Buddy Comedy

2006 · 8 Seasons · USA Network · Comedy, Crime, Mystery

Psych is one of the most purely enjoyable shows of its era, a comedy mystery that never takes itself too seriously and benefits enormously from the comedic chemistry between James Roday Rodriguez and Dule Hill. The cases are entertaining puzzles, the pop culture references are relentless, and the show's commitment to fun over prestige makes it endlessly rewatchable. It occasionally loses focus during weaker stretches in the middle seasons, but the character relationships and comedic energy carry it through eight seasons of television that feels like hanging out with your funniest friends.

2010 · 1 Season · FX · Crime Drama, Comedy-Drama

Terriers is one of the best single seasons of television ever produced, a sun-bleached neo-noir about two unlicensed private investigators in Ocean Beach, California, that combined sharp mystery plotting with a buddy comedy chemistry rarely seen on screen. Donal Logue and Michael Raymond-James gave career-best performances as Hank and Britt, and Ted Griffin's writing threaded an ambitious season-long conspiracy through episodic cases without ever losing sight of the characters at its center. FX barely promoted it, the name told potential viewers nothing about the show, and it was cancelled after 13 episodes. Its final scene is one of the great endings in television, and the series that precedes it earns every second of that moment.

2002 · Chris Wedge · 81 min · Animation / Comedy

Ice Age sent a grumpy mammoth, a motormouth sloth, and a conflicted saber-tooth across a freezing world to return a human baby, and built one of animation's most durable franchises on the trip, plus a squirrel. Scrat's acorn obsession became instant slapstick canon, the central trio's bickering warmth still lands, and the finale earns its lump in the throat honestly. The early CG shows its age, the plot is a straight line, and the sequels spent the goodwill down over a decade. Judged as the 2002 original alone, it remains a warm, funny, compact family movie that knew exactly what it was doing.