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

If you're a "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" fan, there's likely been a hole in your heart since the show went off the air last September. In a world where streaming services have seen the rise of more half-hour "dramedies," "B99" was an old-school, gag-a-minute sitcom that just happened to be about cops. It had all the workplace humor and familiarity of "The Office" combined with the comforting aesthetics of a cop show like "Law & Order," fusing laughter and mystery into the ultimate binge-able show. It caught your attention with "Saturday Night Live"-worthy sketch pieces in the cold opens, hooked you into the episode with the warm affection between its characters, and kept you watching till the end with the case of the week, sometimes mixing it up with season-ending cliffhangers. It will be missed dearly.

If you've gone through the whole series a little too recently to watch it again, there are many shows you can find out there to distract yourself and wait until enough time has gone by. Here are 30 binge-worthy shows you can stream now to fill the "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" void in your life.

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.

If you enjoyed Andre Braugher's Captain Holt for his "robot boss" focus on work, then you should check out Portia de Rossi's entry in the canon of sitcom bosses on the short-lived "Better Off Ted." In just two tiny seasons on ABC, her portrayal of the ruthless and hilarious Veronica Palmer was just as pitch-perfect and iconic as her turn on "Arrested Development." Much like Captain Holt, she has trouble with basic human emotions and small talk, and values efficiency over all.

"Better Off Ted" has a screwball, manic sensibility that rivals the craziness of the best "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" episodes, and functions as an extended satire of corporate America. Set in the research department of a fictional conglomerate called "Veridian Dynamics," episodes are punctuated with absurdly funny commercials for the company, complete with uplifting elevator music and stock footage. Characters struggle against the faceless bureaucracy now and then, just as Jake Peralta struggled with the red tape and corruption in the NYPD.

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.

No "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" fan is complete without exploring the other shows from co-creator Michael Schur, the rest of the so-called "Schur-niverse." "The Good Place" is a four-season thought experiment that is somehow both a comforting sitcom binge-watch and an epic philosophical exploration no other show has ever attempted. "The Good Place" takes place in the afterlife, which has the bright and colorful look of a Target or Apple commercial, and follows Kristen Bell's Eleanor Shellstrop, who's been sent to the "good place" instead of another Eleanor Shellstrop who was actually a much better person.

From there, "The Good Place" upends its premise with every mind-blowing season finale, and asks deep questions about morality, causality, and our ultimate purpose in the universe. It makes you laugh while teaching you a whole lot about the philosophy of ethics. Basically, you get to feel like you read a book without having to read one.

"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. 

One of the most notable elements of "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" is its diversity. Not only did it have one of the most diverse casts for any network sitcom, but it also presented that diversity as an accepted fact of life and didn't reduce any characters to their race or orientation, or otherwise flatten them. NBC's "Superstore," which wrapped up an excellent six-season run last year, used the workplace of a Walmart-like big box store to bring a similarly diverse group of characters together without making a big point out of it.

"Superstore" also addressed working-class issues in the most timely, relevant fashion as its characters are threatened and intimidated when they attempt to unionize. In an era when the pandemic has brought issues of wealth inequality and the lack of living wages to the forefront, "Superstore" is a hilarious and cathartic must-watch for anyone who's as broke from circumstances as Jake Peralta always was from poor decision-making.

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.

Co-created by Greg Daniels of "The Office" and "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" co-creator Michael Schur, "Parks and Recreation" is essential sitcom viewing for any fan of the format. Amy Poehler's Leslie Knope is the overachiever's overachiever, setting the mold for likable type-A characters to follow like Amy Santiago. Nick Offerman also broke new ground as a humorless, intense supervisor that the "B99" writers would take even further with Captain Holt.

"Parks and Recreation" also set a gold standard for sitcoms in terms of advancing the overall plot in an organic, realistic way as time passed during the show. Leslie Knope goes from anonymous public servant to a politician, and everyone eventually finds a new direction or purpose in life. Without "Parks," "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" could have easily stayed stagnant instead of letting its characters evolve and reach for new career goals in turn. Both shows, in different ways, also touch upon the importance of civic service, despite the drudgery and red tape that's often involved.

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.

"Community" traffics in a lot of the same personality types that "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" fans will love. Main character Jeff Winger is a more vain version of Jake Peralta with the same alpha-male foibles and daddy issues, Annie Edison is the show's workaholic Amy Santiago, and comedy legend Chevy Chase plays bumbling old millionaire Pierce Hawthorne as the kind of weird slob that Hitchcock and Scully would tie one on with. 

With its elaborate episodes like the recurring paintball challenges, a zombie spoof episode, or a civil war parody involving a pillow fight, "Community" might actually have more action scenes in it than "B99" managed despite being a show about the police.

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.

In just two seasons on Apple TV+, "Mythic Quest" has joined the ranks of quippy, fast-paced, diverse sitcoms that you shouldn't miss out on. It explores new territory in the video game world that's usually handled with much less nuance. Plus, it released a special episode between seasons that addresses the pandemic better than almost any other narrative TV has so far. 

As a bonus, it also has a real ringer in its cast (much like Andre Braugher on "Brooklyn Nine-Nine") in F. Murray Abraham. The Oscar-winning veteran plays a science-fiction author in one of the most delightful roles in the ensemble.

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.

"Angie Tribeca" is "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" with the slapstick absurdity dialed up to infinity. Not constrained by things like "a sense of reality" or "plot," "Angie Tribeca" is a love letter to spoofs like "Airplane" or the "Naked Gun" series that ran for four seasons on TBS. Just like "B99," it's one of many shows that indirectly came from the success of "The Office," as it was created by star Steve Carell and his wife Nancy Walls.

"The Office" star Rashida Jones has the title role as an investigator for the RCHU (the "Really Heinous Crimes Unit"). Even if you're not familiar with the spoofs that it's inspired by, "Angie Tribeca" is work checking out for its unique tone and endless parade of guest stars.

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.

Sitcoms need diversity partly because they've existed in the same format for so long. Just as "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" was a breakthrough in representation, "Reservation Dogs" is a new show that's entirely about life in a Native American community in rural Oklahoma, made almost entirely by a Native American cast and crew.

It's got the languid, wandering tone of a "dramedy" like other shows on FX, but the originality of its premise opens you up to deep, heartfelt laughter. Character actor Zahn McClarnon is a particular highlight as a bumbling cop who could easily exist in the "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" universe.

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.

Like many mystery shows, USA's "Monk" is an extended riff on Sherlock Holmes. An individual with a hyper-focus on detail, in this case part of a somewhat debilitating obsessive-compulsive disorder, consults with the police as a private detective. Tony Shalhoub put his anxious, jittery energy to use for eight years as Adrian Monk, winning three Emmys in the process.

"Monk" is basically an extended and dedicated depiction of what Terry Jeffords goes through in the early seasons of "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" when being a new parent has made him terrified to go back in the field. How do you solve crimes if you're afraid to leave the house?

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.

Multiple episodes of "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" separate the characters at various places in New York City and then mine drama from the inability to get across town quickly. "Broad City," which follows the lives of two 20-something women in the big city, practically made dashing across town its default plot as Abbi and Ilana try to get to various parties and navigate public transit. 

Like "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt," it was also filmed in the real Big Apple instead of Los Angeles sound stages. The finale of the "Broad City" web series that inspired the show is an extended running sequence as well that sums up the kinetic, nonstop pace of the show.

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."

HBO's "Barry" is a delightfully dark show that stars a couple of actors that you'll recognize from "Brooklyn Nine-Nine": Bill Hader played the (literally) short-lived Captain Dozerman in Season 3, and veteran actor Stephen Root had a recurring role as Lynn Boyle, Charles Boyle's goofy father.

Both actors employ the gifts that made them such great comedic actors to great effect in "Barry," a show that shifts wildly in tone from moment to moment. It can be deep and darkly illuminating in its exploration of violence and what it does to your soul, but as soon as a hitch gets botched, it veers right into slapstick "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" territory. 

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 were to list the Best mentor/mentee relationships in television history, it would be hard to choose between Holt/Peralta and doctors Cox and Dorian on "Scrubs." Just as Andy Samberg's innate big-kid goofiness played so well against Andre Braugher's unreadable stoicism, the pairing of Zach Braff's painfully earnest energy and John McGinley's caustic misanthropy was comedy gold on this long-running show, and lead to surprisingly tear-inducing moments as both no-nonsense bosses grow to respect and value their underlings.

Just like "B99," "Scrubs" also shows the lighter side of a "first responder" sort of profession that's normally only seen in serious dramas like "E.R." and "Grey's Anatomy." 

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.

The documentary show "Cops" has been running so long that it's kind of surprising it hasn't been parodied more often. It might be because it would be impossible to be funnier than "Reno 911!", which ran for six hilarious seasons in the 2000s and was revived again recently. A mockumentary with the same premise as "Cops," "Reno 911!" follows the hilariously incompetent Reno Sheriff's Department as street criminals outsmart its officers. 

Started by the cast of beloved sketch show "The State," "Reno 911!" even features "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" star Joe Lo Truglio as Deputy Frank Rizzo, almost like Charles Boyle's evil twin.

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.

"Schitt's Creek" grew from a decent, quiet show that seemed like mostly an excuse to get away with sort of saying a bad word on television into a huge phenomenon that swept the Emmys in its final year. Like "Brooklyn Nine-Nine," it did this by being consistently funny, of course, but also by keeping a real sense of character growth and change as it went along. Just like Jake Peralta learned to wear a tie pretty quickly, the rich family that's marooned in the small town the show's named after soon dispenses with the bad attitudes they brought with them.

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.

"Bob's Burgers" might rival "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" for the catchiest theme song on television. It's also another sitcom with love for its characters, and a well-worn, detailed series of relationships in the local community. "Bob's Burgers" doesn't seem to get discussed in the same stratosphere as "The Simpsons" and "King of the Hill," but it's just as beloved and influential at this point after 12 seasons and counting.

The Belchers also depict a kind of working-class zaniness that echoes the Brooklyn upbringing that Gina Linetti and Jake Peralta reference. Louise is the exact kind of adolescent devil that Gina would take under her wing.