The best comedy series 2017 sometimes have body parts flying through the air or Kathy Bates pulling a fast one with saucy remarks in her cannabis shop. If you love black humour or are simply looking for a series with a high fun factor, you can find our top tips here.
The golden age of series is far from over in 2017! More and more big Hollywood actors are starring in series and the budgets allow to produce series that are on par with bombastic feature films. And in 2017 there were more new series than ever before – so it’s not easy to pick out the most precious gems.
As real series junkies, we sat diligently in front of the screen in 2017 and eagerly awaited some series launches. And we were not disappointed! At Greatime you can find our best list with some real insider tips sorted by genre in 3 parts: Part 1 with the best thriller series 2017, the best drama series 2017 in Part 2 and in this article the best series 2017 in the Comedy and Dramedy genres.
One thing is for sure: The best comedy series 2017 are enormously diverse! For friends of black humour we have some real insider tips and then there are the series that simply convince with great actors and funny plots.
The Best Comedy Series 2017
Santa Clarita Diet
Good horror-comedies are rare and Santa Clarita Diet manages what few do: Mixing horror and comedy perfectly and using wry humour to take the undead jab at suburban life à la Desperate Housewives.
Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant (Deadwood, Justified) play the couple in this crude, black comedy and master weird and blood-soaked situations brilliantly. It’s a series that really makes you want to eat meat and watch season 2 (especially after the dark twists and turns in the current season of The Walking Dead).
What’s It About?
Married couple Joel and Sheila Hammond live a normal, boring life in Santa Clarita with their 16-year-old daughter Abby. Both are real estate agents, and Sheila in particular is concerned with making her life as safe and risk-free as possible. Until the day Sheila gets sick during a house tour and vomits out a huge gush of green liquid. And then she starts to change strangely too. She wants a new car, suddenly passionate sex during the day and then there’s a certain fondness for raw meat….
Great for:
- Horror-comedy fans
- Zombie fans
- If black humour is your thing
Santa Clarita Diet is available to watch on Netflix.
GLOW
Skin-tight bodysuits, sweatbands, catfights: GLOW beams us back to the 80s, the heyday of wrestling. But here it’s women who step into the ring!
Jenji Kohan has struck again: after the cult series Weeds and Orange is the New Black, the writer and director has created another screamingly funny series. GLOW is set in the 80s and is about the then actually existing Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, GLOW for short.
What’s It About
Ruth Wilder is a desperate actress in search of success and recognition. She desperately needs a job to pay her rent. So she attends numerous auditions, one of which turns out to be quite different from what she expected. The director is not looking for an actress for a film role but for suitable candidates for a television wrestling show who are ready to step into the ring and give each other a good thrashing. At first her star seems low, but against all expectations Ruth finds herself in the ring as a wrestler.
Great for:
- Fans of Weeds and Orange is The New Black, of strong women and the 80s.
GLOW is available to watch on streaming provider Netflix.
Disjointed
Kathy Bates is not seen this time as a psychopath as in American Horror Story. The brilliant actress shines as a stoner old hippie mom in this stoner movie-style comedy series.
Each episode features a new trip animated by a different artist, accompanied by music from different musicians. And even stoner movie veterans Cheech and Chong make a guest appearance.
What’s It About
Ruth Feldman is a convinced stoner and runs a shop for medical cannabis in California. Luckily for her, her offspring has just finished his business studies when the release of cannabis in 2018 is announced. He is now expected to help her turn the cannabis dispensary into a lucrative business.
Great for:
- All deep chillers 😉
- Fans of stoner films and series like Half Baked or Weeds
- Kathy Bates fans
So far, the series Disjointed can only be streamed and watched on Netflix.
The End of the F***ing World
If there’s one nation that knows something about black humour, it’s probably the British. The 8-part comedy-drama is based on the comic series of the same name by Charles S. Forsman and is a pure delight thanks to the perfectly cast lead actors Alex Lawther and Jessica Barden.
What’s It About?
James is 17 and convinced he is a psychopath. As a viewer, you’re inclined to believe him, because in a brief retrospective montage, James’ previous victims are neatly lined up next to each other. So far, however, all animals!
High time to kill something bigger, James thinks. And chooses Alyssa, who is the same age. Alyssa, on the other hand, is not getting any love from her mother and her partner and is looking for it in James, of all people. Annoyed by everything, she decides to run away with him. James sees his chance to commit his first real murder and agrees. An absurd odyssey through southern England begins.
Great for:
- Fans of pitch-black humour
- Anyone who likes unusual coming of age and love stories
You can watch the series on Netflix.
American Vandal
In recent years, true crime series such as Making a Murderer, Amanda Knox and Serial have attracted large audiences. The mockumentary American Vandal now skilfully takes aim at the narrative style of these series. For here it is not about who committed a ghastly murder, but about the earth-shattering question: Who spray-painted the willies?.
American Vandal virtuously plays with the clichés and tropes of both the True Crime format and classic high school series and subverts them – under the sign of the phallus! In the process, it also gives the current political climate and the prudishness faction in American society more than a… Stinky finger.
What’s It About?
Scandal!!! Someone has graffitied the 27 cars of all the teachers employed there at Hanover High School with big red penises! Teachers, students, parents all agree: only Dylan Maxwell can be responsible for the oversized dicks.
As a notorious truant, class clown, stoner, no-good and avowed prank lover with a penchant for spontaneous doodles of male genitalia, it’s obvious to everyone who the American Vandal is here. And this time he has clearly gone too far, the school administration thinks, and suspends Dylan – shortly before his impending graduation.
But he steadfastly maintains his innocence. Only two of his classmates believe him and, armed with a camera, begin to fight for him and uncover a gigantic conspiracy.
Optimal for:
- Fans of true crime series
- Anyone who gets prudishness mightily on their balls(sticks)
- All those who love pubescent humour with a wink
Watch it on Netflix.
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