Television remains the ultimate equalizer when it comes to entertainment, and it’s exciting to see the medium embrace more genre content and supernatural programming. Supernatural series are still viewed as fringe content to some extent, but science fiction, fantasy, and horror are all mainstream entertainment genres.
Television used to be somewhat limited in terms of the types of supernatural stories that could be brought to life, which has now greatly expanded. It’s difficult to tell an engaging and effective supernatural tale, but ensuring that the series is funny is an even greater challenge. They’re few and far between, but there are some hilarious supernatural series on TV to explore.
10
The Boys
3 Seasons, 24 Episodes (Ongoing)
The opening minutes of The Boys’ first episode firmly establish it as an ultra-violent subversion of standard superhero norms and one of TV’s most brutal programs. The Boys’ gritty and grounded take on a superhero society is often petrifying, especially in the series’ depiction of Homelander, a homicidal Superman.
Endless death and gore punctuate each episode, but The Boys also brilliantly understands how to use vicious sight gags as the ultimate punchlines. Audiences will be ashamed that they’ve laughed at The Boys, but some of the sequences are so ridiculous that they’re impossible to ignore. Superhero fatigue has never been higher, but The Boys avoids banality.
9
Chucky
2 Seasons, 16 Episodes (Ongoing)
gainst all odds, Child’s Play has turned into a series of seven movies, a modern reboot, and now an ongoing TV show that continues to build upon the pint-sized murderer’s lore. Chucky includes many characters from the films, but the show is also a fun gateway for newcomers. A new group of young kids come in contact with the possessed toy and find themselves on and less siege against this seemingly invincible threat.
Much like the later entries in the film franchise, Chucky understands how to mix gore with guffaws. Chucky’s constant one-liners are funny, but so are many of the elaborate executions or the perpetual allusions to Jennifer Tilly’s career.
8
Doctor Who (2005)
13 Season, 300 Episodes (Ongoing)
2005’s Doctor Who reboot has been going strong for more than 300 episodes and has featured some of the most celebrated Doctors during the series’ whole tenure. Doctor Who is a British institution that’s produced more than 40 seasons and 900 episodes since its debut in the ‘60s.
Doctor Who isn’t strictly a comedy, but its quaint British qualities give it a lighter touch that’s helped it establish a unique voice across several decades. The evil robot Daleks are meant to be a terrifying threat, but even they look rather silly. Doctor Who continues to broaden its time travel antics and what it can tackle in a standard installment.
7
Buffy The Vampire Slayer
7 Seasons, 144 Episodes
Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a pivotal genre program that helped prove that monster-of-the-week series have a dedicated audience. Buffy initially mirrors the horrors of high school and the teenage experience of accepting the responsibility of becoming a prolific slayer of monsters. There’s a soft edge to some of Buffy’s scariest episodes, but the versatile nature of the series also naturally lends itself to comedic adventures and stylistic turns.
Buffy’s darker spin-off, Angel, even finds a way to do a puppet episode. Joss Whedon’s quippy style of dialogue has been under attack during the past decade, but there’s far more to Buffy the Vampire Slayer than self-aware writing and cute one-liners.
6
Supernatural
15 Seasons, 327 Episodes
Eric Kripke’s original plan for Supernatural was only supposed to last five seasons, but the iconic monster-of-the-week procedural series would produce more than 300 episodes across 15 seasons. So much of Supernatural’s success relies upon the effortless chemistry between Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles’ Sam and Dean Winchester as they fight monsters and heal old wounds.
Supernatural features no shortage of Gods, Devils, monsters, and everything in between, but it also knows when to embrace comedy in its genre stories. Every Supernatural episode contains hilarious dialogue, but some episodes are more interested in laughs than terror, like when the series crosses over with Scooby-Doo.
5
Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace
1 Season, 6 Episodes
Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace is a six-episode British comedy from 2004 that painfully recreates the shoddy aesthetics of a failed piece of lost media from the 1980s. Matthew Holness plays the titular Garth Marenghi, a Stephen King-esque writer whose endless horror contributions have been turned into a subpar TV show. Darkplace shows these “lost episodes,” which are intercut with “modern” interviews from Marenghi and the rest of the show’s staff.
It’s not easy to sell the artifice of a “bad production,” but Darkplace thrives in this silliness. Evil fog, hellgates, and extraterrestrial vegetables are all par for the course in the weird world of Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace.
4
Ghosts
2 Seasons, 40 Episodes (Ongoing)
Based on a British comedy of the same name, the American remake of Ghosts has established its own wailing voice and become one of CBS’ most popular modern sitcoms. Samantha and Jay’s excitement over their new dream home quickly dissipates after they learn it’s teeming with ghosts.
Ghosts gets a lot of mileage out of the peculiar poltergeists that haunt Sam and Jay’s house, both in terms of the morbid circumstances around their deaths and the specific ways in which they perturb the living. There’s also a real heart to Ghosts that helps it rise above cliches and use its extreme silliness to dig into something deeper.
3
Future Man
3 Seasons, 34 Episodes
Future Man is one of Hulu’s funniest sci-fi series, even if it came and went to very little fanfare. With a plot initially influenced by The Last Starfighter, an aimless janitor learns that he’s been selected to save the future from a vile extraterrestrial threat. Each season of Future Man breaks down different sci-fi and supernatural stereotypes with time travel, James Cameron, death games, and the concept of an afterlife all getting put in the show’s crosshairs.
Future Man succeeds because it treats science fiction with respect and learns its rules before recklessly mocking them. Josh Hutcherson, Eliza Coupe, and Derek Wilson give sufficiently hilarious performances in this heightened series.
2
3rd Rock From The Sun
6 Seasons, 139 Episodes
3rd Rock From the Sun was a groundbreaking NBC sitcom from 1996 to 2002 that followed a group of aliens who have been sent to Earth, under the guise of a family, to study the human race. A sitcom about aliens doesn’t seem that radical today, but it was a daring risk back in the ‘90s.
3rd Rock From the Sun tells the ultimate fish out of water story, and it’s genuinely touching to see the Solomon family learn to love Earth’s customs. This leads to some surprising storylines and some delightful guest appearances from established science fiction actors like William Shatner.
1
What We Do In The Shadows
4 Seasons, 40 Episodes (Ongoing)
What We Do in the Shadows is guaranteed to keep its audiences entertained with its supernatural silliness for at least two more seasons, with a fifth and sixth season renewal already confirmed. Expanding upon Taika Waititi’s rich vampire mockumentary, What We Do in the Shadows follows a group of ancient vampires who have taken up residence in Long Island.
The comedy has a lot to say about various vampire stereotypes, but it’s also broadened its perspective to include werewolves, witches, sirens, and more. Fearless writing that combines horror tropes with sitcom staples keeps What We Do in the Shadows consistent, but its phenomenal cast also perfectly embodies their roles.
Source: cbr.com