30 Binge-Worthy Shows Like Brooklyn Nine-Nine You Can Watch Now

If your favorite thing about "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" is its impossibly quick pace, you'd be remiss not to plunge right into Tina Fey's "30 Rock," a show that may hold the all-time sitcom "jokes per episode" record. Not only does it deliver jokes quickly, but it also transforms nearly every scene—even those involving the most direct and expository conversations—into opportunities for densely crafted jokes. The cold open of any given "30 Rock" episode, much like "B99," will take an expertly character-based joke to absurd heights while setting up the plot at the same time. Both shows have jaunty theme music that punctuates the opening perfectly.

"30 Rock" was similarly brilliant at mining surprisingly genuine emotion exploring the relationships between its characters, a real feat on a show with wall-to-wall ridiculous dialogue. If you were moved at times by the slowly burgeoning respect between Jake Peralta and Captain Holt, the central friendship on "30 Rock" between goofy main character Liz Lemon and intimidating superior Jack Donaghy is one you shouldn't miss.

There's nothing like a "behind the scenes" look at a TV news show to rival the madcap energy of the 99th Precinct. Created by Tracy Wigfield, a former "30 Rock" writer, "Great News" has the zip and zaniness of any great workplace sitcom. The legendary John Michael Higgins, recognizable from bit parts on everything from "Seinfeld" to "Arrested Development," finally gets a chance to shine in a leading role as the aging, egocentric anchor of a nightly broadcast.

Much like "Brooklyn Nine-Nine," "Great News" addressed contemporary issues with a recurring subplot about sexual harassment, turned subversively on its head by guest star and executive producer Tina Fey. It only ran for two seasons, but they managed to make the crew of "The Breakdown" (the show within the show) feel as well-realized and defined as characters on much longer-running productions. In particular, stars Briga Heelan and Andrea Martin put in wonderful work exploring the dynamics of a mother-daughter relationship that's unlike anything else on television.

"New Girl" is the ultimate hang-out show. While the premise, title, and theme song made it appear at first to be mostly a vehicle for star Zooey Deschanel, the show quickly re-tooled and focused on its entire talented ensemble, and became the best representation of the aimless, existential experience of being in your 30s in the 21st century. For a lot of Millennials, it spoke to the kind of bittersweet sadness found in that stage of life between youth and middle age. You might still play drinking games (on "New Girl" they sometimes play a hilariously chaotic game called "True American"), but you really feel it the next morning.

As a bonus, "New Girl" has an entire episode that's a cross-over with "Brooklyn Nine-Nine," when the characters of both shows cross paths on a trip to New York. If you enjoy the cold opens on "B99" where everyone just sits around and makes fun of one another, you'll love "New Girl": that's pretty much all they do, in between one life crisis or another. 

Despite its title and occasional jokes about living in the "greatest city in the world," "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" was not actually filmed in New York City. Like "Friends" and "Seinfeld" before it, it used a combination of a few exterior shots of NYC buildings and Los Angeles sound stages to create a flimsy illusion. For a real NYC fix with "B99" laughs, look no further than "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt." Another Tina Fey creation, the show tells the story of the titular character: a woman who moves to the Big Apple after being rescued from a doomsday cult that kept her captive for 15 years. 

The show makes notable use of several famous NYC landmarks. Kimmy's roommate Titus is initially working in Times Square when the show begins. Multiple adventures involve a stop in Central Park (including the so-called "'Friends' fountain," which is the somewhat-similar Cherry Hill Fountain, which is not the one from the Friends credits) and even Tavern on the Green, a restaurant made famous in "Ghostbusters." As an absurd NYC bonus, Fred Armisen appears in a recurring role as late convicted murderer and New York real estate scion Robert Durst.

Throughout the history of television, there have been countless shows about solving crime, and the vast majority of them have been all but humorless. Sure, Jerry Orbach might make a bad pun here and there on "Law & Order," or David Caruso might make a joke before putting on his sunglasses sometimes on "CSI: Miami," but actual police work in those procedurals is gritty or grim or both.

Once you're out of "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" to pair mysteries with constant quips, USA's "Psych" is a fun mystery show with leads that never stop addressing the proceedings with self-aware humor. Star James Roday plays a character with Sherlock Holmes–esque abilities of deduction that he pretends are actually psychic abilities. The premise is a lot like the much more strait-laced CBS show "The Mentalist" that premiered just two years after "Psych" came out in 2006, but don't worry, "Psych" makes more than a few references to this fact.

Ultimately, workplace shows like "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" are about a small community of misfits stuck in a room together, often being reprimanded for goofing off. Just go straight from the bullpen to the classroom of "A.P. Bio," which recently wrapped up an improbable four-season run on Peacock, and you won't miss a beat.

Glenn Howerton's surly teacher Jack Griffin runs roughshod over a class of superbly talented young actors, in particular Allisyn Snyder as basically a young Gina Linetti-type oddball. The cast is rounded out by comedy legend Patton Oswalt as the principal, who you'll also recognize from "B99" as Fire Marshall Boone.

If your favorite part of "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" is Jake Peralta's often-inappropriate jokes during what is normally very Serious Police Business like investigating a murder scene or interrogating a perp, ABC's long-running show "Castle" is a comfort watch you should check out. Nathan Fillion, fresh off a memorable turn in "Firefly," put in nine seasons as a bestselling author who schemes his way into riding along with an NYPD detective on murder cases.

As it's an hour-long procedural, it does have the same expository rhythms of a "Law & Order," but it has the jaunty, breezy tone of a sitcom once the dramatic moments pass.

Part of the fun of "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" is that it's a show about cops that pokes fun at authority. Obviously, there were limits to how successfully the show could work in the real-life controversies around policing in its final season, but if you want to truly see authority figures skewered, you have to watch HBO's "Veep." Julia Louis-Dreyfus gives arguably the best performance of the century as Selina Meyer, a politician stranded in the futility of the Vice Presidency when the show begins.

At first just concerned with the day-to-day humiliations and panic involved in politics, "Veep" went on to lambast international relations, foreign election influence, and countless other contemporary issues. Truly no level of authority is safe in this caustic, absurdly funny show.

On "Brooklyn Nine-Nine," Jake Peralta often has to curb his impulses to act like some sort of reckless action movie hero, hemmed in by the realities of paperwork and existing in a team. "Archer," an animated show about a James Bond-like spy of the same name, shows just what a self-centered jackass Jake would become if he could really live the life of his adolescent dreams.

The hilarious H. Jon Benjamin voices Archer as a drunk, insouciant layabout who just so happens to be handy in a fight. The dysfunction of his intelligence agency, unfortunately coincidentally named "ISIS," makes the 99th Precinct look like a model of efficiency. Now approaching its 13th season, "Archer" also made the radical decision to change the premise of the show entirely after the fourth season, meaning the same cast and creative team have taken on entirely new ideas.

Part of the appeal of "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" is that its humor is one of accumulation: the longer you get to know the characters and their tendencies, like Holt's robotic mannerisms, Boyle's weird food interests, and so on, the funnier the jokes get because they build up over time. "Arrested Development" is a show that similarly is dense with jokes that work out of context, but get funnier and funnier the more familiar you are with the show and the more you rewatch it.

"Brooklyn Nine-Nine" even sneaks in a sly "Arrested Development" homage in the episode "Halloween II." Jake mentions that he bought a suit "from a disgraced magician," and then finds a dead dove in the pocket—a pretty clear wink to Gob Bluth and his problems keeping doves alive.

It's a tragedy of modern times that Jason Mantzoukas has never had a starring role in a sitcom. He brought his live-wire, wide-eyed unpredictability to a recurring role as Adrian Pimento on "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" and Derek on "The Good Place." He also appears in nearly half of the episodes of "The League" as the obnoxious brother-in-law of one of the main characters. Even if you don't know anything about fantasy football, the show is worth checking out for Mantzoukas alone.

It's also a must-watch for groups of friends who express themselves primarily by making fun of one another. "The League" takes this art form to newer heights than any show before it: it's basically as if everyone got made fun of as much as Boyle on "B99."

Although it only ran for one season, "Enlisted" is worth checking out as it's essentially "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" but with the United States Army. Set in Florida, the show is about three brothers who end up in the "rear detachment"—i.e., the soldiers who stay behind on base when the majority of their unit is deployed overseas. 

Since the most prized recruits aren't the ones you leave behind, "Enlisted" has the same lovable misfit energy that "B99" does when the squad faces off against the feds, and also has a very Holt-like revered authority figure in Keith David's Major Donald Cody. Fox aired the show out of order and gave up on it quickly, but it's more than worth a quick binge if you're a fan of heartfelt sitcoms.

If you haven't made the effort, "Cheers" is one of those shows that's actually as great as everybody says it is. Before the familiar confines of the "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" bullpen or the cafe on "Friends," there was the titular bar on "Cheers" setting the standard for a room full of likable, funny people who actually seem to enjoy each other's company. 

"Cheers" ran for 11 seasons and had one of the highest-rated finales of all time, so it's not exactly a huge reach to recommend it. But if you've resisted checking it out just because it's popular, do yourself a favor and go where everybody knows your name.

In this age of streaming services, it can be easy to lose touch with the shows that are actually currently on broadcast television. "Mr. Mayor" is a show that aired last winter on NBC that you might not even be aware will be returning for a second season next month. From the "30 Rock" creative team of Tina Fey and Robert Carlock, it's a show about Ted Danson as the likable but clueless Mayor of Los Angeles.

It continues the fine "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" and "Parks and Recreation" tradition of showing a hilarious behind-the-scenes look at our most important civic services. Here's hoping more people hear about it moving forward.

At this point, you can watch a sitcom about every type of first responder. "Sirens," which ran for two seasons on USA, is a look at the madcap lives of EMTs. Paramedics get all the chaos of the street that cops get, along with the time-sensitive pressure to save lives that doctors do. 

"Sirens" has a great, mostly anonymous cast—at most, you might recognize Michael Mosley from the final season of "Scrubs"—but they acquit themselves well. It also broke a small bit of ground in introducing one of TV's first asexual characters, handling the character's identity with empathy and understanding.