Best Comfort Shows to Put on and Rewatch Forever

Seven seasons. Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope, the most relentlessly cheerful mid-level government employee in fictional Indiana. Nick Offerman, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Pratt, Aziz Ansari, Adam Scott, Rob Lowe, Retta, Jim O'Heir. It is, embarrassingly, one of the best ensemble casts a network comedy has ever assembled.

Here's the thing about Parks and Rec that takes a rewatch to fully appreciate: it's not just a nice show. It's a show where the characters keep getting better instead of staying stuck in the same loops. Leslie grows. Ben grows. Even Jerry — sorry, Larry — gets a genuinely moving arc by the end. That's rare.

Season 1 is rough (skip to season 2 if you're bringing in a skeptic). Everything from "The Harvest Festival" in season 3 onward is some of the best feel-good television ever made.

Stream it: Peacock, all seven seasons. Peacock also has producer's cut episodes that run slightly longer — worth it for fans who've already done the standard rewatch.

Gilmore Girls ran 153 episodes from 2000 to 2007, and its entire thing — fast dialogue, dense pop culture references, a fictional Connecticut town called Stars Hollow — still works. Lauren Graham as Lorelai Gilmore and Alexis Bledel as her daughter Rory are the engine, but the supporting cast (Melissa McCarthy, Scott Patterson, Kelly Bishop, Keiko Agena) is what makes it feel like a real place.

The show is dense in a way that rewards rewatches. There are background jokes in Stars Hollow that you'll miss the first three times through. The 2016 Netflix revival, Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, is four episodes and gives the story a real ending — including the famous "last four words" that creator Amy Sherman-Palladino always intended.

Where to start if you've never watched: episode 1, season 1. It's not a slow build. It's immediate.

Stream it: All seven seasons on both Netflix and Hulu. A Year in the Life is Netflix-exclusive.

Bob's Burgers debuted on Fox in 2011 and is somehow still going, now in season 16, and the Belcher family has never once turned mean. That's the whole thing, honestly. Bob (H. Jon Benjamin), Linda (John Roberts), Tina (Dan Mintz), Gene (Eugene Mirman), and Louise (Kristen Schaal) are a family that actually likes each other, and the show never betrays that for the sake of a cheap conflict.

Every episode is self-contained. You can start anywhere. You can put it on in the background and look up every three minutes and still follow what's happening. Tina's romantic daydreams about zombies and butts are funnier than they have any right to be.

The movie (released 2022, currently streaming on Hulu) is a solid feature-length entry if you want a bigger dose.

Stream it: Hulu, new episodes the day after they air on Fox.

Zooey Deschanel as Jess, a schoolteacher who moves into a loft in Los Angeles with three strangers after a breakup. That setup sounds like it would age badly, and honestly some of it does — season 1 leans hard on "adorkable" as a personality. But the show figures itself out by season 2, and once Jake Johnson, Max Greenfield, Lamorne Morris, and Hannah Simone are fully locked in, it's genuinely great.

The Schmidt character (Greenfield) is the most reliably funny part of the whole run. Winston (Morris) gets a slow-burn arc that becomes weirdly moving. Nick and Jess work better as a slow burn than their actual relationship does. These are observations I have made across multiple rewatches, which tells you something.

Seven seasons, 146 episodes. The back half of season 6 gets shaky, but season 7 rights itself for a clean landing.

Stream it: Hulu and Peacock, both carry all seven seasons.

Created by Quinta Brunson, who also stars as Janine Teagues, Abbott Elementary is a mockumentary about teachers and staff at an underfunded public elementary school in Philadelphia. It's been compared to The Office and Parks and Rec endlessly, and those comparisons are fair — it has the same structural DNA. But it has its own voice, its own stakes, and its own specific kind of warmth.

The cast (Sheryl Lee Ralph, Tyler James Williams, Janelle James, Lisa Ann Walter, William Stanford Davis, Quinta Brunson) is genuinely funny, and the show handles the reality of underfunded schools without ever tipping into bleakness. Currently airing on ABC, with episodes streaming on Hulu the next day.

Stream it: Hulu, or live on ABC. It's in the middle of its run — perfect time to catch up.