As he championed "the new journalism" in the late sixties, Tom Wolfe suggested no one ever would write anything truly compelling"”fact or fiction"”about the suburbs; he asserted, "There is no life there." During the New Depression, however, the suburbs have gone ghetto, suddenly teeming with life and depravity; and television writers are producing all kinds of compelling stuff about what they have discovered beyond the white picket fences. Witness Showtime's smash-hit "Weeds," the life and times of a "proper" suburban widow keeping-up appearances while she deals more dope than a six-pack of Mexican cartels. As in "The Office," the basic premise for "Weeds" is an import from Great Britain, adapted from the British film Saving Grace which showed a widow and her gardener conspiring to maintain the widow's lifestyle by supplying the locals with their favorite herbal refreshment. Critics frequently compare "Weeds" with American Beauty for its exploitation of the idea "Normal is the face we wear to cover how f***ed-up we are." By contrast with "Desperate Housewives," Nancy Botwin, our entrepreneurial heroine, has far more good reason for desperation than her difficulty achieving orgasm; she has a house, a mortgage, two sons, and a reputation. Since Bonfire of the Vanities tanked and "Weeds" flourished, Tom Wolfe may have to consider the distinct possibility that there is no life in Manhattan.

Real Time with Bill Maher is a weekly political talk show that airs on HBO. The show features comedian and political commentator Bill Maher hosting a panel of guests from various backgrounds to discuss current events, politics, and popular culture. The format of the show includes a monologue by Maher, followed by a panel discussion and an interview with a special guest.

"High Maintenance" is a television show that tells the story of a marijuana delivery man in New York City. Each episode focuses on a different customer and their unique story, with the delivery man acting as a sort of conduit between them. The show originally started as a web series before being picked up by HBO.

For all the right reasons, "Community" has become one of the mainstays in NBC's comedy line-up. During its first season, "Community" focused on attorney Jeff Winger, disbarred after the accreditation committee discovered his undergraduate degree was from Colombia the country, not the university. Determined to win reinstatement in his old profession, Winger enrolls in community college, forming a Spanish-class study group which includes, among others, a cynical divorcee and a mid-life millionaire who made his money in moist towelettes. "Community" bravely exploits the ethnic and economic diversity in the study group, showing its gifts as an equal opportunity satirizer. The writers also have courage to wring big laughs from realistic representation of life and attitudes in "junior college." During the second season, "Community" had large and loyal enough following to encourage writers' development of plots centered on characters other than Winger, and they developed some of their best material by focusing on the dynamics of the group itself. Every member of "Community's" all-star ensemble cast has impeccable comedy or small-screen credentials: Chevy Chase's resume, of course, reads simply "legend." Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, Yvette Nicole Brown, and the rest of the cast bring a combined gazillion years of small-screen experience into the mix, and they have imprinted their distinctive styles on their roles. Similarly, all the partners in the production team boast high-powered Hollywood pedigrees and trophy cases full of Emmys. If "Community" had gone dark after the first thirteen episodes, television sets all over North America would have gone straight to test-patterns, because NBC writers and producers would have abandoned all hope for traditional sit-coms' futures.

Unprisoned is a new TV show that was created by Tracy McMillan and stars Kerry Washington and Delroy Lindo. It's a comedy series that premiered in 2023 and is produced by Onyx Collective, with Hulu being the distributor in the United States. The story revolves around the Alexander family, with Kerry Washington playing Paige Alexander, Delroy Lindo playing her father, Edwin Alexander, and Jordyn McIntosh playing a younger version of Paige.

The Middle TV Show is a comedy about the lives a middle class family from the suburbs of the Midwest from the point of view of the mother. Frankie is a high strung, but committed mother and wife who works part time while volunteering at her children's school. Her husband Mike is the opposite; laid back and always at work all the time, but supports Frankie in raising their three children. Their son Axl is the oldest and a typical high school teenager; rude, lazy and a slob. Sue is their middle child and although labelled a nerd by everyone in her junior high, she is desperately trying to fit in and avoid torment from her older brother. Then there is the baby of the family, Brick, he is an academic genius but drastically falls short in the area of social skills and suffers from all kinds of anxiety. Watch The Middle TV Show and get a laugh at how the Heck family gets through the day.