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Sadly, it’s been over three years since the final episodes of New Girl aired on NBC, bringing the sublime comfort TV series to a close. Saying goodbye to Jess, Nick, Schmidt, Winston, and Cece felt like packing up an old apartment — probably because that’s the whole premise of the show. If you’re looking for some endearing hangout comedies, there are a few shows like New Girl worth binge-watching. Or, like Jess, you could simply watch Dirty Dancing on repeat. That sounds pretty fun too.
New Girl‘s premise was surprisingly simple, and that’s perhaps why it worked so well: Jess (the ever-quirky Zooey Deschanel) moves into an apartment with three bizarre men, uprooting their bro-ish life and becoming their best gal-pal. With perhaps the best will-they/won’t-they dynamic in recent TV history, New Girl is as much rom-com as it is a sitcom as well. So, we’ve got a handful of rom-com TV shows, TV shows featuring friends, and cohabitation galore to fill the New Girl-shaped hole in your heart.
There may be no one like Nick Miller, but there sure are a handful of shows nearly as lighthearted as New Girl. Here are a few shows to watch on Netflix, HBO Max, and more if you love the sitcom:
'Happy Endings'
We may have lost Coach (Damon Wayans Jr.) after just the first episode of New Girl, but worry not! He returns in Happy Endings as Brad, one of the crew in a new friend group. Happy Endings follows the fall-out after one member of the friend group leaves another at the altar, creating some tense drama and two sides: will everyone be on Team Alex, or Team Dave? Try as they might to string everything back together into one happy ending, the friend group is forever altered. But that doesn’t mean there’s still room for a little banter and romance along the way.
'Starstruck'
Starstruck is HBO Max’s latest rom-com series, and it’s written by and starring comedian Rose Matafeo. The actress plays Jessie, a struggling millennial who lives in East London, balancing two jobs to afford a pricey apartment she shares with her best friend. When she hooks up with a famous film star (not recognizing who he is before sleeping with him), she falls head over heels. Fate brings them together over and over again, under the most bizarre circumstances imaginable.
'The Mindy Project'
Mindy Kaling’s hit comedy The Mindy Project is perfect for anyone who loved the slow-burn rom-com nature of New Girl. The series follows Mindy Lahiri, a successful OB/GYN and not-so-successful romantic. On a quest to become a more well-rounded woman, Mindy sets off to read more books and consume fewer rom-coms. But it’s not as easy as it sounds. She can’t stop sleeping with her coworker, and on top of everything else, she shares some steamy romantic tension with her best friend and business partner.
'Don't Trust the B**** in Apartment 23"
Don’t Trust the B**** in Apartment 23 is for anyone who loved the witty banter of a shared living space in New Girl. The series follows a trio of new best friends living in the big city: June (Dreama Walker), a naive midwesterner new to NYC, Chloe (Krysten Ritter), her sassy roommate, and Dawson Creek‘s James Van Der Beek. (Van Der Beek plays himself on the show, which is a hoot.) Taking on parties, washed-up stardom, and other high-fashion New York drama together, Don’t Trust the B**** in Apartment 23 is the perfect combo of Seinfeld and New Girl.
'Community'
They may not live together like the characters of New Girl, but the folks of Community spend nearly every waking hour together on-campus, so isn’t that enough? The series follows a study group with a hilarious ensemble of folks, a cast that includes Donald Glover, Danny Pudi, Alison Brie, Gillian Jacobs, Chevy Chase, and more. That list alone should be enough to lure you to this hangout comedy, but if it isn’t, trust us: there are enough inside jokes to keep you laughing for days.
'Girls'
Love her or hate her, Lena Dunham was truly onto something when she made her hit HBO series Girls. The show follows four young women living it up in Brooklyn, chock full of relationships, cringe-worthy (yet hilarious) arguments, and above all, friendship. The series features a handful of fresh performances from breakout stars like Adam Driver, Gillian Jacobs, Zosia Mamet, and more. Girls may not be on the same comfort viewing level as New Girl, but the series is just as enthralling to watch.
'Love Life'
HBO Max’s series is a rom-com anthology — basically, it’s what you’d get if you took Homecoming or Black Mirror and mashed it with New Girl. The first season was all about Darby, played by Anna Kendrick, a 20-something living in New York with aspirations to have her own rom-com of-sorts. Each new season is set to follow a new single young person on a quest to find The One, and next up is The Good Place‘s William Jackson Harper.
