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What happened to the light crime-comedy genre of the 2010s?
Burn Notice, White Collar, Chuck, Psych... List probably goes on. Suits fits the mold in my head tonally (at least the earlier seasons), though less about action.
Nowadays even the comedies are turning into serious drama than light pick-me-ups. So... let's talk about that? What happened? Do you miss them?
Crime comedies are a casualty of the streaming era when everything must be "bingeable" and therefore heavily serialized. And seasons are too short for too much "goofing off".
Their disappearance could also be attributed to a trend started by Sopranos and later Breaking Bad, which places great value in cynicism and grittiness at the expense of light hearted amusement.
They are doing a Monk's 90 minute movie though.
I was going to say a similar thing but with Game of Thrones. Seemed like every show that came out towards the end of GoT and right after it tried to copy its murderous twists where even main characters die regularly, backstabby plot lines with a lot of whispering and alliance-switching, and gratuitous nudity and violence at any opportunity.
The timing of GoT (and Breaking Bad too) also fits in nicely with the decrease in those shows OP mentioned.
Game of Thrones was certainly important, but it came much later and is also in the fantasy genre, so the connection to crime shows exists but is not as direct.
Valid points, I hadn't considered that. But I still believe that as a cultural phenomenon, GoT had far-reaching impacts on television shows at large, not just fantasy (though it definitely affected a lot of fantasy shows).
Can you name a few shows which fit your hypothesis? I can't think of any off the top of my head.
With a quick bit of googling to double check dates to make sure I didn't mix anything up, it seems like a lot of studios tried to copy game of thrones (which premiered in 2011) shortly after its success. By like 2014 there were already a few similar shows like Marco Polo, Black Sails, and Vikings that all had similar elements to the gritty and backstabby nature of Game of Thrones. Even some modern shows like the Witcher I think take inspiration from how drama-filled and cinematic GoT was. In addition to those, I'm positive there were a few others that I've since forgotten since they didn't come close to any of these mentioned shows in terms of production value or popularity.
I did not mean to make any claims about crime shows specifically, if that is how you interpreted it. I just meant that GoT was so ridiculously popular and revolutionary for its time that a lot of studios pivoted towards trying to replicate it, and maybe those crime-comedies that the OP mentioned got put on the back burner.
Ah, that makes sense. But it also reinforces just how long ago GoT came out, wow.
While I can't say The Sopranos is a light hearted series, I can't understate how fucking funny it is.
By the way, if you enjoyed Monk you ought to watch The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. It isnt a crime comedy but it's a dramedy that leans heavy towards the comedy aspect with some seedy elements mixed in. Crucially here though, it features Tony Shalhoub in the main cast as the central character's father.
The endless funny quotes are one of the big reasons I keep rewatching this thing of ours.
The thing is some of those shows so had great arcs. Chuck was fun, yeah, but it was also serialized.
It's important to note that those are all USA network shows. Cable networks tended to have a theme. CW became the Superhero channel. MTV became the reality competition channel. USA had these procedural comedy shows with quirky, but beautiful cast.
Now that we've gone streaming, what content each service produces isn't so straightforward.
The USA Network slogan was "Characters Welcome".
They had decent shows with amazing characters. Even if the plots weren't good, I tuned in to see what the characters were up to every week.
And then USA tried rebranding after the success of Mr. Robot. Don't know what ended up happening with that.
Should have brought back ALF. If you know, you know.
Alf is not "back" in the sense you mean, but he is kinda "back" in one way š
https://youtu.be/yqjUxGb3DkQ
Man I loved all of the shows OP listed haha. I didnāt even really think about them all being USA shows until you mentioned it. Do they not make anything like this anymore ? Tbh I donāt mind just rewatching the classics when I get a hankering for that style š
Someone else said they tried to rebrand after Mr. Robot. The last series I watched from them was Suits and the short lived Sirens.
Dang, that's a great point.
You have to have short, tight, high production value shows these days. Its a huge bummer, psych might be my most watched show of all time because its just so easy.
Man what a great show that was. I think it's time for a rewatch
my productivity hates you guys because after reading these comments I'm ready for another rewatch too. One of my favorite shows of all time.
I've rewatched psych so many times, it's now my background show. I know the episodes well enough to not have to pay full attention to it.
That's me with a rotation of Psych, Community, Brooklyn 99, and occasionally New Girl haha.
Are you me
what other recommendations do you have? Always looking for more! I have a couple more in rotation as well like Bob's Burgers haha
The Good Place.
Or generally Schur's comedies.
If you like Bob's Burgers and haven't already you should check out The Great North + Central Park.
The Great North was created by the Molyneux sisters (who have written for Bob's Burgers since it started), it uses a similar talent pool, has the same animation style and a similar vibe with a focus around and oddball family living in Alaska.
Central Park was created by Loren Bochard (creator of Bob's Burgers), Josh Gad (famous for his turns in many musicals including Olaf in Frozen and Elder Cunningham in the Book of Mormon) and Nora Smith (longtime producer on Bob's Burgers). Again, similar stuff but it leans heavy into the musical side of things, Bob's Burgers has always had a lot of good music but Central Park is a straight up musical show.
I'd also recommend Superstore for an easy, fun comedy watch, but it often gets overlooked because the first season is kind of a rough mixed bag. It drastically improves though (just for a reference point it got 66% on RT in its first season and pretty much 100% for every season after that). It is over now (honestly it might have kept going but I think COVID led them to put an end to the show, the last season was shot in September 2020 so it was in the thick of the pandemic and it shows).
What we do in the shadows
Psych is also one of my favorite shows ever. Iām curious what you mean by easy ?
I donāt get my emotions worked up, my mind doesnāt have to be fully available, I can watch it with any family member. Itās just a good fun time.
Brooklyn 99 seems like the quintessential recent example, but I'm struggling to think of other comedy-focused shows. The Fargo TV Series has some dark comedy aspects and plots are usually propelled by police investigations. It's still more of a drama though.
Only Murders in the Building might count too. Amateurs investigate a murder while producing their own crime podcast about the case.
Brooklyn 99 also points to one of the reasons this kind of stuff has faltered with how they tried to cope with BLM. How much can we swallow a feel-good show about good cops after everything?
For sure the death of long seasons and other streaming and market changes contribute, but man, it's hard to watch a show where there are just a bunch of good cops doing good and making you feel warm and fuzzy about cops. A lot of shows I haven't rewatched, and a lot of shows I stopped watching, in 2014 after Garner and Rice and all the fallout. Just got worse after 2020.
I liked B99 but its problems started before the BLM stuff as they got to a place where the show had become very repetitive, and they would do the same sort of episodes each season.
There were rumors swirling that bc of the BLM stuff/rise of anti-cop sentiment that the last season was going to have the precinct shut down and all the characters would end up working for the post office. That would have been interesting to see even if it was a mess. But I think instead of avoiding the topic they tried to address it with mixed results.
There are apparently a lot of takes on this out there,but Skip Intro covered this exact issue in the B99 episode of his Copaganda series (which I highly recommend, btw).
Have to agree about cop stuff, it's definitely a sour subject for many. But the genre doesn't necessarily have to be about cops. It could just as well be about a Silicon Valley CEO whisperer who gets into hijinks every week or a farmer in a rural town (who gets into hijinks every week). The important aspects (to me) are that it's light in tone, funny and the characters have something action-y to do with maybe a little-but-not-really sense of danger.
Makes me think of all the British cozy mysteries. Priest, grandma, whoever solving mysteries. But I can just imagine American execs being like, "how come this granny keeps finding corpses?"
There have been shows that don't go the crime route, like The Finder, but I can remember so few and they all seem to fail.
But thinking about it, seems like a lot of this has shifted to supernatural stuff. Cozy horror. SyFy has a lot of shows with that vibe.
Reminds me of a comment, iirc about the time Broadchurch came out, about how if you believed television small British towns have insanely astronomical murder rates and are the most dangerous places in the world. I kept thinking of that as my wife and I watched the 20+ seasons of Midsomer Murders, one of the longest-running British cozy mystery series.
I couldn't stay in Brooklyn 99. It started great but it went down the road of long term unfair drama that every show seems to fall victim to. I just find these meta plots stressful and unsatisfying. You know in the end they aren't going to change much but they constantly threaten that everything is about to change forever.
While I totally understand why you would put Brooklyn 99 under "crime comedy", since that is what it is in a literal sense, there are many ways in which the show is not at all what OP is asking for.
OP cited "Burn Notice, White Collar, Chuck, Psych". I'm more familiar with Psych, and will add Monk to the mix.
If I am not mistaken, all of these shows above have a 45min runtime.
I might describe some of the shows listed by OP as "amusing crime dramas", or "quirky investigative fiction". Their runtime and long seasons allow them to goof off and develop the characters while maintaining consistency; the jokes don't need to come every 5 to 10 seconds. They can be serious when necessary, and particularly heavy episodes can remove comedy almost entirely. They are humorous counterparts to Columbo, Baretta, Jessica Fletcher, and Sherlock Holmes.
Brooklyn 99 is a workplace sitcom, with a 22min runtime. The jokes must come at a breakneck speed, and everything else is secondary to that. B99 will do whatever it takes to insert a joke when the "math" tells there should be one, including over-the-top lines and cutaways with no concern for plausibility. In B99, characters are not believable, solid individuals, but rather venues through which jokes take place. When a joke doesn't have enough punch, B99 uses a fast zoom and sound effects to communicate that "this is a joke", just like the laughs of the live audience did back in the 1990s. B99 is an evolution of Parks & Recreation, which is a spiritual spin-off to The Office. And the only other show I have seen with as many cutaways was Family Guy, which can be good or bad depending on how you look at it.
In sum, OP is talking about something entirely different from a workplace sitcom. While "quirky investigations" are, still, 45min dramas, a 22min workplace sitcom is a comedy first and foremost. The first's only job is to amuse us, while the latter is designed to evoke a constant comedic sentiment -- and, if possible, laughter.
I agree it falls into workplace sitcom, there just aren't great current examples to choose from.
Counterpoint for your assertion for the speed of jokes. I'm in the process of rewatching Psych and the jokes are absolutely constant. Shawn is taking things literally in the funniest way possible, there are comedic gags happening in the background, and there are tons of references and jokes.
The only other things that come to mind are shows like NCIS: New Orleans. A lot of the comedic value is unintentional, there are some jokes, but it's mostly drama. Do you have any better examples to offer?
No, I don't have any better examples. I think we should make one :P
Does Lucifer fit in to this genre?
I think it's mostly just trends. As with many of these things, one hits, then it spawns a bunch of imitators (partly because it's what's working, partly because that's what a portion of the industry is now geared towards and getting good at doing).
I could see it coming back if the right show gets off the ground. A bunch of rainmakers always claim "oh this is the only thing popular" right now and try to limit what's created, but there's always exceptions, and if a high enough quality one gets through I think we'd see them back. It's probably an under catered to segment (along with buddy cop style stuff, which is part of why I think zootopia did so well)
Would Barry fit? It had some heavy bits, but the humor continued throughout even when events kept getting darker.