5 To Watch: TV shows that prove the hangout comedy is still hanging in there

Who needs plot when you have great chemistry?

By A.V. Club Staff | September 27, 2025 | 8:00am

By Tim Lowery, Mary Kate Carr, Saloni Gajjar, Matt Schimkowitz, and Danette Chavez. Clockwise from top left: Somebody Somewhere (Photo: HBO), Vanderpump Rules (Photo: Bravo), Grand Crew (Photo: NBC), Shrinking (Photo: Apple TV+), Adults (Photo: FX)

TV Features 5 To Watch

5 To Watch: TV shows that prove the hangout comedy is still hanging in there

In 5 To Watch, five writers from The A.V. Club offer up recommendations inspired by a theme or a new streaming arrival. The reasons for their picks might differ, but they can all agree that each episode is a must-watch. In this installment: modern hangout shows.

A recent feature on the vanishing hangout show prompted discussion among The A.V. Club staff about the very concept of such a series. Some were unfamiliar with the term, while others have watched it wax and wane through the years (and streaming platforms). But, as you can see from our picks below, this scrappy subgenre is still hanging in there, waiting with a glass of wine (or a tini-tini) and some goodnatured ribbing, to remind you that plot is incidental when the cast chemistry is so good.

Adults, "Roast Chicken" (season one, episode six)

To me, a hangout show is low-stakes but well-made comfort TV. So as long as I enjoy spending time with the characters, I don’t worry about the setting or the believability factor. Who cares if a group of pals chill together at a coffee shop, diner, bar, apartment, or anywhere else a bit too much? I’m tuning in to escape my reality and live in theirs for those 20 or so minutes. Suspension of disbelief has been baked into this genre, as seen in everything from Seinfeld and Friends to How I Met Your Mother and New Girl and even newer hits like What We Do In The Shadows and Only Murders In The Building. Apparently, I have a lot of hangout favorites. But for this 5 To Watch, I chose this year’s Adults because it feels like a classic throwback that’s tailored for the current generation.

The FX series from Tonight Show writers Ben Kronengold and Rebecca Shaw features five twentysomething roommates who couldn’t be more different, but that’s what makes them a fun, inseparable crew. The ensemble’s chemistry makes it easy to buy into their shenanigans, as evidenced in season one’s sixth outing, “Roast Chicken.” When Billie (Lucy Freyer) decides to throw a grown-up dinner party, it’s partly to impress her older boyfriend and partly to prove to herself that she’s, well, an adult now. Of course, the whole evening fails spectacularly. Billie serves a cold, unthawed chicken, her love interest turns up high on ketamine, and an Ilana-from-Broad-City-inspired Issa (Amita Rao) frets over her boyfriend’s cool guest. Despite memorable appearances from Charlie Cox and Julia Fox, “Roast Chicken” reinforces the strength of the show’s main cast, which grows more confident as Adults goes on. [Saloni Gajjar]

Grand Crew, "Wine & Fire" (season one, episode three)

Nicole Byer, Grasier Mercedes, Aaron Jennings, and Carl Tart in Grand Crew (Photo: NBC) — Nicole Byer, Grasie Mercedes, Aaron Jennings, and Carl Tart in Grand Crew (Photo: NBC)

My definition of a hangout comedy doesn’t deviate from the established one: basically, a show where the setting and situations are in service of the ensemble’s chemistry. This recipe hasn’t been lost, even as media moguls keep breaking and reinventing broadcast and cable TV. But that environment is precisely what’s made the hangout show an endangered species. Hangout shows are usually comedies, and comedies often need more time to find their footing—and the opportunity to do so is increasingly rare in today’s TV industry.

Phil Augusta Jackson did his best to restore the hangout comedy to its place in NBC’s storied lineup with Grand Crew, a charming sitcom about a group of urbane friends who do just about everything together. It only took the show, which ran for two seasons from 2021 to 2023, three episodes to establish why viewers should spend time with its core group. After a couple of entries where the conviviality was a bit forced, season one’s “Wine & Fire” struck the right balance of camaraderie and hijinks. A fire in Griffith Park sends the head-in-the-clouds Noah (Echo Kellum), his grounded sister Nicky (Nicole Byer), their pals Anthony (Aaron Jennings) and Sherm (Carl Tart), and new addition Fay (Grasie Mercedes) to find refuge—and copious amounts of wine—at the home of Wyatt (Justin Cunningham) and his wife Kristen (Maya Lynne Robinson of The Unicorn, which beats Shrinking at its “grieving widower comedy turned hangout comedy” game). Characters, like the flighty Fay and ambitious Anthony, come into sharper focus, as does the dynamic between longtime couple Wyatt and Kristen, all while Nicky and Sherm display some classic single behavior. With notes of Happy Endings and Living Single, Grand Crew deserved another round. [Danette Chavez]

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Somebody Somewhere, "Knick-knacks And Doodads" (season one, episode two)

If the painfully obvious gist of a hangout show—and this is basically it for me—is that it needs to have folks hanging out a lot (as well as some very reliable banter and chemistry), then there’s a pretty solid argument that Somebody Somewhere fits that bill. Now, the HBO series, which wrapped up its wonderful three-season run in December, does go a lot deeper and darker than a typical hangout show. The premise of the series, besides, is Sam (Bridget Everett) adjusting to life back in her hometown after her sister’s death, and Somebody Somewhere regularly digs into loneliness, aging, alcoholism, breakups, and tragedy.

But there is also a lot of joy in this show, and as any fan knows, so much of that is because of its central love story of sorts: the platonic relationship between the cynical and sarcastic Sam and her ray-of-sunshine bestie Joel (recent Emmy winner Jeff Hiller). Creators Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen laid the groundwork for this reliably enjoyable friendship dynamic early on. In “Knick-knacks And Doodads,” the second episode of the series (which they co-wrote), we get to see this budding friendship in four hangout sessions: at a boozy brunch that’s organized by Fred (the great Murray Hill), in the lunch room at their drab office, at Joel’s house (where they get in a fight because Sam is being a dick about his vision board), and in his garage (where the two, in classic Somebody Somewhere fashion, make up and get silly and giggle while working out to “Dale Fuego“). And it was just a taste of the many bouts of laughter and tini-tinis to come. [Tim Lowery]

Shrinking, "In A Lonely Place" (season two, episode six)

I think a hangout show exists outside the workplace and the traditional family structure, wherein a group of friends (maybe a couple of whom are related but mostly not) link up in different combinations for shenanigans. And by that definition, Shrinking clearly wants to be a hangout show. In the second season, actual therapy (such as it is) was pushed even further to the side in favor of exploring the dynamics of this wacky cast of characters. Given that Jimmy’s (Jason Segel) version of therapy is kind of egregious and co-creator Bill Lawrence is great at hangout shows, it’s a natural progression. Rather than worry too much about the therapy clinic, Shrinking‘s sophomore round favors its found family grabbing grub at Sean’s (Luke Tennie) food truck, spending holidays together, and hiking in the middle of the day, full-time jobs be damned.

Take “In A Lonely Place,” which must unfold over a weekend, because why else would all these adults have time to hang out all the livelong day? It’s an episode that centers solely around the friend group. At this point, Sean has long stopped being a patient and has been welcomed into the gang, so it only makes sense for them all to visit him in the hospital together. (Sean’s drug-induced bullying is both charmingly funny and serves to underscore how close everyone has become.) His condition spurs a bonding mission for Jimmy and Paul (Harrison Ford), while other subplots pair up Gaby (Jessica Williams) with Liz (Christa Miller) and Alice (Lukita Maxwell) with Brian (Michael Urie).

Plus, there’s a hangout for morning champagne, wine drinking at inappropriate times of day, a goofy (if slightly dysfunctional) single-parent-child relationship, intra-friend group romantic affairs, and Christa Miller sharing a scene with Josh Hopkins. Bill Lawrence, we see what you’re doing. Why don’t you call up Courteney Cox and call the episode “Cougar Town” while you’re at it? That was one of the great hangout shows of the 2010s, after all. [Mary Kate Carr]

Vanderpump Rules, "Vegas With A Vengeance" (season one, episode four)

I have a theory that one reason comedies are struggling on television is Bravo. Instead of hanging out with the gang at Central Perk, modern audiences prefer the various friend groups available on reality TV. And, in the early 2010s, Bravo, aping The Real World and Jersey Shore, cast the Friends of reality television on Vanderpump Rules.

The show follows the aspiring actors slinging goat-cheese balls at the various West Hollywood restaurants of Real Housewives’ Lisa Vanderpump. However, Rules takes place primarily outside of work. The cast views their job as temporary, anyway, and spends their time hanging out in their beer-can-lined WeHo apartments. On their hand-me-down couches, plans are made, shit is talked, and alliances are forged. But, unlike the gaudy wealth porn of the Bravo-verse, the staff at SUR is recognizable enough for viewers to see themselves in them, pointing out who in their lives is the Kristen, Katie, or, god help them, Jax.

After several episodes distancing itself from its Real Housewives origins, the series came into its own in season one’s “Vegas With A Vengeance.” The gang heads to the city for Stassi’s birthday, but before they leave, the b-day girl disinvites her ex-boyfriend and regular Vanderpump final boss, Jax Taylor. Like a recently fired George Costanza, he shows up anyway, pretending nothing happened with a monster chip on his shoulder. Yes, the show is filled with high drama, but ultimately, it’s about a group of friends learning to coexist. They may be volatile, but this episode made the cast of Vanderpump Rules a friend group audiences wanted to join weekly for 12 years. [Matt Schimkowitz]