Television series

Broad City

Broad City is five seasons of unfiltered chaos, following Abbi and Ilana as they stumble through terrible jobs, weed, sex, and subway indignities across New York City. It's silly and filthy, but surprisingly tender underneath the gross-out gags — a love letter to female friendship that never asks anyone to grow up too fast. Watch it for the anarchic energy and the belief that no bad day is too small to turn into an adventure.

TVMaze rating8.0

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Insecure2016

Issa Rae's HBO series swaps the stoner chaos for something quieter but just as true — two best friends fumbling through careers, relationships, and their own worst instincts, staying loyal to each other the whole way.

But It's slower and more emotionally grounded — if you want wall-to-wall jokes rather than drama with laughs, it may feel too measured.

Insecure poster

PEN152019

Two grown women play their own thirteen-year-old selves in this gloriously cringe-inducing throwback, and the friendship at its centre has the same fierce, ride-or-die devotion Abbi and Ilana share — just braces-era.

But Middle school humiliation comedy is a specific flavour — if you'd rather never think about seventh grade again, steer clear.

PEN15 poster

Girls2012

Lena Dunham's messier, more self-serious cousin to Broad City — same borough, same broke twenty-somethings, but with sharper elbows and more heartbreak mixed into the laughs.

But The characters are deliberately insufferable at times, and the show asks you to sit with that discomfort rather than laugh it off.

Girls poster

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Thelma & Louise1991

Same core relationship — two women who trust each other completely and would rather burn the world down than be split up. Broad City plays that friendship for comedy; this is what happens when the stakes turn deadly serious.

Two women hit the road and everything goes catastrophically, gloriously wrong — proof that a female friendship story can carry real stakes, real rage, and real tragedy.

But It's a crime drama with a genuinely bleak ending — nothing about it is played for laughs, so temper your expectations hard.

Thelma & Louise poster
More like this (7)

High Maintenance2016

An anthology built around a nameless weed delivery guy who drifts through New York lives — the same shaggy, generous curiosity about the city's oddballs that made Broad City sing, just gentler.

But There's no central duo to latch onto — it's episodic and low-stakes, which can feel slight if you want a throughline.

High Maintenance poster

Difficult People2015no page yet

Billy Eichner and Julie Klausner play a viciously funny, deeply loyal comedy duo tearing through New York's cultural scene — pettier and more savage than Abbi and Ilana, but cut from the same cloth.

But The characters are meaner and more cynical — if you loved the warmth underneath Broad City's chaos, this one runs colder.

Workaholics2011no page yet

Swap the NYC hustle for suburban slacker energy — three idiot best friends getting stoned and ruining their own lives with the same gleeful commitment to bad decisions.

But It's broader, dumber, and less interested in emotional depth — pure id, with none of Broad City's tender undercurrent.

Search Party2016

Starts as a millennial hangout comedy about aimless Brooklyn friends, then swerves hard into mystery and dark comedy — the same generational voice, wildly different destination.

But The tonal whiplash is the whole point, but it might frustrate you if you came for pure comedy and stayed for something stranger.

Search Party poster

The Other Two2019no page yet

A sharp, very New York comedy about two adult siblings watching their little brother become a pop star, with the same eye for industry absurdity and city-specific humiliation.

But The showbiz satire aims at a different target than Broad City's street-level chaos — less about friendship, more about ambition and envy.

Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens2020no page yet

A scrappy, foul-mouthed slacker comedy about a broke twenty-something drifting through Queens with her family and friends — smaller-scale, but the same don't-have-it-together spirit.

But It leans more on family dynamics than friendship, and the jokes land more unevenly across its short run.

Frances Ha2013

Same aimless, broke-in-New-York, best-friend-shaped hole at its centre, but stripped of the weed and gross-out gags — the melancholy mirror image of the same story, played completely straight.

Greta Gerwig drifts through New York in gorgeous black and white, broke and adrift and clinging to a best friendship that's slowly changing shape — funny, but quietly aching in a way Broad City rarely allows itself.

But It's slower, more wistful, and shot like a French New Wave film — if you want jokes-per-minute, this isn't that.

Frances Ha poster

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