stath lets flats

it's hard for me to find new comedies to watch because while i can still enjoy watching dramas that are leaden or melodramatic or absurd, when comedy doesn't hit for me it just doesn't hit at all and i'm sitting there thinking about how i'm not laughing as i watch this object that has been designed to make me laugh and that makes me angry.

and yet the alternative is a grim joke i made to deborah after we finished our most recent dinnertime rewatch of parks and rec and she said "what next? the office?" and i said "yes we will be cycling between those two shows for the rest of our lives" and that is probably true and sad and you know in a way comforting but also one must strain against one's limitations and try to seek out the new rather than constantly living in reruns

so i am thankful for stath lets flats on hbo max, a brisk and genial sitcom about a greek apartment rental agent and his misadventures. the central character, stath, will make you cringe with his awkward gaffes and slippery malaprops (and physical comedy—there is a soccer montage that had me crying), but there's this core of earnest sweetness in him (and in his relationships to his best friend al and his sister sophie) and the show makes me happy in the way that only a comedy can.