With so many streaming services available these days adding more and more content to their platforms, it’s easy to bypass the latest sitcoms on network television. So many pilots get picked up only never to be turned into full-fledged series and some series that you grow attached to only last a single season. Despite the easily consumable nature of sit-coms, it’s difficult to nail down the perfect formula for their success.
For every Friends that lasts 10 seasons, there’s a Joey that lasts 2. But 2020 promises to be a year providing old favorites and soon-to-be favorites with its lineup, while saying goodbye to some long-time favorites. The big networks like NBC, CBS, and ABC have worked tirelessly to bring you programs you’ll either love or love to hate. Here are our picks for the 5 series to watch, and the 5 to avoid.
LOOKING FORWARD TO: BROOKLYN NINE-NINE
NBC continues to believe in Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Fans are overjoyed to see the hilarious sitcom, focusing on the shenanigans of slacker detective Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg), Captain Ray Holt (Andre Braugher) and the rest of Brooklyn’s 99th precinct valiantly carry on into the seventh season.
After it was canceled in its 6th season on Fox, a crusade was led by fans and celebrities to bring back the workplace comedy that managed to so deftly combine action, adventure, and humor. It was rescued by NBC for a 7th season airing in 2020, with Season 8 already greenlit for 2021. Cool, cool, cool, cool.
NOT: LAST MAN STANDING
Last Man Standing seems to persevere simply on grit alone. Since 2011, it’s been shuffled around to different networks and time slots, even though its premise isn’t unique enough to warrant all of the fuss. Tim Allen once again plays a man for whom manliness is the greatness aspiration in a house full of women, and balks at anything remotely pertaining to feminism, liberalism, or veganism.
What worked in the ’90s with Home Improvement feels outdated now, and it’s hard to believe that Last Man Standing exists in the era of Modern Family and Black-ish. It would be one thing if Mike Baxter was depicted as a character capable of growth, but he remains a caricature. Season 8 on Fox seems geared up for more of the same.
LOOKING FORWARD TO: ARCHER
For the past several seasons, Archer has taken some very bizarre turns, allowing for some very creative narrative development. Season 8 saw Archer become a private eye in the ’40s, while Season 9 made him a bush pilot living on a remote island in the Pacific in the ’30s.
For the last season, the team has been up in space, proving that there’s really nothing and nowhere the show won’t explore. With word that FXX has renewed the series for an 11th season, we’ll finally get to see Archer wake up from his coma and get back to a spy world that has moved on without him for 3 years.
NOT: BROKE
Ordinarily, we’d be excited to see Pauley Perrette back on television. Abby, the friendly gothic forensic scientist was one of the best things about NCIS, and we’ve been wondering when Perrette would pop back up on the small screen. If CBS’s Broke is any indication however, she should have waited for a show that better showcased her talents.
She plays an eccentric woman whose trust fund sister and her husband get turned out by their father, resulting in the waspy pair moving in with her. It has all sorts of cringe-worthy sit-com tropes; staggering class divisions, micro dogs in purses, and butlers with more class than their bosses. She’s also “tv poor”, which means she has a huge house, can afford snowboards for her son, but is “struggling” on the recycled set from Everybody Loves Raymond.
LOOKING FORWARD TO: KATY KEENE
Riverdale fans have been anxiously anticipating the arrival of Katy Keene, a spin-off takes place five years after the events of Riverdale and features the budding fashion designer (Lucy Hale) living in New York City. She navigates the fashion world alongside her roommate Josie, who hopes to break out into a music career and Jorge, who dreams of performing on Broadway.
The series looks to be as clever and witty as Riverdale, focusing on three distinct areas of the Big Apple; the music scene, the fashion scene, and the theater scene. Expect bright lights and big musical numbers, and the best supporting cast in show business; the people of New York City. It airs on the CW beginning in February 2020.
NOT: MODERN FAMILY
Modern Family, one of the most popular sitcoms of the past decade on ABC, is gearing up for its 11th and final season in 2020. We’ve been following Jay Pritchett, closet king, and his extended family for ten years, and the series has helped ingratiate the concept that families come in all shapes, colors, and sizes.
While the series was fresh, inventive, and innovative when it first premiered in 2009, it’s become a victim of its own success. It paved the way for other offbeat family comedy-dramas that break away from the typical sit-com mold, and they’ll continue on while it bows out.
LOOKING FORWARD TO: THE ORVILLE
It took a while for sci-fi adventure comedy The Orville to find just the right balance between a Star Trek homage and a Star Trek satire. Its first season suffered from being overly reliant on punchlines to offset every serious moment, and it took another season to settle into a comfortable level of melodrama. It’s visual effects and earnest commitment to its material couldn’t be faulted, however.
But now, with its third season taking off in 2020, it’s emerged as something even better than the series it aims to parody. Seth McFarlane as Captain Ed Mercer and his crew of fellow Planetary Union officers have proven that when it comes to the perfect blend of sci-fi, action, humor, and heart, they’re operating at Warp 10. See it on Hulu in late 2020.
NOT: FULLER HOUSE
Part 1 of Fuller House’s fifth season has already aired on Netflix, with Part 2 coming to wrap it up in 2020. The Full House spin-off, focusing on the life of DJ Tanner Fuller and her extended family, has had a bumpy ride so far with fans, propelled mostly by its nostalgia factor.
The new season has mostly swirled around DJ’s wedding, and actress Candice Cameron Bure has promised the series will go out with a bang. That being said, other than the hope of cameos by former Full House co-stars like Uncle Jessie (John Stamos), there isn’t much keeping us glued to our screens over.
LOOKING FORWARD TO: MAN WITH A PLAN
It took a while, but Matt LeBlanc finally found a sit-com that reflects his everyman comicality. Man With A Plan centers around a construction-worker whose wife goes back to work, leaving him to be the stay at home husband. Hilarity ensues when his style of parenting clashes with modern concepts.
LeBlanc’s Adam Burns has the blue-collar charm of Tony Danza on Who’s the Boss, and he pulls off the same sort of physical comedy accompanied by amusing one-liners. His relationship with his wife (Liza Snyder) is refreshingly honest, and the situations they encounter are relatable to all parents. It’s fourth season premiers on CBS in 2020.
NOT: FAMILY GUY
Normally, we’d be excited for Family Guy returning for an 18th season, but in the last few years, the series has become nothing but a series of cut-aways. What started as an appealing segue in punchlines that diverged from the typical linearity of The Simpsons became the entire focus.
Seth McFarlane’s animated sit-com has been at Fox for almost two decades, but the contract is expected to expire next year. After that, who knows exactly what will happen to the series, but we’d prefer that it end on a high note, rather than continue to offer diminishing returns.
