Humor is highly subjective, personal and often generational. But glancing back over the new comedy series introduced in 2021, distinctive themes emerge. The best of the lot featured newcomers, often from underrepresented corners of society. The worst new sitcoms had well-known stars taking one more ride at the celebrity rodeo.
Streaming accounts for both trends. The emergence of new outlets allows for experimentation. At the same time, the hunger for material can result in some very subpar “product.”
A tale of ethnic outcasts in a sunny South Dakota high school, Hulu’s comedy movie “Plan B” simultaneously is charming and simmering with feminist rage. Sunny (Kuhoo Verma) is the stereotypically studious Indian girl. Her friend, Lupe (Victoria Moroles), likes to shock the boys with her punk antics. Shenanigans ensue after Sunny loses her virginity in the least romantic sex scene ever depicted and both embark on a statewide search for a pharmacy selling the morning-after pill.
“B” was released in May, only days before “We Are Lady Parts” on Peacock. This U.K. import follows Muslim high school girls from a very unfashionable London neighborhood who form an audacious punk band. The comedy explores the many-layered culture of Muslims in the West, from sophisticated secular parents to black-clad extremists. The Lady Parts’ sullen manager doesn’t speak; she merely chain-smokes beneath her burqa. Their songs take real joy in shocking most sensibilities, particularly their own. “Ain’t No One Gonna Honor Kill My Sister But Me” is a title you don’t soon forget.
Equally sardonic and decidedly low-key, “Reservation Dogs” follows crazy, mixed-up teens on an Oklahoma Indian reservation who pattern their clothes and attitudes on director Quentin Tarantino’s 1993 heist film “Reservoir Dogs” as they commit petty crimes against their neighbors and mourn a friend lost to some nameless accident. Filled with goofball pranks as well as a sense of longing and loss, this unique comedy is the first TV series written, acted, scripted and made by indigenous Americans and the first produced entirely in Oklahoma.
“Timewasters” from the Amazon-owned IMDb TV, followed members of a nerdy jazz band from a London ghetto neighborhood who happen upon a time machine in a broken housing project elevator and end up playing for a bunch of 1920s “toffs” right out of “Downton Abbey.”
Honorable mentions go to Peacock’s “Girls5Eva” and HBO Max’s “Hacks.”
The weakest comedies include ABC’s “Call Your Mother,” starring Kyra Sedgwick (“The Closer”) as an empty-nester who meddles in her adult kids’ lives in all of the most predictable ways. Jamie Foxx’s Netflix series “Dad Stop Embarrassing Me!” was a vanity project with far too accurate a title. Ed Helms (“The Office”) starred as a clueless small-town booster in Peacock’s “Rutherford Falls,” a scattershot series that’s everything but funny. NBC’s “Young Rock” aged badly.
• It’s back to Tatooine as “The Book of Boba Fett” streams on Disney+. Few series need less introduction from critics as this “Star Wars” spinoff. Or is it a “Mandalorian” spinoff? It hardly matters.
• Richard Gere narrates “Earth Emergency” (7 p.m., PBS, TV-PG, check local listings) examining rising temperatures and the galloping effects of climate change as well as ways that both nations and individuals can act to ensure natural and human survival. It’s a fitting companion to “Climate Change: The Facts” (9 p.m., PBS, r, TV-PG, check local listings), narrated by David Attenborough.
TONIGHT’S OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
• “The Price Is Right Celebrates 50 Years” (7 p.m., CBS, r, TV-PG) salutes Bob Barker.
• A lupus patient can’t be believed on “Chicago Med” (7 p.m., NBC, r, TV-14).
• “Gordon Ramsay’s Road Trip” (7 p.m., Fox, r, TV-14) makes pit stops for European cuisine.
• A viral video puts Casey in the spotlight on “Chicago Fire” (8 p.m., NBC, r, TV-14).
• An informant’s killer may be too close for comfort on “Chicago P.D.” (9 p.m., NBC, r, TV-14).
CULT CHOICE
A middle-aged law professor’s (Fritz Weaver, “Holocaust”) wife (Ingrid Bergman, “Casablanca”) leaves him for a mountain man (Anthony Quinn, “Zorba the Greek”) in the 1970 melodrama “A Walk in the Spring Rain” (9:15 p.m., TCM, TV-PG).
SERIES NOTES
Six consecutive episodes of “The Wonder Years” (7 p.m., ABC, r, TV-PG) ... “Dogs of the Year 2021” (7 p.m., CW, r, TV-PG) ... “World’s Funniest Animals” (8 p.m., CW, r, TV-PG) ... Ex-cons seize a courthouse on “S.W.A.T.” (9 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14).
LATE NIGHT
Billy Porter and Annaleigh Ashford are booked on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” (10:35 p.m., CBS, r) ... Riz Ahmed, Nicole Byer and Norah Jones appear on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” (10:35 p.m., ABC, r) ... Jimmy Fallon welcomes Ariana Grande, Adrien Brody, and Blxst and Ty Dolla $ign on “The Tonight Show” (10:34 p.m., NBC, r) ... Javier Bardem, Kimberly Williams-Paisley and Ashley Williams visit “Late Night With Seth Meyers” (11:37 p.m. NBC, r) ... Expect Andie MacDowell, Rudi Dharmalingam and Calum Scott on “The Late Late Show with James Corden” (11:37 p.m., CBS, r).