4) Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
A bit of an amalgamation of Broad City‘s nutty New York City and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend‘s trauma-as-comedy-device, Netflix’s Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt succeeds over those for two simple reasons: Tina Fey and Robert Carlock. Filtering their unending genius through the crackling duo of Ellie Kemper and Tituss Burgess, the show’s true bravura stunt is that it mined potentially offensive and nauseatingly sappy material into something that felt cutting, smart, and oddly euphoric in a year where tragedy struck all too often and moving past it felt impossible for those it touched.
The 30 Rock co-creators worked on a high-wire line of joke-after-joke rapid-fire humor for so much of Kimmy Schmidt‘s run that is became near exhausting by the end of the 13-episode first season. It’s easier to forgive the show’s weak final episodes, though (sorry Jon Hamm!), because of the ten that preceded them.
Full of memorable characters, brilliantly oddball humor, and so many instantly quotable moments that you can probably create a gif story of the entire season if you search hard enough, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt found its perfect home on Netflix’s binge-happy platform. Troll the respawn, Jeremy.