10 Uplifting TV Shows To Help You Get Through A Hard Time

While some of the most popular show on TV are dark and intense, a lighter and more optimistic show is often the best option. TV shows can be a huge comfort to people in tough times. It serves as joyous escapism when people most need it, and shows with lots of episodes can be a great way to relax the mind. Recently, prestige TV has trended toward darkness and drama, but the most popular shows on streaming platforms are often the happiest ones.

Beyond being mere distractions, uplifting TV shows can make people feel better about tough situations. While everyone has their own comfort watches to return to, some shows contain positive themes about family, friendship, and remaining hopeful. These shows are always a pleasure to watch, but they hit especially hard when people can relate to the characters on-screen. A comforting TV show can be the perfect balm for many wounds.

10 Ted Lasso

Ted Lasso’s Bold Optimism Is An Antidote To Cynicism

Ted Lasso stars Jason Sudeikis as a Kansas-born football coach who is hired to coach a Premier League soccer team in London. He is immediately dismissed by the pundits and his own fans, but his country charms gradually manage to win people over. This reflects how Ted Lasso has been able to amass such a huge fan base despite using a premise which risks being overly sentimental and twee.

Most TV comedy has been trending toward dark humor and cynicism lately, but
Ted Lasso
has a more positive outlook.

Most TV comedy has been trending toward dark humor and cynicism lately, but Ted Lasso has a more positive outlook. It presents a sort of fantasy of how people could and should treat each other, reimagining the ultra-competitive nature of competitive sports. Ted Lasso gives each of its characters their time to shine, and they each embark on their own personal journeys to become better people. While this could easily be tiresome, Ted Lasso manages to make it both interesting and hilarious. The show seemed to have wrapped up, but Ted Lasso season 4 has had some promising updates.

9 Schitt’s Creek

Schitt’s Creek Can Make Fans Laugh And Cry

Schitt’s Creek follows the Rose family as they are swindled out of their enormous fortune, and they must move to a small town in the middle of nowhere as they struggle to get back on top. This creates a classic fish-out-of-water story, as the Roses fail to adapt to their new rural, working-class surroundings. They start the show as the butt of every joke, but as Schitt’s Creek develops, they become lovable characters in spite of their flaws.

As
Schitt’s Creek
develops, the Rose family become lovable characters in spite of their flaws.

Schitt’s Creek has some deeply emotional moments, and it paints an accurate portrait of a troubled family who nevertheless love each other. Even Moira, a fading TV star with a taste for the finer things and an accent that sounds like Old Hollywood, begins to seem surprisingly relatable. Her pep talk for Stevie before their stage production of Cabaret, for example, sums up the incredible writing of Schitt’s Creek. The show manages to fire out some great jokes, even while it makes its audience cry.

8 The Good Place

The Good Place Is An Uplifting Comedy About Death

The Good Place begins with each of the characters waking up to the news that they are dead. This seems like the set-up for a dark comedy, especially as the characters are subjected to an eternity of torture, but The Good Place is surprisingly optimistic. The main ethos of The Good Place is that people are capable of change, and this is a remarkably uplifting message. The characters have some flashbacks to show how flawed they are during their lives, but they have the propensity to become better people in death.

It has plenty of breezy humor, but this is underpinned by a hopeful philosophy which dictates the drama.

The Good Place works so well because the characters are designed perfectly to rub each other the wrong way. The four characters are selected for a new kind of torture in which they simply spend time with each other. However, they gradually start to form deep bonds as they are chased across the afterlife by demons. There are four seasons of The Good Place, and it amounts to a richly rewarding experience for those who stick with it. It has plenty of breezy humor, but this is underpinned by a hopeful philosophy which dictates the drama.

7 Friends

Friends Is Crafted As The Ideal Comfort Show

There have been countless imitators over the years, but Friends still reigns supreme as an uplifting, emotional sitcom with plenty of laughs. Friends is like Cheers or New Girl in the sense that it presents an aspirational view of friendships which distills and reflects some relatable life experiences. This isn’t to say that Friends is all sunshine and roses, because the characters often get into arguments. However, they always have enough love for one another to pull through.

Watching some of the best episodes of

Frie
n
ds

can feel like spending time with old friends.

Friends is a great comfort show, partly because the cast share such impeccable chemistry. Watching some of the best episodes of Friends can feel like spending time with old friends, especially since there are enough episodes to watch the characters grow throughout the years. The witty banter is a joy to watch, and it’s backed up by enough character development to lend some real emotional weight to Friends.

6 GLOW

A 1980s Throwback With Plenty Of Charm

Glow is a fictionalized retelling of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling syndicated TV show in the 1980s. Some of the characters are inspired by real life, but the show mostly creates its own storylines. Glow‘s ’80s charm makes it a beautiful experience, and it also has a lot of fun with the stereotypes of the decade that are always shown on TV, such as the big perms, suit jackets with rolled-up sleeves and gratuitous synth music.

Beyond its period quirks and its hilarious writing,
Glow
is an uplifting story about female friendships and empowerment.

Beyond its period quirks and its hilarious writing, Glow is an uplifting story about female friendships and empowerment. Alison Brie stars as a struggling actor who finds a peculiar sisterhood of friends when she gets a job as a professional wrestler. Each of the wrestlers has their own reason for taking the job. They are society’s misfits, but they come together and create a supportive community that displays the warmth of Glow. Sadly, Glow was one of many Netflix shows canceled too soon.

5 Modern Family

Modern Family Is Warm And Charming

Just as the title suggests, Modern Family updates many of the tired conventions of the family sitcom genre. It creates a more representative portrait of family life in the 21st century, but it also shows that some things never change. This gives Modern Family a relatable quality that drives a lot of its humor. Modern Family is spread across three different households, but each of the characters feels distinct and complete.

The best
Modern Family
episodes usually find a way to combine the show’s rapid-fire comedy with heartwarming moments.

The best Modern Family episodes usually find a way to combine the show’s rapid-fire comedy with heartwarming moments. Most episodes end with some kind of uplifting message or moral lesson which the characters have learned. This could come across as played-out in an era when popular sitcoms often eschew such emotionality, but it’s apt for Modern Family. The relatable family dynamics make the show the perfect platform for such moments.

4 Bob’s Burgers

Bob’s Burgers Puts A Twist On The Family Sitcom

The Belcher family in Bob’s Burgers are far from perfect, but this is precisely what makes them so appealing. Rather than being dysfunctional in the sorts of ways that TV families usually are, the animation gives the show license to present some truly cartoonish oddballs. The children somehow come across as simultaneously typical and completely abnormal. They’re socially awkward and constantly getting into trouble like other children in family sitcoms, but their quirks are utterly bizarre.

Bob’s Burgers
is a charming family sitcom, even if the family in question is a little surreal.

Trying to remain in control of the children are Bob and Linda, an odd couple whose parenting misadventures show them up as equally immature in their own ways. Ultimately, Bob’s Burgers is a charming family sitcom, even if the family in question is a little surreal. The town is populated by a cast of absurd characters that adds to the show’s lighthearted sense of humor. As a bonus, Bob’s Burgers has some outstanding Halloween episodes which are worth rewatching every year,

3 Ghosts

Both The UK Original And The US Adaptation Are Fun And Easy To Watch

The CBS adaptation of Ghosts is one of the most successful new sitcoms of recent years, and a large part of its appeal can be attributed to its source material. Ghosts is inspired by a BBC sitcom of the same name. The original set the precedent for heartwarming culture-clash comedy, and it can be appreciated as a whole now that it has aired its final episodes. A lot of British comedies can be quite dark or cringey, but Ghosts is neither.

A lot of British comedies can be quite dark or cringey, but
Ghosts
is neither.

Ghosts features a cast of strange characters separated by many generations trying to get along with one another under one roof. In this way, it’s an idiosyncratic family sitcom. This framework allows Ghosts to have some uplifting moments, as the characters find ways to make each other’s afterlives more enjoyable despite their enormous differences. Ghosts also shows some key details of each character’s backstory to make its cast of misfits from hundreds of years ago strangely relatable.

2 Monk

Monk Is A Perfect Cozy Crime Show

Monk proves that crime shows don’t have to be gritty and downbeat to be good. By sticking to a reliable formula and focusing on humor, Monk manages to be a brilliant comfort show, despite the fact that most episodes begin with a murder. Monk tends to end with justice being done, but the show’s most optimistic and warmhearted quality is the relationships between the main characters. Monk makes light of some dark themes.

Monk
manages to be a brilliant comfort show, despite the fact that most episodes begin with a murder.

Adrian Monk is grieving the loss of his wife, and his trauma has worsened his tics and quirks. However, he has people around him who love and care for him. Like other crime comedy shows – including Psych in particular – Monk is as much about character-based comedy as it is about the mystery of the week. What makes Monk special is that it isn’t afraid to delve into themes of grief and sorrow, but it always has an optimistic worldview.

1 Gilmore Girls

Gilmore Girls Has A Positive Outlook On The Trials Of Life

Gilmore Girls is known for its snappy, intelligent humor. Everyone in the picturesque town of Stars Hollow seems to be much quicker on their feet than most people in real life, and this makes Gilmore Girls a great show to binge-watch. Its wry humor is so witty and so well-acted that entire episodes can simply fly by. Gilmore Girls is one of only a few shows that focuses on a mother-daughter relationship.

Its wry humor is so witty and so well-acted that entire episodes can simply fly by.

Lorelai’s bond with her daughter Rory is endlessly sweet. They have an unconventional parent-child relationship, and they often describe each other as best friends. This bond is at the center of the show’s most emotional and uplifting episodes. Gilmore Girls starts with Rory in high school, but the show changes over time as Rory grows up. This gives Gilmore Girls the rare opportunity to stick with its characters through long periods of genuine change, which makes it more meaningful than most other shows.