10 Best Comedy Series Of 2019

TVLine's Year in Review continues with a look back at the 10 best comedy series of 2019. Which returning favorites made our list once again? And which freshmen made excellent first impressions? Scroll through the gallery below to see our picks!

3. BARRY

We weren't even sure we wanted a Season 2 of HBO's pitch-black hitman comedy... but we're so glad we got one. Its sophomore run went to some very dark places indeed — Bill Hader's lead performance was positively haunting — but still managed to deliver plenty of laughs, thanks in no small part to Anthony Carrigan's scene-stealing work as lovable gangster NoHo Hank. Throw in a jaw-droppingly great standalone episode in "ronny/lily," and we're ready to hire Barry for many more seasons to come.

4. CATASTROPHE

We already miss this gem of a comedy, which was as sharp as ever in its tremendous final season. Catastrophe has always excelled at finding the humor — the dark, sardonic, laugh-because-it's-better-than-crying humor — in life's least funny situations, a feat it pulled off once again while examining grief, family dysfunction and more in Season 4. The series may have flown under the radar for much of its run, but Catastrophe certainly went out on a satisfying creative high.

10. DEAD TO ME

Of this year's many outstanding comedies, few were quite as addictive as Dead to Me, with episode cliffhangers so tantalizing, you couldn't help but binge the whole season in an afternoon. (Reader, we're speaking from experience.) But the show was also a total chameleon across its 10 episodes. In the mood for a murder mystery? You got it. A buddy comedy? No problem. A nuanced exploration of female friendship? Check, check and check. All that, and leading performances from Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini? We're not worthy.

1. FLEABAG

Have you accepted Phoebe Waller-Bridge as your lord and savior? If you haven't, you probably haven't seen Season 2 of her brutally frank, pristinely crafted Amazon comedy yet, which found her sex-starved title character caught in a love triangle with Andrew Scott's instantly iconic "Hot Priest"... and the big guy upstairs. Their taboo romance forced Fleabag to do some serious soul-searching, with Waller-Bridge rising to the occasion as a writer and an actor. (If you want to know why she's the hottest name in Hollywood right now, look no further.) Yes, there were LOL moments to be had — Claire's disastrous haircut comes to mind — but it's the quieter, more devastating moments that cinched Fleabag's spot as our favorite comedy of 2019.

5. PEN15

What sounded like a silly gimmick at first — adult comedians Anna Konkle and Maya Erskine play 13-year-old BFFs entering seventh grade in the year 2000, with real teenagers as their classmates — turned out to be an emotionally rich, flat-out hilarious coming-of-age story in the vein of Freaks and Geeks. (And yes, we realize that's high praise.) Konkle and Erskine made an excellent comedy duo, capturing the exquisite awkwardness of middle school with terrifying accuracy, and the Y2K-era pop culture references (the Spice Girls! Tamagotchis!) were delightfully spot-on, too. Let's hope Anna and Maya don't grow up anytime soon.

2. RUSSIAN DOLL

You could sum up Netflix's trippy comedy as a twisted take on Groundhog Day: Natasha Lyonne's Nadia keeps dying on her 36th birthday, only to be resurrected each time in an endless loop. But that description wouldn't do justice to a show that deeply moved us and made us think, posing uncomfortable questions about a person's ability to truly change. With Lyonne's astounding performance at its core, Russian Doll was both heartbreaking and laugh-out-loud funny — a killer combination, indeed.

8. SCHITT'S CREEK

Vroom, vroom, bitches! Besides introducing "a whisper of desire" into the vernacular, Season 5 of Pop's beloved Canadian import served up one sidesplitting scenario (Alexis "performing" the theme from her "critically reviewed" reality show) after another (a fantastically awkward game of Spin the Bottle) after another (Moira on Bosnian uppers). But what really clinched the series' spot on this list was the way it made us cry — and not from laughing. Patrick's coming-out to his parents, his perfect proposal to David and Stevie's emotionally cathartic rendition of "Maybe This Time" were heartfelt reminders of why we don't just enjoy Schitt's Creek, we treasure it.

6. SEX EDUCATION

We enrolled for the always-sublime Gillian Anderson, but stayed for the trio of young-adult actors at the center of this raunchy British offering: Asa Butterfield (as the sexually repressed Otis), Ncuti Gatwa (as Otis' best friend Eric) and Margot Robbie lookalike Emma Mackey (as the rebellious Maeve). Sex Education could have easily been just a tale of sex-crazed adolescents. Instead, we got a refreshingly nuanced (and, at times, blisteringly funny) take on teenage frustrations tied to gender, sexuality and societal expectations.

7. THE OTHER TWO

If you're seeking a show with its finger on the pulse of what's funny and relevant in this climate, Comedy Central's laugh-a-minute romp about the less-famous siblings of a viral teen singing sensation should be your final destination. From the secret life of "Instagays" (aka Instagram gays) to the importance of live Auto-Tune, there's no topic this brilliant cast — led by the criminally hilarious Drew Tarver and Helene Yorke, along with comedy greats like Molly Shannon and Ken Marino — can't skewer to absolute perfection.

9. WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS

Though inspired by the 2014 film, this vampire comedy is very much its own very special thing. A tale of Staten Island-based bloodsuckers aiming, arguably too late, to start lording over humanity (or at least one square block of it), it delivered delight after delight as Nandor (the Relentless), Laszlo, Nadja, and Colin Robinson clashed with city councils as well as rival families, preyed on virgin LARPers, stalked reincarnated lovers and labored to throw a good orgy. And all while their human companion Guillermo aspired to become one of them... when not accidentally incinerating vampire VIPs.