Ask Lemmy

Cosmos by Carl Sagan. It a science miniseries that I love dearly, but it’s like video Quaaludes.

Modern family.

It’s just funny enough to be entertaining and has some loose plot that’s fine to follow. Easily forgettable, but great for throwing on. Also, it’s cool to watch the kids on that show grow up over its 10 year run.

Community

Parks and rec

Are others I would toss on for easy to watch. Although community and P&R hide a TON of jokes that make it even funnier if you pay attention.

Detectorists

Joe Pera Talks With You

I gotta throw Scrubs in the ring here. Skip season 9.

Northern Exposure is an amazing and very gentle show, if you can handle 90s tv.

Man how has no one said Friends? That's basically a white noise machine on loop for our house.

The IT Crowd, and Black Books.

Tales from the Loop. I describe it as Eldritch Mundanity.

Basically any sitcom made for TV and not a streaming service.

Letterkenny. Mostly character driven

Dead Like Me is fairly slow, but really interesting. Same with Coupling. Two great shows.

Burn Notice, Royal Pains

Basically anything made during the heyday of USANetwork. “Dramas” without intensity.

• Community
• The Good Place
• Better Off Ted
• The Trailer Park Boys

Kim's Convenience.

I found Frieren to be quite slow, in a good way, but i think there are better options out there that i'm unaware of.

“Welcome Back Kotter” is about remedial education class so probably that.

Severance.

Letterkenny, maybe

I haven't seen it in years, so I could be misremembering things, but The Golden Girls.

I watch King of the Hill if i need to slow down after a busy day

Bubba Ho Tep

I think Blackadder aged pretty well.

Nichijou and High Maintenance are two that come to mind. Sort of opposite ends of the spectrum, but both are slice of life shows that are much more about vibes than plot.

Also if you like Home Movies then Dr Katz is a must

If you're not opposed to anime: Frieren.

Totally chill, nothing complicated, hardly any plot arcs, pure bliss.

Earth Abides

Its mostly slow. Apocalypse genre, without the insanely selfish caricature of the personal relationships between people.

Lodge 49. Young guy joins a fictional group based on masons and other similar groups. It's a hanging with friends show with some plot.

The Young Pope

I'd argue anything is a slow show if you watch it in a slower cadence. Our current lunch run rotates between the following shows on different weekdays:

• I Love Lucy
• Parks & rec
• Mary Tyler Moore
• Only Fools & Horses
• Corner Gas
• All in the family
• Big Train

I didn't grow up in North America and have never seen some of these older "classics", so its been fun. Cheers was in there for awhile, but we noped out in S6 when the stories got too silly.

I'm a big fan of the Inspector Morse series. Theres the original series called Inspector Morse made in the late 80s. Then a show called Lewis made in the early 2000s. Then Endeavour which is a prequel to Inspector Morse which was made recently. All are good in their own way. These are all very slow, methodical, and long episodes made by ITV in the UK. There are loose overarching plot elements in each show that roll out slowly over the seasons. I have to be in a mood to watch them though. Usually late winter, or fall is when that happens.

Any hallmark channel original content is like white noise for your brain. If you like to have something on in the background but want to have absolutely no stake in the content it’s a good choice.

Breaking Bad was excruciatingly slow for me

Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories and Extraordinary Attorney Woo are the greatest tv shows ever created. There will be no discussion.

The Wire is one of the best tv shows ever made and it’s a slow burn especially in season one

The Red Green Show

Easy-going comedy with minimal plot, mostly there to tie together an episode of shorter skits. Some Boomer humor, but not too cringe, I think.

Bee And Puppycat.

Try to find the original leaked episodes as they're better than the Netflix rehash.

Plot stuff does happen in the show but it's slow and never really resolved unless you want to track down the comics (and even then...), but for the most part the whole vibe of the show is slow, relaxed and chill.

Also the art/animation style is beautiful, and it's funny and sad and really well written (if you ignore the rehash) with some interesting voice actors.