The best comfort entertainment of 2018

If you’re going to face the world every day and also somehow stave off the existential dread, you’ll need a reliable library of comfort content to keep you going. Some series and films are as essential as a mug of cocoa or a soft blanket – something safe and reliable, which feels like coming home.

These are the shows and films that got us through 2018, that kept us sane when reality was too much (or when we got overwhelmed by all the new TV and films premiering every nanosecond).

10. Set It Up

Netflix may have singlehandedly revived the Great American Rom-Com with this unexpected darling. Not only did it let Lucy Liu and Taye Diggs have a spectacular time being sexy, powerful jerks, but it played just enough into rom-com convention while also ushering a sometimes problematic genre into a socially conscious era. Set more of this up, please!

9. Superstore

TV is constantly striving to be more open, inclusive, and innovative, and Superstore does all three while delivering laugh-out-loud comedy every week. A winsome cast carries the workplace comedy shenanigans of The Office and Parks and Recreation before it, while somehow managing to add insight about workers’ rights, sexual harassment, and treatment of refugees and immigrants. Don’t be fooled by the premise of the generic store – this show is one of a kind.

8. Mozart in the Jungle

Amazon’s now-canceled Golden Globe-winner hits such a specific sweet spot for those who watch it. The world of the New York Symphony and its unorthodox conductor is entirely removed from 99 percent of our lives, yet there is comfort in returning to this fictitious fine arts society bubble. 

7. Brooklyn Nine-Nine

The Nine-Nine certainly got a boost in visibility with its dramatic spring cancellation, but it has been exceptional comfort TV since its 2013 debut. There is no dearth of grim-dark TV about cops and criminals, but there is insane novelty in adding both humor and heart to the procedural format and filling it with such lovable characters who seek to make the world better. Nine-nine!!

6. Dumplin’

Image: bob mahoney/netflix

The most adorable antidote to Netflix’s horrendous Insatiable imaginable, Dumplin’ delivers drag queens, Dolly Parton, and the next wannabe Peter Kavinsky. The story of Willowdean Dickson’s protest in heels doesn’t tread particularly new or enlightening territory, but its core message of self-celebration is so heartwarming, you’ll need to watch it more than once. -Alison Foreman, Entertainment Reporter

5. Nailed It

Nailed It doesn’t just bring you the comfort of a baking show. It’s also a celebration our collective human failures, with a premise inspired by the internet’s many disastrous attempts to make elaborate desserts. The polar opposite of shows like Cake Boss, feats of edible artistry have no place here. On Nailed It, judges give out an A for effort for even the most inedible baked goods. Throw in a bonus episode with the Queer Eye gang and you’ve got yourself the perfect remedy for your shameful lack of talent in the kitchen. -Jess Joho, Entertainment Reporter

4. The Good Place

Now in its third season The Good Place should have run out of clever ideas, storylines, and character arcs, but it continues to subvert skepticism with every episode. Despite that suspense, the comfort is in knowing that even as they try to outrun time, space, and every powerful being in the universe, our characters souls are not only salvageable, but worthy of salvation. Everything will be okay, and it’s our privilege to take the journey with them.

3. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Season 2 is slower to pick up than its predecessor, but it remains unabashedly true to the Maisel sensibility and the Amy Sherman-Palladino extended universe; sharp, peppy, and colorful. Midge is slightly more grating than before, but she’s still quick-witted and prime to get a laugh – and you can’t help envy this woman and world in which a paramount concern is a swimsuit competition in the Catskills. 

2. To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before

This sinfully rewatchable movie is comfort not only because of the sweet story at its center, but because it’s shot and edited in a style that is a world unto itself. This is the world of Lara Jean; a world of argyle knee socks and meeting boys in fantasy fields – a world of wide shots where nothing happens on screen except a small smile at a tender moment, where everything looks like it’s shot through an Instagram filter (Perpetua, maybe?). Peter K represents the new romantic hero, proof that we can reconcile women’s equality with the romantic comedy renaissance.

1. Queer Eye

Image: Courtesy of Netfilx

Would we have made it through 2018 without the ridiculously wholesome joy that is Queer Eye? Thankfully, that’s not a question we have to ponder. Since February, the Fab Five have healed us from within and provided a glowing bright spot in an often hellish cultural, social, and political landscape. 

Honorable mention: Old favorites

This was the year everyone and their mom watched and rewatched The Office. Nostalgia is perpetually in season and reboots run amok. With peak TV, sometimes the overwhelming library of new content compels us to just curl up in front of something familiar. There’s no shame in that, and it can be grounding strength when you have to turn off the TV and return to reality.