The Five Best Shows You Aren't Watching

I have five new comedy series to talk about which is really refreshing since we’ve been drowning in a sea of reality TV for a few years now. These are actual situation comedies, though none are filmed in front of a live audience, which I think is pretty daring. A few of these shows are following, what I predict to be, a new trend in TV where the writer/creator is one of the main characters in the show.

F/X is the star as it introduced two really funny series this summer. They are billing both of these shows as “the other side of comedy.”

Starved (Thursday 10pm) is about four friends who are all battling eating disorders. They attend AA-like meetings to discuss their failings that week and get yelled at by a drill sergeant-esque facilitator for their appalling eating-related behavior. The show focuses on each character as they go through their days dealing with binging, purging and obsessive weighing and measuring and how these actions interfere with their relationships. Though very funny, each show ends in a poignant moment of self-realization or self-ignorance as we watch the characters medicate themselves by various destructive behaviors.

What makes this show funny?
Though depicting people acting out serious eating disorders, most viewers will find the humor funny if not off beat. Sam, (lead character and creator, Eric Schaeffer) gets caught in embarrassing situations related to his habits. In moments of feeling worthless we witness him digging chocolate cake out of trash cans and eating it, and getting multiple colonics because he has discovered he looses about 3lbs per treatment. (A very funny scene happens when he accidentally insults his colonic facilitator and she leaves him on the table in mid-treatment. As he gets off the table he is crawling around the waiting room on all fours spewing water (and other stuff) out his ass.

OK this doesn’t sound funny, but trust me…it is.

The second show in F/X’s Thursday night line up is It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (Thursdays 10:30pm). This show is created, written and executive produced by Rob McElhenney and Glenn Howerton, who star in the show with Charlie Day who is also a co-writer. A group of three men decide to buy a bar in Philly so that “they can meet women” and the sister of one completes the cast.

What makes this show funny?
While some of the story lines may seem run of the mill, what makes this show funny is the subtle humor of body language, facial expressions and interaction of the cast (along the lines of Arrested Development and Seinfeld). Think sarcasm. Think trying to pick up girls at an abortion protest and then switching sides because the girls are hotter on the pro-choice side.

Slings and Arrows is a comedy series on Sundance (Sundays 8pm). This series was created in 2003 and is about the inner workings of the New Burbage Theatre Festival, a Shakespearean theatre company.

What makes this show funny?
Two Words: It’s Canadian (which if you squint hard enough is almost like English comedy). Two more words: Mark McKinny of Kids in the Hall fame. Some more words: This may be funny only to viewers who have worked in a theatre. I did a few years ago and honest to god if they didn’t get it perfect, right down to the aging company star and the ambiguous sex of the artistic director. Watch it if you are, or have been, in any type of showbiz.

Showtime started a new series called Weeds (Mondays 10pm). Set in a suburban gated community called Agrestic, the lead character, Nancy Botwin (Mary Louise Parker), who lacks any marketable skills, is forced to deal pot to her neighbors in order to support her family after her husband has died. She balances between white suburban America (where she lives) and black inner city America (where she buys her pot) and wrestles with the morals and ethics of dealing.

Why this is funny.
It pokes fun at suburbia. The kid who plays Shane is pretty dang funny. When getting a run of insulting names spewed at him by a soccer teammate, Shane asks the kid to make up his mind…is it sissy boy, baby or vampire boy? (he was caught licking blood off his cut) and this request to clarify his insult only makes him more the outcast. Kevin Nealon is also in the cast as well as Elizabeth Perkins. And it turns out that everyone who lives at Agrestic are huge potheads. Funny!

If you haven’t done so already, please run to your TV right now and turn it on to Stella (Comedy Central, Tuesdays 10:30). Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter and David Wain (all alumni from The State) play themselves in this Monkeys-esque comedy.

Why this is funny.
They wear suits – all the time. They stage musical numbers. They are not afraid to do anything. And I mean anything. Sometimes the story line is a little too kooky for me but I always laugh out loud at least twice during the half hour. Recently, they boys decided to go out on a Friday night to get dates. At the bar David Wain, the main loser of the bunch, used this line to pick up a woman. “You’re like fast food.” (to which the woman coos, why?) Wain follows up with, “because I want to take you out…and eat you in my car.” He didn't get the girl.