We keep trying new shows and hating them, or at least not liking them enough to continue past the first episode. And it seems we have a list of criteria that make it hard to find a good show:
We’re only interested in comedies
As few foreign accents as possible. Especially English. My wife has a hard time hearing as it is, and says she has too much difficulty following when there are too many accents ( I know, everyone recommends shows to us and says "oh, but the accents aren’t bad on this one—but I promise you as soon as she hears the main characters speaking with an English/Irish/Scottish accent, she’s going to bail. They may not be too bad for you to understand—but it’s not an argument I’m willing to get into)
No reality TV.
Preferably not shows about relationships.
Here’s what we’ve watched (and liked): 30 Rock, Arrested Development, Raising Hope, The Guest Book, Chicago, Ill, Malcolm in the Middle, My Name Is Earl, Veep, Lodge 49, Strangers With Candy, Seinfeld, It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, Parks and Recreation, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Reno 911, The Other Two, Tacoma FD, Angie Tribeca, Schitt’s Creek, Nathan For You, Space Force, Lovespring International, The Office, AP Bio, The Mick
Shows we’ve recently tried to watch:
Shrill (we got one episode in—this is a comedy??? It just seemed like a day in the very miserable life of the main character)
Search Party (again—this was listed as a comedy, but I didn’t see them even attempting to be funny in that first episode)
Casual (nope. Too much centered on relationships)
Kevin From Work (Ok, first episode wasn’t bad, but it seems like this one is going to be way too much about relationships —we may give the next episode a chance though )
White Lotus—we were told this was funny too, and made it through maybe two or three episodes before deciding that this too can’t possibly be meant to be funny
Mr. Mayor—OK, I can see why they think it’s a comedy. Jokes, just not very funny ones, except for Bobby Moynihan’s parts)
Superstore–didn’t make it more than a few episodes before giving up. Just not very funny (although I can see why some people would think it is)
I Think You Should Leave–don’t remember why we didn’t like this one, just that we didn’t.
Brooklyn 99–we watched most of this, but once the show became entirely centered around the main character’s relationship and wedding we stopped watching.
The Goldbergs
Modern Family
The Middle—all of them started spending way too much time being serious and not funny.
So given all that—what’s left for us to watch? I tried looking through Netflix last night, and it seemed like every show we tried was either British, subtitled, not a comedy (despite Netflix saying it was—like Dead To Me).
I guess we like shows where the characters don’t learn anything or grow—the cast of Veep, It’s Always Sunny, and Seinfeld are the same awful people at the end of the series that they were at the beginning. The episodes we didn’t like on AP Bio were always the ones where the teacher started showing that he cared about the kids.