7 Apple TV Comedy Shows Where Every Episode Is a Masterpiece

Published Oct 1, 2026, 5:52 PM EDT

Christine is a freelance writer for Collider with two decades of experience covering all types of TV shows and movies spanning every genre. With a particular affinity for dramas, true crime, sitcoms, and thrillers, if it's a top TV show, Christine has likely watched it and is eager to share her thoughts. When she's not furiously writing away, you can find her enjoying the next binge obsession with a glass of wine in front of the TV.

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Apple TV has some of the best shows of the last decade. While many of them are dramas and thrillers, the streamer has delivered fantastic comedies as well. Some of them blend genres with drama or horror. They're silly and satirical, groundbreaking and Emmy winning.

All these Apple TV comedy shows are not only worth watching, they're even better on a second watch. Interestingly, all these shows not only lasted multiple seasons, many are prepping for the release of their latest. With a few that have new seasons coming in 2027, one as early as later this year, now is the perfect time to catch up.

'Ted Lasso' (2020–Present)

Image via Apple TV

One of Apple's earliest and most successful shows, Ted Lasso received 20 Emmy nominations for its first season alone. The sports comedy drama is one of the most perfect sitcoms of the last 10 years, beautifully blending comedy with serious topics of mental health, and hitting fans with this unexpected one-two punch in the best way possible.

The title character, played by Jason Sudeikis, moves to England to coach a flailing English football team, even though he's an American football coach. As he tries to bring his unique sensibilities to the team, it becomes a feel-good, uplifting story about men supporting men. Don't be mistaken, though: As much as Ted Lasso will make you cry, it will make you laugh and smile from ear-to-ear, too. Despite seemingly ending in 2023, Ted Lasso returned in 2026 for a fourth season to follow Ted's return to coach a women's team. There's no definitive renewal just yet, but it's expected that we could see a fifth season, too.

'Shrinking' (2023–Present)

Image via Apple TV

Thankfully, when Ted Lasso ended, the same creators introduced subscribers to Shrinking, another show that combines humor and heart with comedy and drama. The series stars Jason Segel as Jimmy Laird, a therapist grieving the loss of his wife. As he falls deeper into a funk, those around him — including co-workers, friends, neighbors, and his daughter — do what they can to pull him out.

It sounds somber, but Shrinking is actually one of the funniest, most endearing shows on television right now. The cast chemistry is wonderful, including standouts like Jessica Williams, Christa Miller, Ted McGinley, and, of course, Harrison Ford. If you love Ted Lasso, Shrinking is just as good, if not better. It's a completely different show, but it has the same tonal flow and message of laughter and seeing joy in life as being the best medicine. While Jimmy's journey is central to the first season, as the show continues, stories expand to cover every character in a meaningful way. So yes, break out the tissues again because you'll be crying and laughing so hard you cry.

'Platonic' (2023–Present)

Image via Apple TV

While just about everyone will find Platonic funny, if you're middle-aged, this is a comedy especially for you. The story in this great Apple TV show nobody is talking about follows Sylvia (Rose Byrne), a stay-at-home mom who reaches out to her former college best friend Will (Seth Rogen) when she learns of his divorce. They have been estranged for some time after having a falling out, so it's initially awkward. But once they reconnect, it's just like old times. That's both good and bad, because they used to get into lots of trouble as college kids, and feed off one another in the worst ways.

The two are not only bad influences on one another, their relationship (purely platonic, of course) falls back into a codependency. It's one thing to be that way when you're in your 20s, but for Sylvia, who's now in her 40s with a husband and kids, the implications are different. It's in the moments that they get up to antics, however, that make you roll over laughing. There's also a sweetness behind the story as you watch Sylvia start to reflect on her life and her path when being reminded of who she once was. This isn't the first time Byrne and Rogen have worked together, and it's clear they have a dynamic that works, playing off one another so well that you truly believe they're besties.

'The Studio' (2025–Present)

Seth Rogen delivered a masterpiece show in skewering the very industry in which he's a part in The Studio. The satirical cringe comedy centers around his character Matt Remick, who is delighted to finally be promoted to head of his studio. There's just one problem: While Remick is a cinephile who wants to make quality firms, the studio wants to back corny popcorn flicks that will yield the biggest box office success. What's more, now in a position of more power, Remick realizes how many balls he needs to juggle and the eccentric, demanding personalities he needs to deal with. Saying no doesn't sit well with his deep desire to be liked.

The Studio is downright hilarious, with actors playing embellished versions of themselves like Greta Lee and Olivia Wilde. The cast plays wonderfully off one another; the stories reflective of real Hollywood life in such a way that might anger directors, producers, and actors if it weren't for the honest absurdity of it all. With a new cast of guest stars slated for Season 2 and 13 Emmy wins from a total of 23 nominations under its belt for Season 1, The Studio is emerging as one of the best new comedies of this decade. It's one of many shows that prove Apple TV is the best streamer of all time.

Collider Exclusive · Oscar Best Picture Quiz Which Oscar Best Picture
Is Your Perfect Movie? Parasite · Everything Everywhere · Oppenheimer · Birdman · No Country

Five Oscar Best Picture winners. Five completely different visions of what cinema can be — and what it can do to you. One of them is the film that was made for the way your mind works. Ten questions will figure out which one.

🪜Parasite

🌀Everything Everywhere

☢️Oppenheimer

🐦Birdman

🪙No Country for Old Men

FIND YOUR FILM →

01

What kind of film experience do you actually want? The best movies don't just entertain — they leave something behind.

ASomething that pulls the rug out — that makes me think I'm watching one kind of film and then reveals I'm watching another entirely. BSomething overwhelming — funny, sad, absurd, and genuinely moving, all at once. CSomething grand and weighty — a film that makes me feel the full scale of what I'm watching. DSomething formally daring — a film that pushes what cinema can even do. ESomething lean and relentless — pure tension with no wasted frame.

NEXT QUESTION →

02

Which idea grabs you most in a film? Great films are driven by a central obsession. What's yours?

AClass, inequality, and what people are willing to do when desperation meets opportunity. BIdentity, family, and the chaos of trying to hold your life together when everything is falling apart. CGenius, moral responsibility, and the catastrophic weight of a decision you can never take back. DEgo, legacy, and the terror of becoming irrelevant while you're still alive to watch it happen. EEvil, chance, and whether moral order actually exists or if we just tell ourselves it does.

NEXT QUESTION →

03

How do you like your story told? Form is content. The way a story is shaped changes what it means.

AGenre-twisting — I want it to start in one lane and migrate into something completely different. BMaximalist and genre-blending — comedy, action, drama, sci-fi, all in one ride. CEpic and non-linear — cutting between timelines, building a mosaic of cause and consequence. DA single unbroken flow — I want to feel like I'm living it in real time, no cuts to safety. ESpare and precise — every scene doing exactly what it needs to do and nothing more.

NEXT QUESTION →

04

What makes a truly great antagonist? The opposition defines the protagonist. What kind of opposition fascinates you?

AA system — invisible, structural, and almost impossible to fight because it has no single face. BThe self — the ways we sabotage, abandon, and fail the people we love most. CHistory — the unstoppable momentum of events that no single person can stop or redirect. DThe industry — the machinery of culture that chews up talent and spits out irrelevance. EPure, implacable evil — a force so certain of itself it becomes almost philosophical.

NEXT QUESTION →

05

What do you want from a film's ending? The final note is the one that lingers. What do you want it to sound like?

AShock and inevitability — a conclusion that recontextualises everything that came before it. BEarned emotion — I want to cry, laugh, and feel genuinely hopeful, even if the world is a mess. CDevastation and grandeur — an ending that makes me sit in silence for a few minutes after. DAmbiguity — something that leaves enough open that I'm still thinking about it days later. EBleakness — an honest refusal to pretend the world is tidier than it actually is.

NEXT QUESTION →

06

Which setting pulls you in most? Where a film takes place shapes everything — mood, stakes, what's even possible.

AA gleaming modern city with a hidden underside — beauty masking rot, wealth masking desperation. BA collapsing suburban life that opens onto something infinite — the multiverse of a single ordinary person. CThe corridors of power and science at a world-historical turning point — where decisions echo for decades. DThe grimy, alive chaos of New York and Hollywood — fame as both destination and trap. EVast, indifferent landscape — desert and highway where violence arrives without warning or reason.

NEXT QUESTION →

07

What cinematic craft impresses you most? Every great film has a signature — a technical or artistic element that makes it unmistakable.

AProduction design and mise-en-scène — every frame composed to carry meaning beneath the surface. BEditing and tonal control — the ability to move between registers without losing the audience. CScore and sound design — music that becomes inseparable from the dread and awe of what you're watching. DCinematography as performance — the camera not recording events but participating in them. ESilence and restraint — what's left unsaid and unshown doing more work than any dialogue could.

NEXT QUESTION →

08

What kind of main character do you root for? The protagonist is the lens. Who you choose to follow says something about you.

ASomeone smart and resourceful who makes increasingly dangerous decisions under pressure. BSomeone overwhelmed and ordinary who turns out to be capable of something extraordinary. CA brilliant, tortured figure whose gifts and flaws are inseparable from each other. DA self-destructive artist whose ego is both their superpower and their undoing. EA quiet, principled person trying to make sense of a world that has stopped making sense.

NEXT QUESTION →

09

How do you feel about a film that takes its time? Pace is a choice. Some films sprint; others let tension accumulate slowly, deliberately.

AI love a slow build when I know the payoff is going to be seismic — patience for a devastating reveal. BGive me relentless momentum — I want to feel breathless and emotionally spent by the end. CEpic runtime doesn't scare me — if the material demands three hours, give me three hours. DI want it to feel propulsive even when nothing is technically happening — restless energy throughout. EDeliberate and unhurried — I want dread to accumulate in the spaces between the action.

NEXT QUESTION →

10

What do you want to feel walking out of the cinema? The best films leave a mark. What kind of mark do you want?

AUnsettled — like I've just seen something I can't fully explain but can't stop thinking about. BMoved and energised — like the film reminded me what actually matters and gave me something to hold onto. CHumbled — like I've been in the presence of something genuinely important and overwhelming. DExhilarated — like I've just seen cinema doing something it's never quite done before. EHaunted — like a cold, quiet dread that stays with me for days.

REVEAL MY FILM →

The Academy Has Decided Your Perfect Film Is…

Your answers have pointed to one Oscar Best Picture winner above all others. This is the film that was made for the way your mind works.

Parasite

You are drawn to films that operate on multiple levels simultaneously — that begin in one genre and quietly, brilliantly migrate into another. Bong Joon-ho's Parasite is a film about class, desire, and the architecture of inequality that manages to be darkly funny, deeply suspenseful, and genuinely shocking across a single extraordinary running time. Your instinct is for cinema that hides its true intentions until the moment it's ready to reveal them. Parasite is exactly that — a film that rewards close attention and punishes assumptions, right up to its devastating final image.

Everything Everywhere All at Once

You want it all — and this film gives you all of it. The Daniels' Everything Everywhere All at Once is one of the most maximalist films ever made: action comedy, multiverse sci-fi, family drama, existential crisis, and a genuinely earned emotional core that sneaks up on you amid the chaos. You are someone who responds to ambition, who doesn't want cinema to choose between being entertaining and being meaningful. This film refuses that choice entirely. It is overwhelming by design, and its overwhelming nature is precisely the point — because the feeling of being crushed by infinite possibility is exactly what it's about.

Oppenheimer

You are drawn to cinema on a grand scale — films that understand history not as a backdrop but as a force, and that place their characters inside that force and watch what happens. Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer is a film about the terrifying gap between what we can do and what we should do, told with the full weight of one of the most consequential moments in human history behind it. You want your films to feel important without feeling self-important — to earn their ambition through sheer craft and the gravity of their subject. Oppenheimer does exactly that. It is enormous, complicated, and refuses easy comfort.

Birdman

You are drawn to films that foreground their own construction — that make the how of the filmmaking part of the what it's about. Alejandro González Iñárritu's Birdman, shot to appear as a single continuous take, is cinema examining itself through the cracked mirror of a fading actor's ego. You respond to formal daring, to the feeling that a film is doing something that probably shouldn't be possible. Michael Keaton's performance and Emmanuel Lubezki's restless camera create something genuinely unlike anything else — a film that is simultaneously about creativity, relevance, self-destruction, and the impossibility of ever truly knowing if your work means anything at all.

No Country for Old Men

You are drawn to cinema that trusts silence, that refuses to explain itself, and that treats dread as a form of meaning. The Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men is a film about the arrival of a new kind of evil — implacable, arbitrary, and utterly indifferent to the moral frameworks we use to make sense of the world. It is one of the most formally controlled films ever made, and its controlled restraint is what makes it so terrifying. You want your films to haunt you, not comfort you. You are not interested in resolution if resolution would be dishonest. No Country for Old Men is honest in a way that most cinema never dares to be.

↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ

'Stick' (2025–Present)

Image via Apple TV

Set to return for its second season in November 2026, Stick is one of Apple TV's most underrated comedies. The sports comedy is like a mix of Happy Gilmore and Ted Lasso, following Pryce Cahill (Owen Wilson), a once revered but now has-been professional golfer with a ruined reputation. His life has been in a rut until he spots talented young player Santi Wheeler (Peter Dager) at a driving range and finds a new sense of purpose. He will stop at nothing to coach this teenager and make him a star. But this requires seeking the approval of Santi's mother, Elena (Mariana Treviño), and getting help from his former caddy and best friend Mitts (Marc Maron).

Stick is a wonderfully sweet story that will make you laugh but that you'll find touching, too. Wilson manages to capture the more sensitive moments as well as dive into his reputation for subtle humor. It's an underdog tale about a young man with so much untapped potential and the desperate need for a strong male figure in his life, and a former pro player finding a new lease on life after tragedy. If you love shows like Ted Lasso and Shrinking, you'll get a similar feel from this one, with a few Happy Gilmore vibes thrown in for good measure.

'Widow's Bay' (2026–Present)

Image via Apple TV

Sweeping the Emmys this year and set to return for a second season, Widow's Bay is one of the most unique comedies on TV right now. It mixes traditional workplace comedy with supernatural elements and horror such that you feel like you're watching two (or more) stories take place at once. Tom Loftis (Mathew Rhys) is the mayor of the small town who is adamant it can become the next Martha's Vineyard. But longtime residents swear the place is cursed. As strange things begin to happen, it's clear there's some truth to these tall tales.

Widow's Bay is one of the best comedy shows of 2026 so far, taking you on a wild ride through its 10 episodes, with a few particularly standout episodes that shift the genre even more. It's like a love letter to classic '80s and '90s horror movies like Carrie, Jaws, and Halloween, alongside an homage to workplace sitcoms like Parks and Recreation. The tone is throwback with modern-day vibes, rolling so much into one story that it keeps you captivated right through to the end.

'Loot' (2022–Present)

Image via Apple TV

Another underrated but hilarious comedy, Loot shines a spotlight on Molly Wells (Maya Rudolph), the wife of a tech billionaire who is completely lost when he leaves her for a younger woman. At least she gets half his fortune, but she doesn't know what to do with the money or her time. So, Wells visits a charitable foundation she founded years prior in hopes of finding some meaning in her life. But the people who work there are not exactly thrilled by her presence.

Loot is the story of a midlife crisis like you've never seen. There's a woman with unlimited funds and no purpose, and a group of people struggling to help those in need who resent her wealth and are skeptical of her motives. With three seasons under its belt so far, there's no word yet on if Loot will return. But it's worth a watch, as the over-the-top humor is the perfect pick-me-up after a long day.

Loot

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  Molly Wells / Molly Novak

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  Michaela Jaé Rodriguez

  Sofia Salinas