8 Most Perfect Sitcoms of the Last 20 Years, Ranked
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The good old sitcom has been reinvented so many times over the last twenty years that it barely looks the same anymore. Laugh tracks have become almost obsolete, single-camera comedies have taken over, and streaming has completely changed how people watch them. At the same time, comedies have become surprisingly ambitious with the stories they tell.
However, despite all of that, the reason people love sitcoms remains unchanged. Give the audience a funny group of characters, and they will keep coming back to a show for years. That holds true, especially for the sitcoms on this list, because they understand exactly what makes the formula work.
8 '30 Rock' (2006–2013)
30 Rock is a sitcom that hasn't gotten old, even twenty years after it aired. The series follows Liz Lemon (Tina Fey), the exhausted head writer of a struggling NBC sketch show, as she tries to manage an impossible workplace. Her biggest problem is usually executive Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin), who approaches everything like one giant corporate strategy. Liz is also surrounded by Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan), Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski), and Kenneth (Jack McBrayer), all of whom bring their own brand of chaos to the mix.
The show moves fast, with every single episode containing the perfect mix of sharp dialogue, visual gags, celebrity cameos, throwaway gags, and long-running jokes that get even better on a rewatch. 30 Rock is especially entertaining because of how it makes fun of the television industry. That meta quality gives the series a personality that still feels completely its own, even among countless other workplace sitcoms. The sitcom is absurd and cynical, but underneath all that, it is a surprisingly warm story about people who become a family while making terrible TV together.
7 'Modern Family' (2009–2020)
Modern Family is one of the defining sitcoms of the 2010s, and much of that comes down to how easy it is to love. The series follows three connected branches of the Pritchett family, including Jay (Ed O'Neill) and Gloria (Sofía Vergara), Claire (Julie Bowen) and Phil Dunphy (Ty Burrell), and Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and Cameron (Eric Stonestreet). Every household has a completely different dynamic, which means the show can jump from parenting disasters and sibling rivalries to marriage problems and ridiculous misunderstandings without ever feeling like it is going in circles.
What makes the show special is how almost anyone can see some version of their own family in it. Modern Family balances comedy with genuine affection because it understands that families can annoy each other endlessly while still being the people one turns to when it actually matters. This warmth makes even the most ridiculous episodes feel endearing and memorable. Modern Family is also one of those rare sitcoms that just about anyone can enjoy, with a timeless appeal.
6 'New Girl' (2011–2018)
New Girl is so much more than just another quirky roommate sitcom, and that is thanks to the cast's incredible chemistry. The show begins with Jess Day (Zooey Deschanel) moving in with Nick (Jake Johnson), Schmidt (Max Greenfield), and Winston (Lamorne Morris) after a brutal breakup. From there, the series builds one of the funniest and most believable friend groups of the 2010s, which eventually includes Jess' best friend, Cece (Hannah Simone).
Now, they are all wildly different people, which gives the show endless material to work with. Not all of it is a gag, though, because New Girl also gives its characters a lot of room to learn and grow. By the later seasons, it starts to feel like the loft is actually a home to all of these people. The show features ridiculous comedy, built on friendships that feel genuine, which is what makes it such an easy sitcom to keep coming back to.
5 'Veep' (2012–2019)
At its core, Veep is a show about people who are absolutely terrible at their jobs. The series follows the deeply ambitious Vice President of the United States, Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), who is trying to climb up the ladder while surrounded by staffers who are just as selfish, insecure, and desperate as she is. Almost every political crisis eventually turns into a personal one because everyone in Selina's world is protecting their own career first. The show has almost no interest in making politics noble, and that is the fun part. Selina isn't the perfect protagonist, but the audience doesn't need her to be one.
She eventually becomes president herself, only to discover that reaching the top does not make anything easier. Her constant cycle of winning, losing, and immediately plotting the next comeback gives the series a real story beneath all the insults and chaos. At any given time, Selina's carefully constructed strategies can come crashing down, which is what keeps the audience hooked. The writing in Veep is sharp and even vicious at times, which separates the show from other political comedies. Selina wants power because she wants power, and watching her sacrifice more and more to keep chasing it becomes just as fascinating as it is hilarious.
Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes Which Iconic Fandom Should You Join? Harry Potter · Lord of the Rings · Star Wars · Star Trek
Eight honest questions about how you actually are: what you put on when you need cheering up, how deep you go into the things you love, what you argue about, what you keep on your shelf. Answer them and we will tell you where you belong. Four of the biggest fandoms on earth are taking new members, and they could not be more different from one another.
⚡Harry Potter(Wizarding World)
💍Lord of the Rings(Middle-earth)
⚔️Star Wars(A Galaxy Far Away)
🖖Star Trek(The Final Frontier)
01
What do you put on when you need cheering up? Nobody is brave about this one.
02
How deep do you go into something you love? There is no shallow end here, only different deep ends.
03
What do you and your friends actually argue about? Every fandom has one argument it has been having for years.
04
How do you feel about a room full of strangers? Every one of these comes with a very big room.
05
Where would you rather spend a week? Pick on instinct rather than on budget.
06
What do you believe about people, mostly? All four of these stories have an answer, and they disagree.
07
What is actually on your shelf? Look over at it before you answer.
08
What do you actually want from a story? Eight questions in, this is the one that picks your fandom.
Membership Confirmed Your Fandom Is…
Four of the largest communities on the planet, and four completely different reasons to belong to one. Here is yours, what it would give you, and the argument you would be having within a week.
Harry Potter
You belong to the fandom that is really about comfort. Hogwarts works on people because it is a place rather than a plot, and the pull is not the wizard war so much as the corridors, the food, the weather and the sense that somebody is expecting you.
- You are drawn to belonging, which is why this fandom sorted itself into houses within about five minutes and has never stopped.
- This is the most social of the four, and the one most likely to know which type every single person in your life would be.
- The books are built to be reread rather than analysed, and rereading is exactly what you do with things you love.
- The new HBO series is bringing the whole thing back one book at a time, which means the arguments are about to start all over again.
Lord of the Rings
You belong to the deepest fandom on this list, the one where somebody has always read further than you and is quietly delighted to say so. Middle-earth rewards patience more than any other world in popular culture.
- You like the sense that the story you are reading is only the visible part of something enormous, which is precisely how Tolkien built it.
- This fandom takes adaptation seriously to a degree that other fandoms find slightly alarming, and it has good reasons for that.
- Your favourite thing about the books is probably the bit that is not action at all, which is the walking, the songs and the long goodbyes.
- Nobody here thinks heroism belongs to the powerful, and the whole story exists to make that argument.
Star Wars
You belong to the loudest and largest tent of the four, the one where three generations are all watching the same thing and none of them agree about any of it. That disagreement is not a flaw in this fandom, it is the main activity.
- You want something you can share with absolutely everybody, from a six year old to a grandparent, and this is the only one on the list that really does that.
- Nobody argues like Star Wars fans argue, and the argument has been running since roughly 1980 with no sign of resolution.
- The pull here is sensory before it is narrative, since it is the sound design, the score and the look of a used and dented galaxy.
- You would be first in the queue, in costume, with strong opinions and a genuinely good time.
Star Trek
You belong to the thinking fandom, the one that turns up for the argument rather than the explosion. Trek has always been a series of ethical problems in space, and the people who love it love being asked what they would have done.
- You are an optimist in a way that is currently unfashionable, and this is the only major franchise still willing to say the future might be better.
- The best episodes are the ones where nobody fires anything, which is a sentence that makes perfect sense to this fandom and to nobody else.
- Starfleet Academy brought the franchise back to a classroom in 2026, which is appropriate, because Trek has always been a bit of a seminar.
- You would want the conversation afterwards more than the episode itself, and here you will always find somebody willing to have it.
4 'Abbott Elementary' (2021–Present)
Abbott Elementary has an old-school charm that makes it feel like a classic sitcom from a different era, even though the show itself is a product of its time. The series, created by Quinta Brunson, is funny and genuinely sweet without trying too hard. The story follows Brunson as the endlessly optimistic teacher, Janine Teagues, working at an underfunded public school in Philadelphia. Janine genuinely believes she can fix almost anything if she tries hard enough, which regularly puts her at odds with the much more experienced Barbara (Sheryl Lee Ralph) and Melissa (Lisa Ann Walter). The show also features Gregory (Tyler James Williams), who initially arrives as a substitute teacher, and principal Ava Coleman (Janelle James), one of the least qualified people imaginable to run a school.
The school setting gives Abbott Elementary a spin on the workplace comedy format and gives the characters something real to work toward. The teachers at Abbott Elementary are dealing with non-existent budgets and a school district that doesn't seem to care about them, but those problems are never turned into a lecture. Instead, they become part of the comedy and explain why these teachers rely on each other so much. It's also why the familiar mockumentary style never makes Abbott Elementary feel like another The Office copy. The show has remained an Emmy contender throughout its run, including another Outstanding Comedy Series nomination in 2026. However, Abbott Elementary's biggest achievement is the fact that it made traditional network sitcoms feel exciting again.
3 'Schitt's Creek' (2015–2020)
Schitt's Creek pulls off one of the hardest tricks in sitcom history by making the audience care about a family of spoiled rich people. The series begins after the Rose family loses almost everything and is forced to move to Schitt's Creek, a tiny town they once bought as a joke. Johnny (Eugene Levy) is determined to rebuild the family's life, while his wife Moira (Catherine O'Hara) and children David (Dan Levy) and Alexis (Annie Murphy) are the exact opposite. That setup could have turned into six seasons of the Roses mocking small-town life, while the small-town residents mock them back, but the show is so much better than that. Schitt's Creek follows the Roses as they slowly change without losing the personalities that made them funny in the first place.
The relationships they form with everyone else living in this kooky town are the heart of the series. The best part is that the show does not stop with the Roses. Every supporting character, even the ones who initially seem like comic relief, is given solid arcs of their own. As the series goes on, the town itself starts to feel like an ensemble rather than a backdrop for one family's downfall, and by the end, the audience grows to care about everyone in Schitt’s Creek. Very few sitcoms expand their world this naturally, and even fewer manage to give almost everyone in it a truly fitting ending.
2 'Derry Girls' (2018–2022)
Derry Girls is one of the funniest coming-of-age sitcoms of the last twenty years thanks to its true-to-life portrayal of teenage years, even if it is during the final years of the Troubles. The Irish series follows Erin (Saoirse-Monica Jackson), her cousin Orla (Louisa Harland), Clare (Nicola Coughlan), Michelle (Jamie-Lee O'Donnell), and Michelle's English cousin James (Dylan Llewellyn) as they deal with school, crushes, family drama, and whatever terrible plan they have come up with that week. At the same time, they live in a world full of army checkpoints, bomb scares, political tensions, and a country slowly moving toward peace. However, for the girls, the immediate disaster is usually something much smaller. That contrast is what drives Derry Girls.
Add its incredibly specific Derry slang, and the characters' hilarious family dynamics to the mix, and it's incredibly easy for the audience to feel like they are actually living in 1994 Derry. What's truly commendable, though, is that it's easy to see how these characters start growing up in the show's final stretch, while Northern Ireland is changing with them. That gives Derry Girls an ending with far more weight than most sitcoms even aim for. It can make you laugh at something completely ridiculous and then, almost without warning, remind you that these kids are growing up during a moment that will shape the rest of their lives.
1 'The Good Place' (2016–2020)
The Good Place is one of the smartest sitcoms of the last two decades. The show opens with Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell) dying and waking up in what appears to be heaven, only to quickly realize there has been a mistake. She knows she was nowhere near good enough to deserve being there, so she convinces ethics professor Chidi (William Jackson Harper) to secretly teach her how to become a better person before anyone discovers the truth. That premise would have been enough for a perfectly good series, but The Good Place keeps refusing to stay the same.
Every time the audience thinks they understand the rules, the series changes them and sends the characters into new versions of the afterlife while asking bigger questions about morality, free will, friendship, and whether people can truly earn redemption. The famous Season 1 reveal completely changes everything the audience thought they knew, yet somehow the show only becomes more ambitious after that. The Good Place balances all of its moral lessons with comedy, thanks to characters including Tahani (Jameela Jamil), Jason (Manny Jacinto), neighborhood architect Michael (Ted Danson), and Janet (D'Arcy Carden), the all-knowing being who is definitely not a robot. By the final season, The Good Place has grown far beyond its original joke and delivers a finale that stays with the audience long after the credits roll.
The Good Place
- Release Date
- 2016 - 2020-00-00
- Network
- NBC
- Showrunner
- Michael Schur
- Directors
- Dean Holland, Beth McCarthy-Miller, Morgan Sackett, Michael Schur, Jude Weng, Trent O'Donnell, Rebecca Asher, Linda Mendoza, Claire Scanlon, Ken Whittingham, Kristen Bell, Michael McDonald, Tristram Shapeero, Tucker Gates, Alan Yang, Julie Anne Robinson, Lynn Shelton
-
Eleanor Shellstrop
-
Michael
- Writers
- Andrew Law, Dylan Morgan, Josh Siegal, Matt Murray, Cord Jefferson, Kassia Miller, Kate Gersten, Dave King, Demi Adejuyigbe, Lizzy Pace
- Main Genre
- Comedy
- Seasons
- 4
- Producers
- David Hyman, Megan Amram, Joe Mande
- Creator(s)
- Michael Schur
- Streaming Service(s)
- Netflix
- Executive Producer(s)
- David Miner, Drew Goddard
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.