is a little intimidated by life in the world’s busiest city.

Kimmy moves into a house rented by a woman named Lillian (Carol Kane) and forms a close friendship with her roommate, a struggling actor named Titus Andromedon (Titiss Burgess). Kimmy also gets a job nannying for the children of a millionaire and spends time getting to know his wife Jacqueline (Jane Krakowski).

The show finished its final season in January 2019. All four seasons are available to watch on Netflix.

by Blair Krassen

Blair lives in Philadelphia and is studying creative writing at the University of the Arts. She is a comedy fiction and screenwriter. Her favorite show is Charmed(the original) and her favorite movie is the Sandlot. She loves sitcoms and female comedians. You can follow her twitter @blairlyawake