Matt has been writing for MovieWeb since 2021, specializing in horror, animation, and 80s and 90s films. He obtained his first degree in Media Writing from Greenwich University.
In relation to the course, Matthew spent some time writing as an intern for music and lifestyle magazine Guestlist.
Matthew also has a Masters degree in Marketing and has worked several PR jobs where writing duties included creating press releases, quotes and byline-articles.
Both comedy and drama have been integral parts of movies and television for as long as the mediums have existed, with each respective genre having produced some of the most memorable and iconic moments in entertainment history. Despite this proven track record, doing them both at the same time – and doing them well – is rare. The best dramedy series understand that the two genres share more in common than initially meets the eye. They needn’t be mutually exclusive and sometimes one exists because of the other.
Sometimes humor is used as a distraction from pain, other times it’s a response to it. Either way, these moments land harder because they’re rooted in genuine, relatable human emotions. We’re looking at those shows that perfectly combine drama and comedy and are certain to take viewers on a rollercoaster ride of emotions, from tears of joy to tears of sorrow, and everything in between.
6 ‘Shameless’ (2011 – 2021)
Culturally, Britain has a long tradition of using humor to tackle uncomfortable topics. Its use of self-deprecation and gallows humor as coping mechanisms translates perfectly into the dramedy genre and never has this been more evident than in Shameless. Originally a British comedy-drama series set in an impoverished area of the UK, the remake is an example of one of the few American adaptations that successfully captures the dry wit and emotional undertones of the British original.
Moving from England to South Side, Chicago, it revolves around the dysfunctional Gallagher family, with William H. Macy delivering a powerhouse performance as the family’s irresponsible, alcoholic patriarch. It tackles a plethora of serious real-world issues including addiction, child neglect, toxic relationships, poverty and depression, to name just a few. Despite this, it retains a strong sense of humor, using chaos, absurdity and razor-sharp dialogue to create one of the most emotional yet hilarious television shows of all time.
5 ‘Kevin Can F**K Himself!’ (2021 – 2022)
Kevin Can F**K Himself! is a criminally underrated show that subverts and skewers the harmful sitcom tropes audiences have grown all too accustomed to. Unlike other entries on this list, which aim to blend humor and emotion as organically and naturally as possible, Kevin Can F**K Himself! initially keeps the two genres deliberately separate, presenting its narrative through two distinct and contrasting styles.
There’s the typical sitcom style – brightly lit, laugh tracked and steeped in cheesy jokes and ‘comedic’ misogyny. Then there’s the emotional side, shot like a single-cam drama and wrought with emotion, told from the perspective of the long-suffering wife. Before long, these two opposing worlds come crashing together in shocking and violent ways. Acting as a no-holds barred critique of how toxic behavior is normalized in American comedy, it’s hilarious in its sharp satire of the sitcom genre but becomes emotionally devastating when the laughter is stripped away to expose loneliness, exasperation and quiet despair.
4 ‘Flowers’ (2016 – 2018)
The British sitcom Flowers uses surrealism, whimsy and absurdism to explore depression and suicidal ideation as it follows the Flowers family, consisting of depressed father and children’s author Maurice, his music teacher wife Deborah, and their two adult children. The humor is quirky and slightly off-kilter, built around long silences, awkward jokes and farcical situations as its characters desperately try to stay afloat as their world threatens to come crashing down around them. Offering one of the most brutally honest and unflinching explorations of depression ever seen on television, Flowers finds unexpected comedy in discomfort and restraint, delivering a unique brand of idiosyncratic humor that exists not to numb the pain, but to sit alongside it.
3 ‘Kidding’ (2018 – 2020)
While best known for his slapstick shenanigans and over-the-top comedy in movies like Dumb and Dumber, The Mask and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Jim Carrey is no stranger to more dramatic roles, proving he can effectively blend pathos, heart and humor in the likes of The Cable Guy, The Truman Show, and Man on The Moon. It’s rare, though, to see him exhibiting his natural knack for acting in the world of television since his meteoric rise to Hollywood superstardom. Since his breakthrough appearance on In Living Color, he’s made some memorable cameo appearances on shows like The Office and 30 Rock, but it wasn’t until 2018’s Kidding that Jim Carrey returned to take on a starring role in a TV series.
He plays a beloved children’s presenter named Mr. Pickles who struggles to maintain his cheery public persona after experiencing a tragic family loss. Blending absurd and whimsical humor with raw emotional drama, it explores loss, grief, mental health and the tension between personal and private pain in a way that’s simultaneously funny, surreal and heartbreaking.
2 ‘After Life’ (2019 – 2022)
After Life follows newspaper writer Tony Johnson, who feels like he has nothing to live for following the death of his wife. Deciding against suicide, he spends his days taking out his anger and grief on the world around him and those who inhabit it. Written and directed by Ricky Gervais, who also stars, the comedian balances his trademark dark, irreverent humor with a raw, deeply personal exploration of grief and depression. Rarely can a show elicit so much laughter and so many tears in such a short space of time, and it’s exactly what is needed to capture Tony’s messy and contradictory emotional state.
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It can be rude, crude, uncomfortable and completely uncompromising, and it’s an emotional rollercoaster from start to finish – just as life so often is. The show was a hit with critics and audiences alike and demonstrated growth and maturity from Gervais as he delivered one of the most laugh-out-loud funny yet emotionally devastating dramedy shows of all time.
1 ‘BoJack Horseman’ (2014 – 2020)
Dark humor has also become commonplace in adult animated shows like American Dad, South Park, and Family Guy, but the humor in BoJack Horseman leans more toward dark satire, existential wit, and character-driven irony, whereas the aforementioned rely more heavily on cutaway gags, shock value, and broader social parody.
The humor is still there in abundance – there’s the visual gags and absurd surrealism, farcical situations and sharp satire – but it’s delivered with such a biting edge that each joke feels just as chaotic and unpredictable as the world they exist in and the characters that populate it. As a result, BoJack Horseman is darker in many ways, delving deeply into themes like depression, addiction, trauma, and the emptiness of fame, giving its comedy a haunting, bittersweet edge that most mainstream animated sitcoms rarely explore.
