20 Best TV Comedy Shows Of The 21st Century
8. Malcolm In The Middle
An earlier millennium masterpiece, the dark laughs of Malcolm in the Middle have since been supplanted in the minds of many viewers by the more blatantly boundary pushing likes of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. But every subversive sitcom since 2000 owes a debt to this uncompromisingly mean-spirited look into the lives of a deeply dysfunctional working class family just trying to get by in small town America.
The polar opposite of Modern Family’s saccharine golden moments and more raucous than Arrested Development’s clever (de-)constructions, this anarchic classic pushed what audiences were able to laugh at and accept from characters we still ultimately hoped would beat the system and win their happy ending, as epitomised by the show’s brilliant, surprisingly moving closing moments.