I Can't Keep Doing Hour-Long Dramatic Episodes — Bring Back The Sitcoms

Even with an extremely wide variety of shows to watch and streaming platforms to subscribe to, I’m delighted that there are still some shows every single person watches. A quick chat with friends will have everyone shouting about the latest episode of The Pitt, or telling you that you just have to watch Last of Us, or literally crying as they describe episodes of Dying for Sex. I love that entertainment has continued to be this group project for all of us, that we can always find someone to talk to about whatever HBO drama we’re watching or the dark MCU installment streaming on Disney+.

But, y’all. I’m going to need this kind of group effort to come back for sitcoms.

At any time, my husband and I are watching three or four shows at a time. And when we put our three daughters to bed each night, we meet together on the couch, remote and enormous water jugs in hand as we try to both hydrate and catch up on television after a long day of work and parenting. But lately, I find myself too exhausted to keep going with even the best shows on television. When your choices are watching a bunch of siblings nearly kill each other for Daddy’s love (Succession), a blind lawyer losing everyone he loves as he tries to save his city from corruption (Daredevil), or a bunch of entitled people descend into darkness at an expensive resort (White Lotus), it can get to be a bit too much. I can only watch characters I love get knocked off their ass a few times before I’m completely overwhelmed with their fictional life.

And that’s when I have to dip back into my sitcoms.

The problem is, sitcoms are lacking these days. We have some absolute gems out there — Abbott Elementary, St. Denis Medical, Ghosts — but they are completely overshadowed by hour-long dramas where I have to turn off every light in the house so I can see what’s happening. (I’m begging you, production companies. Get more lighting editors.) Nobody wants a slow-burning love story to last seasons anymore; nobody seems to be willing to engage with a zany bunch of nurses for just 27 minutes of joy before bedtime.

But I can not subject myself to the dark and twisted and deeply upsetting hour-long episodes of dramatic television every single day. I’m drowning. I dream of Wilson Fisk. I look at my husband and picture Michelle Williams with her oxygen tubes and am suddenly worried I’m not sleeping with him enough. The very thought of Pedro Pascal running through a dystopian, monster-filled world makes me want to hide under the covers with nothing but my phone and Friends streaming 24/7.

Also, how are we all staying up this late? Are you factoring in time for doom-scrolling? Do you allow yourself to go horizontal for a full 60 minutes of television? What time are you starting these episodes?

I simply can’t. I have a 3-year-old for an alarm, and she will not care if I was up until midnight watching Adolescence through my fingers. Jim Halpert would never do this to me.

Bring back sitcoms. Bring back joy. Bring back characters that don’t want to kill each other. Characters that aren’t dying. Characters that aren’t in constant fight-or-flight mode. Characters that are flawed in easily acceptable ways that make you laugh — Ha, ha! Such a silly person! — and not question all of humanity and leave you reeling for hours after the credits run.

Please. There’s enough horror in the world. Let some of us live inside the hallowed walls of Abbott Elementary for a little bit longer.