As we reluctantly accept that summer is over and midterm season is upon us, we could all do with some light-hearted TV to escape from all the studying. Maybe you’ve already finished bingeing The Office for the third time though, and you’re still waiting on the premiere date for the new season of Brooklyn 99. Never fear, for there’s a whole world of quality Canadian comedies to carry you through these trying times.

Kim’s Convenience

Revolving around the Korean-Canadian Kim family running a convenience store in downtown Toronto, the multi-award-winning Kim’s Convenience is a guaranteed crowd-pleaser. Paul Sun-Hyung Lee and Jean Yoon (an Innis alumna!) reprise their roles as Appa and Umma (Dad and Mom) from the original play that the show is based on. They play parents to their estranged son Jung (Simu Liu) and daughter Janet (Andrea Bang). The show interweaves family dynamics with plotlines centred around work and school. Though it follows a familiar family sitcom structure, the humour itself is fresh and relevant. 

Whether you can finally relate to the second generation immigrant experience being shown on screen, or simply to the ups and downs of studying and working in downtown Toronto, Kim’s Convenience is sure to bring some laughs during those gloomy fall evenings.

Standout feature: From the customers who visit the store to Jung’s colleagues at Handy Car Rental to Janet’s classmates at OCAD, I can say that I have never seen a show that reflects the multicultural diversity of Toronto as honestly as this one does.

Schitt’s Creek

This Emmy-nominated show has a simple but effective premise: the uber-rich Rose family headed by video store magnate Johnny Rose (Eugene Levy) and Moira Rose (Catherine O’Hara) lose all their money and are forced to move with their grown kids David (Dan Levy) and Alexis (Annie Murphy) to the small town of Schitt’s Creek that they once bought as a joke. Naturally, the adjustment to small-town life after travelling among multi-millionaire socialite circles is not an easy transition. Accordingly, much of the humour in the initial episodes stems from the extravagance that is the Rose family wardrobe as well as the absurd inability to relate to their conversations (Moira’s unplaceable yet posh accent and unorthodox pronunciations are scene-stealers, as are Alexis’s name-drops à la Tahani Al-Jamil from The Good Place.) 

Schitt’s Creek quickly moves on from common tropes of the rags-to-riches (or in this case, riches-to-rags) genre, however. It draws you in with its intensely relatable, cynical millennial sense of humour while also showcasing an environment of unconditional love and acceptance. Set in a town whose motto is “Where everyone fits in,” the magic of Schitt’s Creek lies in its series-long character arcs and heart-warming emotional moments, all of which occur without ever losing its biting humour.

Standout feature: The show is perhaps best known for its positive portrayal of queer characters and relationships. Co-creator and showrunner Dan Levy has frequently stated that he made the decision early on that the town of Schitt’s Creek would be a sort of utopia where homophobia was simply not given a chance to exist, and this decision has given the show a freedom to explore queer relationships alongside straight relationships in an unrestrained and fulfilling way.

Baroness von Sketch Show and TallBoyz

Sketch-comedy shows featuring an all-female and all-male cast respectively, Baroness von Sketch Show (Meredith MacNeill, Jennifer Whalen, Aurora Browne, Carolyn Taylor) and TallBoyz (Guled Abdi, Tim Blair, Vance Banzo, Franco Nguyen) are pushing the boundaries on Canadian comedy and comedy in general. 

Baroness von Sketch Show skits tend to revolve around observational humour about the workplace, relationships, and social trends, but it also has its fair share of absurdist humour. Its strength lies in its brutally honest and refreshing takes on gender and sexuality. 

TallBoyz draws from the diverse ethnic backgrounds of its cast members for its subversive skits surrounding race and discrimination (an Indigenous-themed reality show and a PSA about race that proves to have different motivations are particular highlights). It also packs a lot of heart into some of its sillier sketches that upend toxic masculinity. 

The jokes in both shows range across the spectrum from absurd to satirical to poignant—there’s something here for everyone. Standout feature: You know that thrill you get when you watch a movie and realize that that building in the background kind of looks like Convocation Hall? Now you can experience that fun feeling of recognition all the time—both Baroness von Sketch Show and TallBoyz are firmly rooted in Toronto, and familiar localities appear in every episode. Our subway system is particularly easy to spot in multiple sketches (and central to the plot of some).