Feel Good Shows to Binge This Summer

There’s nothing like a charming, quirky, and lovable television show. When you need a pick-me-up or a half hour spent with genuinely lovely characters, nothing beats a feel-good series. And last year, the show that really fit that bill was the exquisite Ted Lasso (which returns for its second season on AppleTV+ on July 23 – look out for my review in a few weeks). If you haven’t watched that gem of a series, get on that immediately. But if you have and are looking for some more fun – but not biting – series to fall in love with, here are a couple of older recommendations – shows that likely would have hit the zeitgeist hard if they were coming out now, but that just didn’t quite catch on in their original runs.

Pushing Daises (HBO Max)

From the brilliant mind of Bryan Fuller (yes, the creator of Hannibal also came up with a whimsical series like this one, as well as the great Dead Like Me and the quirky, but very short-lived Wonderfalls), Pushing Daisies tells the story of Ned (Lee Pace, playing a true romantic lead), a pie maker with a gift – he can touch any dead thing and bring it back to life. However, as with most mystical gifts, there’s a curse as well – if he touches that thing a second time, it dies for good. He’s managed to use his gift in a side gig helping out local PI Emerson Cod (the great Chi McBride) solving murders. All he has to do is touch the deceased, ask who killed them, then touch them a second time. No harm, no foul, and they get justice. Only, one day, the deceased is his childhood crush Charlotte “Chuck” Charles (the exceptional Anna Friel), and Ned can’t bring himself to touch her a second time. And that sets us off on our journey.

Pushing Daisies is unique in that it provides a mystery of the week (there are a shockingly large amount of crime in this small city), combined with the serialized story of Chuck’s continued survival – and Ned and Chuck’s growing relationship. It’s hard to classify the series under a single heading, but it’s a whimsical comedy, filled with gorgeous colors, stunning set-design, quirky characters, and wonderful writing. The cast is top notch (in addition to Pace, McBride, and Friel, Kristen Chenoweth is Olive, a waitress with an unrequited crush on Ned, Swoosie Kurtz and Ellen Greene play Chuck’s agoraphobic aunts, and the great Jim Dale provides the voice over – yes, the series comes complete with voice over narration). It’s impossible not to root for Chuck and Ned to find a way to get together, to hope Olive can find love and a life outside of the Pie Hole, and that Chuck’s aunts are able to accept that their niece has indeed returned and is safe. You will fall in love with these characters and their stories and will be swept away by the warmth of the show. While it only aired for two seasons, there is a true ending to the tale (Fuller could see the writing on the wall and made sure to tie up the series as best he could). Give it a go – you won’t be disappointed.

Lodge 49 (Hulu)

Lodge 49 is a relatively recent series, airing two seasons on AMC from 2018-2019, but it simply got lost in the Peak TV shuffle. I missed out on this one in its initial airing (despite being told by a number of TV critics that it was charming, lovely, and worth my time – it is all of those things, I promise), but caught up during the pandemic on its current streaming home, Hulu. So, what is Lodge 49? Well, it’s not super easy to explain (which might help explain why it failed to find an audience in its original run – if you can’t create a quick soundbite explaining a show, it can be hard to market it to the masses), but the gist is this: Dud (Wyatt Russell, who you will recognize from his recent turn on The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, absolutely crushing the part), is a down on his luck ex-surfer in Long Beach, CA, who stumbles upon a ring for the Fraternal Order of the Lynx (think something like the Elks, but with a more mystical history) and ends up joining the brotherhood (well, personhood, since they allow female members) at Lodge 49. Dud’s appearance throws the Lodge into a tizzy, sending some members on a quest to discover mystical lost secrets of the Lynx, while others slowly start to change their worldview through their growing friendship with Dud.

But the key throughout the series is Dud and how he positively impacts those who come into his orbit. With a tragic backstory – and a history of screwing up and needing to be bailed out by his more even keeled sister, Liz (Sonya Cassidy, who has the best American accent I’ve heard on screen, and who serves as a solid, audience surrogate for much of the story) – Dud sparks something in each of the series’ supporting characters, bringing hope, love, light, and familial bonds to those who didn’t have them at the series’ outset. And he isn’t just a happy-go-lucky character. No, there’s great nuance in his development. This isn’t a clown meant to make us laugh, it’s a multi-faceted young man who hasn’t lost his joie de vivre even though he’s been thrown a series of nasty curve balls. You want to root for him to succeed and find his family – and you root for him to inspire the rest of the Lynx family to realize the love and joy they have with each other.

Very few shows can walk the delicate line of dramedy while still being uplifting and sparking joy. Lodge 49 is one of those shows. Amongst the upbeat optimistic energy expended by Dud, there’s a deep sadness that doesn’t simply lift automatically. The characters have to work to achieve their successes, they have to grow to experience all that this world has to offer them, and they have to start believing – in their found family and in themselves – to find the joy that was present in their lives all along. And, after the past year, watching a seemingly disparate group of people find a joy for life in their friendships is a really great balm against the despair and pain we’ve all been feeling.

One Day at a Time (Netflix (seasons 1-3); Paramount+ (season 4)

I’ll be perfectly honest: When I heard Netflix was rebooting the Norman Lear sitcom One Day at a Time, I didn’t think it was going to be worth my time. Boy, how wrong I was. The series, which follows single mom, nurse, and Army vet Penelope Alvarez (the wonderful Justina Machado, who proves she can anchor a series and should be a go-to leading lady in the future) as she tries to juggle her professional life while raising two teenagers (Isabella Gomez as Elena, a queer feminist who shines in both comedy and drama, and Marcel Ruiz as Alex, a total pro despite being so young) and caring for her widowed mom (Rita Moreno, who gets to sing, dance, and steal every scene she’s in). On the surface, it feels like a traditional multi-cam sitcom, but this one comes with a side of Lear’s patented ability to address social and political issues that impact not only its characters but also the audience’s lives, and as such, it turns out to be so much more than just a sitcom.

Never “preachy,” but always smart and funny (it’s shockingly hard to pull off both of those elements, so kudos to co-showrunners Gloria Calderon Kellet and Mike Royce – and their writing staff – for finding the perfect balance), One Day at a Time was something truly special in a TV landscape that has all but move away from the multi-cam sitcom format. Yes, it’s final season was a bit choppy due to the onset of Covid-19 truncating its episode count – and it makes its premature cancellation all the more painful, as the series didn’t get a chance to really wrap things up the way they deserved to – but the 46 episodes we do have are excellent and absolutely worth a watch. And, while the other series on the list can be watched with younger members of your family, One Day at a Time is a true family sitcom – this is a show made for everyone in your life, and much like those of us old enough to remember sitting down with our whole families and watching a show together, it’s best experienced together. There’s plenty of complex and interesting conversation that can be sparked by its storylines – sandwiched between a host of laughs – and it hearkens back to the classic days of great, compelling television sitcoms.