rec request: half-hour television

[jazzfish]

Hive mind! I request and require your assistance!

I have a plethora of good unwatched television at my disposal: Leverage S5, Counterpart S2, Sense8 S2, Smith and Capaldi Who, Legends Of Tomorrow, Peaky Blinders, Penny Dreadful, the list goes on. The problem I have with all of these is that they come in hour-long episodes.

I'm looking for something in half-hour chunks, so I can watch it on my lunch break while exerbiking.

Comedy is a tough sell for me, and unfortunately comedies tend to be what comes in half-hours. The last comedies I enjoyed were The Good Place and Better Off Ted. I tried Brooklyn Nine-Nine and 30 Rock, and found both more irritating than amusing.

I like having a throughline but it's not necessary. Wholly self-serving characters (e.g., Gaius Baltar) are a huge turn-off. I'm not opposed to older shows but I lack much in the way of knowledge of where to start there.

Thank you!

Comments

[jadelennox]

I just finished Fleabag and thought it was great. S1 had some embarrassment squick but S2 got deep and meaningful fast. (If you like Fleabag and you don't mind the embarrassment squick, you'll also like Chewing Gum.)

If you're good with cartoons, Dragon Prince is by the Avatar: The Last Airbender / Korra guys and I'm loving it. And She-Ra is astonishingly good. So, so, so, wonderful. It's still a cartoon, though, so I don't know how you feel about that.

I also like Blue Planet II, where the episodes are longer but I'm happy to turn them off halfway through. I mean, it's high def deep sea videos and Richard Attenborough; what's not to like?

Galavant is a comedy but it's very charming; musical comedy with music by Alan Menken, season two is better than season one. What We Do In The Shadows and Wellington Paranormal are both splendid; basically if you like What We Do In The Shadows, the film, that will tell you if you'll like it. I've liked all three versions of The Tick: the animated The Tick and both live action versions.

ETA: I looked at The 30 Best Shows You Can Watch in Under 30 Minutes Right Now and there's a lot of overlap! I though Atlanta was great but it was sometimes too dark for me; my "gritty reality" tolerance is poor.


Santa Clarita Diet was amazing and perfect but also cancelled after two seasons in the middle of a cliffhanger because Netflix. But if you like it, it's worth watching the 2 seasons. 😠

I liked Speechless even though it was a very traditional family sitcom.

Oh! Grace and Frankie! Lovely, Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda.

And GLOW might be your thing. It's weird. Not usually my type but very well done.

thank you thank you!

[jazzfish]

Ooh, that Time list looks handy!

I have heard enough good things about Fleabag that I'm about prepared to try it despite my unfondness for terrible people and cringe comedy.

Galavant! I was quite amused by S1 and never got around to S2. Will remedy!

And I somehow forgot Dragon Prince was a thing that existed. There's a commenter at Lawyers Guns & Money who maintains that part of the reason Korra wasn't as good as AtLA is that Aaron Ehasz wasn't involved in Korra.

And I shall look into the rest of those as well. :)

[sartorias]

I finally reconfigured my exercise bike routine to calories burned, and not time, which (because I'm old and a wimp) works out to about 40 minutes, which is just about the length of the Chinese and k dramas I'm currently into. (I've kind of gone off American television, except for rarities like The Good Place.)

[jazzfish]

I was vaguely wondering what the episode timeframe was like for non-English shows. That could work, thank you!

[thanate]

I have no idea what's out there for adults, but I really enjoyed Odd Squad (like, I bought a t-shirt) which is funny but in a way that aligns well with my sense of humor, which most things labeled comedy really really don't. Wild Krats is silly and shallow but has its heart in the right place & there's lots of it, so it might be worth trying an ep or two. Ditto MLP, which has got through-lines & hidden depths if you get a lot of it.

[jazzfish]

Hm. Thank you! I shall take a look. (MLP I had forgotten all about.)

[carbonel]

You might give Sports Night a try if you have access to it. It's an Aaron Sorkin production -- nominally a comedy, but really more of a drama. And each episode is 22 minutes long. Two seasons, 45 episodes.

If you like nature stuff, David Attenborough's Natural Curiosities is worth watching. Each 30-minute episode has a theme that compares and contrasts two different creatures.

[jazzfish]

Mm. I have ... not loved the Aaron Sorkin I've encountered, but people do tend to say very good things about Sports Night. Thank you!