The Best and Most Interesting TV Comedy from 2015
2015 was a year of quantity, but it was also a year of quality: with Peak TV in full swing, there was not only a lot of TV comedy, there was also a lot of good TV comedy, and — further complicating matters — there was a lot of good TV comedy coming from pretty much everywhere. Cable networks continued to proliferate (Fusion! Pivot! truTV! IFC!), making space for niche-y comedies designed for niche-y fans, streaming services got even more crowded, and comedy got emotional in unexpected places.
Last year, we said 2014 was a banner year for comedy on cable, and this year, the list of channels betting on laughs has only gotten longer: IFC added the hyper-niche, hyper-funny Documentary Now! to their already strong, comedy nerd–y roster; USA kept Playing House; FX and FXX have Louie and You’re the Worst, respectively; Bravo’s first scripted comedy Girlfriend’s Guide to Divorce came back for a second season; TV Land debuted the weirdly-difficult-to-say Younger; Fusion picked up The Chris Gethard Show for a 10-episode run; and truTV had two different entries into the exceedingly fruitful “real male human does stuff” category with new-to-the-network Billy on the Street and new-to-television Adam Ruins Everything. Meanwhile, HBO continued to be a home for high-brow comedy staples, nailing politics (Veep), medicine (Getting On), and Silicon Valley (Silicon Valley) while also cornering millennial angst with Girls and too-lovely-for-this-world melanchomedy Looking.