September's New Comedy Series, From Sharon Horgan's Youth to McConaughey's Brothers
Last month brought new sitcoms on HBO, Apple TV and Paramount+, plus a few returning favorites. Here's what's worth the catching up.
By the Heckle Desk · · 1 min read
September is when television comes back from summer like a kid back from camp: a little sunburned, full of new ideas, and determined to tell you all of them at once. This year it came back with a fair number of comedies, which is a nice change from the years when it came back with forty police shows and one man doing card tricks.
We already covered last month's stand-up specials. This is the other half: the series. Here's what premiered, according to the TV Guide fall schedule, with a word on each.
- 01
Youth (HBO, premiered Sept. 20)
Sharon Horgan plays a 50-year-old divorcée trying to date again while looking after her parents and pushing her grown son out of the nest. Horgan made Catastrophe and Bad Sisters, so she knows how to make misery funny. It's a show about middle age, which is the age when you finally know what you want and can no longer stay up to get it.
- 02
Brothers (Apple TV, premiered Sept. 23)
Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson play made-up versions of themselves who move in together with their families and find out they might be actual brothers. The two have publicly wondered about this for years, so it's either a sitcom or a very expensive DNA test.
- 03
The Varnell Hill Show (Paramount+, premiered Sept. 1)
A spin-off of Martin set behind the scenes of a long-running talk show, with Tommy Davidson and Martin Lawrence producing. A sitcom about a talk show is a nice idea at a time when a talk show itself is getting rare. Soon the only late-night hosts left will be fictional ones.
- 04
The Paper, Season 2 (Peacock, Sept. 9)
The Office spin-off came back for a second season about the staff of the Toledo Truth Teller, with Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Nuñez and Alex Edelman. A comedy about a struggling newspaper. I'll have to take their word that it's fiction.
- 05
Colin From Accounts, Season 3 (Paramount+, Sept. 10)
The final season of the Australian romantic comedy from Patrick Brammall and Harriet Dyer, all episodes at once. It's named after a dog, which is the correct way to name a show, and probably a child.