20-30 Minute Show Suggestions

Alright, folks.

I just finished The Man in the High Castle last night and am in the mood to continue to entertain myself with the visual medium know as "television". I generally don't enjoy watching the 50-60 minute episodic series as, for whatever reason, I feel overwhelmed with investing an hour at a crack over the course of six or seven seasons. For this reason I tend to lean towards the 20-30 minute shows. I just feel like they are more bite sized and easier to casually view. I really like having one playing while I'm working out whether it's lifting or on the mill of death.

So, the question is what are some 20-30 minute shows that I could try and get into? For reference I have Netflix and Amazon Prime Video at my disposal and would like to stay within those realms.

Well, most shows that length I know of are comedies, if that's alright.

My favorites that I continually come back to in the world of half hour comedies on Netflix are The Office, Parks and Rec and Arrested Development. I also love Nathan for You, but I'm not sure that it's on either Amazon or Netflix, but it is on Hulu.

Also, how was Man in the High Castle? I've been meaning to watch it.

I just finished watching all of Community and thought it was fantastic for the most part. I have been meaning to get to The Man in the High Castle for a while now.

You know, anime is usually 20-30 minutes...

'@freshlysquozen: yeah I realize most are comedies which is unfortunate... The Man in the High Castle is highly recommendable! I would say it's a little bit of a slow burn but if you enjoy dialogue and real great acting I would say give it a shot! Also, one of the most surprising season endings I've ever seen!

@bollard: yes... this I am aware....

I'm the same but with movies. I rarely feel like watching movies because they are so long. But I think 45m shows are fine.

Not sure what you have on Amazon but just listing some short 20-30m shows I like.

Big Bang Theory

2 Broke Girls

The Mindy Project

Please Like Me

Life's Too Short

Transparent is fantastic :) really beautiful shot show, well acted, and really meaningful characters and premise. Parks and Recreation is also really good! :D Bojack Horseman and Archer are good to. ^_^

This thread just reminds me that Parks and Rec, Community, 30 Rock, and The Office were all on one hilarious programming block Thursday nights. And the ratings were abysmal.

Why does everybody hate funny?

@oldenglishc: people would rather watch two & a half men and big bang theory unfortunately :( nothing against folks who do watch sitcoms like that, I just find them to generally be super unfunny.

I'm fine with watching comedy but I would love just a bite size show with substance. Maybe I just need to get over it and accept a 40 minute episode show.

As someone said, most shows this length are comedies, on netflix I recommend:

- That 70's Show

- Bojack Horseman

If you're into anime:

- Hunter x Hunter

- Avatar The Last Airbender

Also heard good things about:

- Rick and Morty

- The Ranch

King of the Hill is all you need.

Invader Zim is well worth your attention if you're into cartoons and absurdist humor.

I've been binge watching Tales From The Crypt again, myself. If you like a bit of horror comedy mixed with some legit horror, you can't go wrong with it. Holds up tremendously well. I don't think Prime or Netflix has it, but it's all on Youtube, and the DVDs are fairly cheap.

For that matter, anthology shows in general are perfect for (usually) half-hour doses that don't require following a larger plot and lend themselves to background viewing.

@tyn0mite: Outside of anime, pretty much everything you'll find is comedy. Have you seen Cowboy Bebop yet? There's a show with substance where the episodes are 25 minutes a piece.

You cou could also split an hour long show in half. Watch half now, half later.

@justin258: I have not maybe I should look into that

I was gonna suggested this as well. It's easy to brush this show off as just a anthology of cheap horror, but the show really does have substance with each (most) episodes. It's a fantastic series that I've been waiting ages to be remastered, like the Spawn series.

I will never not recommend It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. The entire thing is on Netflix and there is a lot of gold there among only a handful of stinkers.

Also, Ash vs. Evil Dead is incredible, and since it's all like 25 minutes episodes, each one moves at a such a rapid pace that something amazing is almost always happening.

@ghost_cat: Yeah, given that the stories are all adapted from 50s shock comics (which themselves were often taken shamelessly from other stories), it's impressive how much quality there is. Even the stinkers are at least entertaining. If I have any complaint, it's that too many episodes fall more under "crime" than "horror", but that's a fine line anyway.

I'm really excited about the rebooted series next year. Old-school anthologies have had a hard time making it lately, though, so I'm keeping that excitement in check. It'll either be terrible or be fantastic and last one season or less, with my luck.

Archer. I'm also watching some anime called Psycho-Pass which is basically if Philip K Dick was Japanese. As someone who doesn't like anime it's pretty good cause it's not got much of the hateful anime shit in it.

No one has mentioned Brooklyn Nine-Nine yet, and that show is my JAM! Obligatory amazing B99xGB intro video included.

I recently discovered Todd & The Book of Pure Evil and really like it. I don't think it's streaming anywhere though (and the 'illicit' links are all like 360p and the censored versions of all the episodes), so I think you'd have to buy the seasons digitally on something like Amazon Video Prime or iTunes.

Other than that, I'd recommend The Office to anybody.

I second B99

You know, the Norwegian teen drama Skam (Shame) is broadcast in 15-30 minute episodes and is huge here in Scandinavia and seems to be getting popular in the UK too now.

Ooh, good call. That show was excellent. Also reminded me of another two-season wonder in a similar vein: Reaper. I mean, Ray Wise playing Satan? You know that shit is quality.

@poveren: You now qualify as my best friend. Wanna hang?

The Mark Steele Lectures.

The Grinder is a comedy I just finished and is really good! Cancelled after 1 season, but it's all right there on Netflix.

Scrubs is one of my favorite shows ever and is available on Netflix. I believe the criminally underrated Bob's Burgers is on there as well. Workaholics was on Prime (not sure if it stil is) and it's pretty great. And I will also agree with everyone who said Archer.

@willza92:

I love me some Curb Your Enthusiasm. VEEP is pretty good. I've been chipping away ot The Comeback, Enlightened, and Flight of the Conchords.

Those are all on Amazon Video.

To get out of sitcom/comedy territory there's a new documentary series on Netflix called Tales By Light and it's real good, beautiful and runs at a cool 23 minutes. I would highly recommend it.

Most hour long shows are really just 46 minutes, not really too far off from your 20-30 min. Maybe if you kept in mind you were only investing 45 minutes for each episode you might feel better.

If you watch Netflix Originals those are typically only 10 -12 episodes pers season; so a dozen of those shows at 45 minutes each, isn't a huge amount of time.

I also recommend Banshee. It's simple and a lot of fun for an action show. The fight scenes are some of the best ever filmed.

Impractical Jokers has changed my life lol really funny show that makes time fly by (30 min episodes)

Terrace House on netflix is actual magic. It's kinda mundane and I can't exactly say I loved it but I couldn't stop watching. All 46 episodes went by in a flash. Try it out, shit is crazy!