10 Best Comedy Series Of 2020

TVLine's Year in Review continues with a look back at the 10 best comedy series of 2020. Which returning favorites made our list once again? And which freshmen made excellent first impressions? Scroll through the gallery below to see our picks!

10. CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM

Twenty years and 10 seasons later, HBO's Larry David comedy continues to deliver. The social assassin's ongoing feud with Mocha Joe served as a brilliant throughline for this latest batch of episodes — the show's strongest in over a decade, since Season 7's Seinfeld reunion arc — which also saw Larry navigate an affair with ex-wife Cheryl, wrestle Richard Lewis at a stranger's funeral, mentor Jon Hamm for an upcoming film role, and escape a #MeToo lawsuit with the help of a remarkably dry scone.

5. DAVE

Don't be fooled by the opening scene of this FXX freshman, in which the title character rattles off all the abnormalities of his penis. Yes, the comedy can be raunchy and a little gross — Dave's impromptu bathroom break while on a hike is forever burned in our brains — but it was also one of the year's most sensitive and daring series. Based on the life and career of star Dave Burd (aka rapper Lil Dicky), Dave beautifully explored its main character's neuroses as he tried to carve out a music career, reminding both him and the audience of the price of success. (And that season finale freestyle remains one of the year's best scenes.)

8. HARLEY QUINN

2020 wasn't a great year for New Gotham — or whatever it's calling itself these days — but it was one for the books for Kaley Cuoco's titular troublemaker, who lit up our quarantine with her trademark blend of twisted humor and cruel intentions. From her gang's unforgettable dinner date with the Freezes to Harley's discovery of The Joker's secret new life, the DC Universe comedy's second season mined as much humor and heartbreak from its extensive stable of complex characters as possible, while also delivering one of the most compelling love stories of the TV season. #HarlivyForever

1. I MAY DESTROY YOU

Considering that all three of the main characters in Michaela Coel's edgy HBO series became survivors of sexual assault over the course of a single season, I May Destroy You is decidedly more of a dramedy than a comedy. It's not that we didn't laugh while hanging with Coel's effervescent Arabella and her crew; we did, often when we least expected to. But as many times as the show made us feel amused, it made us feel anxious, upset and ultimately empowered. In the end, Destroy defies categorization. Whatever it was, it was bloody brilliant.

4. INSECURE

"Lowkey fraught" is the best way to describe Season 4 of the Issa Rae dramedy to which we're as addicted as its characters are to Looking for LaToya. First the series blew up its central relationship, that of BFFs Issa and Molly, who grew resentful as well as apart. Then it revisited the romance of our heroine and lost love Lawrence in so swoon-worthy a fashion that when they hit a pregnant-ex-girlfriend-shaped fork in the road, it shook us too deeply to be soothed by even a summer of Self-Care Sundays. Throughout, the series maintained its enviable balance between humor and heartache in a manner that was, ironically, confident.

6. SEX EDUCATION

Netflix's teen romp — which opened Season 2 with an obscene masturbation montage and closed with a pornographic Romeo and Juliet musical, complete with dancing dick hands (!) — was even more unapologetically filthy and downright hilarious the second time around. But what ultimately clinched the series' spot on this list was its ability to get serious and execute one of 2020's most carefully crafted #MeToo storylines, which culminated in an unlikely band of young women rallying around Aimee in her time of need.

2. TED LASSO

For a show we didn't even know we wanted (born as it was of NBC Sports promos), Ted Lasso turned out to be the feel-good TV we needed, badly, during these trying times. Whether you know a pitch from a field, Apple TV+'s Jason Sudeikis-led sports comedy pulled you into its quirky corner of the U.K., introduced a roster of characters that were each comedically unique, and then proved to AFC Richmond and viewers alike that its titular Kansas City transplant had a heart big enough to fill any holes in his football knowledge. As a result, Ted's team became one we will always root for, win or lose (or tie).

7. THE DUCHESS

One of the year's easiest, breeziest binges came from this underrated Netflix comedy, which starred comedian Katherine Ryan as a single mother planning to have another child (provided she can find a competent baby daddy, of course). And though it was Ryan's acerbic wit that initially drew us in to the six-episode series, it was ultimately her character's relationship with daughter Olive — a warm, honest, Lorelai-and-Rory-Gilmore-type friendship — that kept us coming back for more.

9. VIDA

The third and final season of Tanya Saracho's Starz series wrapped up the Hernandez sisters' story with heart and laughs, gifting viewers events both joyful (Marcos' queer-ceñera) and heartbreaking (Lyn's realization that her back-from-the-dead father wasn't the loving pastor he pretended to be). If only Starz had given Vida more than six episodes for its swan song! Last call for this hidden gem of a series came way, way too soon.

3. WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS

Arguably the laugh-out-loudest entry on this year's short list, the FX comedy with its sophomore run continued to do what it does so well: mine the larger supernatural realm for humor — we met a necromancer with a gift shop, semen-seeking witches, and a literal Internet troll — while also drumming up drama among the roommates, be they consumed with well-fed powers or secretly a slayer. Throw in Mark Hamill as a vampire nemesis named Jim, and you get a series with more updog than any other.