‘New Girl’ And 4 Other Underrated Hangout Comedies

New Girl is one of a kind in that it's one of the last, long-running hangout comedies. It is all too rare for any show, let alone one of its kind, to last for seven seasons. Not to mention, that seventh season was created with the intention of being the final one, wrapping up the characters’ stories after all that time. That just doesn’t happen anymore, which is such a shame because I’d argue that New Girl finally figured out its voice by Seasons 3 and 4. It’s not until then that Winston (Lamorne Morris) starts to become the version of the character that gets really weird (in the best way) when he does puzzles or adopts a cat named Ferguson. 

New Girl follows Jessica Day (Zooey Deschanel), who moves into the loft with three male roommates, Nick (Jake Johnson), Schmidt (Max Greenfield), and Coach (Damon Wayans Jr.), after experiencing a breakup. Winston moves in when Coach moves out, and there is a brief time when all five characters live in the loft at the same time, going against the building’s code. Hannah Simone also stars as Jess’s best friend, Cece. It’s that core group that would create some of the best romances (Nick & Jess! Cece & Schmidt!) and friendships (Nick & Schmidt! Cece & Winston!). New Girl always pushed itself, and it will always be my favorite TV show.

I loved Happy Endings for its unique premise—a close-knit friend group is rocked when Alex (Elisha Cuthbert) leaves Dave (Zachary Knighton) at the altar. From there, the friends, which also includes Jane (Eliza Coupe) and her husband Brad (Damon Wayans Jr.), Penny (Casey Wilson), and Max (Adam Pally), try to figure out how to move forward after such a big life change. Where a lot of hangout comedies take place in New York City, like How I Met Your Mother, this one is set in Chicago. Ultimately, Happy Endings works because I believe in all the friendships between the core six well before the end of the first season.

Sometimes, hangout comedies can rely on certain pairings—romantic or platonic—that work best. So, by the end of the show, there are weaker threads among an ensemble that could have been explored. That’s not the case with Happy Endings, which ABC canceled after three seasons. It never got a finale season or a proper season finale, but that’s not a reason to ignore this underrated gem. Even without those bows on this comedy, Happy Endings is a feel-good, satisfying watch because it knows that friendships are what count the most. I’d bet that you won’t be able to walk away from this show after Season 1, Episode 7, “Dave of the Dead.” I’m a sucker for Halloween-themed sitcom episodes, and this one does not disappoint. 

I grew up watching Leighton Meester in Gossip Girl (2007) and Taran Killam in Stuck in the Suburbs (2004) before finding Saturday Night Live (1975). If you had told me that I’d be rooting for their characters—Angie and Will, respectively—to get together in Single Parents, I wouldn’t believe you. It’s so unfortunate that when Angie and Will finally complete the friends-to-lovers trope, it’s at what will become the end of the show. That’s indicative of the show not getting the time it deserved. The ABC comedy from New Girl creator Liz Meriwether and writer J.J. Philbin only ran for two seasons, but it left such a sweet spot on TV that hasn’t really been filled since. 

Single Parents followed a group of the titular characters and their children as they became a found family and village for one another. They start on rockier ground in the first season, but by the second (and final) season, the cast’s chemistry is exactly what a good hangout comedy needs to thrive. I wish this show had more time to prove itself. It was an incredibly endearing show with laugh-out-loud scenes. Many of both came from the younger cast, too. The kids, like Devin Trey Campbell and Ella & Mia Allan, kept up with Brad Garrett, Kimrie Lewis, and Jake Choi. It feels like Single Parents would have found a larger audience to carry it to more seasons if it had aired a little later, on the same night as Abbott Elementary (2021), for example. 

Crashing is a comedy from Phoebe Waller-Bridge that I regretably only found after falling for Fleabag (2016). It’s one, rather perfect season of a hangout comedy where six characters live together in an abandoned London hospital. It’s a go-to show for me to throw on when I’m with a friend, and we can’t decide on what to watch. Bridgerton (2020) fans will want to check this one out just to see how incredible Jonathan Bailey is as Sam, who falls for another flatmate, Fred. 

There’s also the bizarre yet endearing connection between the artist Melody, who paints the pain of Colin, a man going through a divorce. So, you may come to Crashing as a Phoebe Waller-Bridge fan, like I did, or as someone who wants to see Jonathan Bailey shine in yet another role. But you will walk away from this show with an appreciation for the core ensemble of vulnerable and wonderfully weird characters that grow to really appreciate one another.

FX’s Adults is one of those shows that I’m practically begging everyone in my life to watch before Season 2 comes out. Like Crashing had six episodes, the first season of Adults is shorter—only eight, thirty-ish minute episodes. It is a bingeable series that will have you howling with laughter. I’m convinced that Season 1, Episode 3, “How You See This Man?” is one of the best episodes of TV from last year. I have rewatched it so many times! It’s also when Adults settles into itself.

It fills the void of hangout comedies left behind by all the other shows on this list and gives the TV subgenre a twist by viewing it through a Gen Z lens. For that reason, it often finds comparisons to Overcompensating (2025), which was released at the same time. However, Overcompensating, which is great in its own right, has more of a millennial sense of humor. The core group—Anton (Owen Thiele), Paul Baker (Jack Innanen), Issa (Amita Rao), Billie (Lucy Freyer), and Samir (Malik Elassal)—have the chemistry needed to sustain this show. The friendships and romances among the five characters are as great as the wild situations the characters get into.