Watching American Sitcoms is an easy and entertaining way to pick up American english vocabulary and understand the slang words, brand words, commonly used words. American sitcom is short for situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who carry over from episode to episode. The only reason I felt closer to New York living in India was watching American Sitcoms like FRIENDS and SATC. I re-watched a lot of shows in my spare time when I newly moved to the US. It really helped me understand and pick up the American vocabulary, phrases and humor. Believe me, it’s gona come handy if you plan to live in the US for the long run. So here are my MOST RECOMMENDED sitcoms + 1 medical drama shows to watch or re-watch 🙂
FRIENDS
I started watching Friends around 2010, literally after the entire world had watched and re-watched and laughed and raved about it. It got so popular when I was in college that I felt like the oddball to not understand the jokes and references. Oh gosh, once I started watching, I couldn’t stop. I binge-watched for days together, laying on the bed, glued to the laptop and laughing out loud. So much so that, I dreamt to marry someone as witty as Chandler Bing, be carefree like Phoebe and catch up with the rest of group for coffee at Central Perk 🙂 Watch FRIENDS because it’s iconic. You’ll get references to a lot of quintessential American things.
How I met Your Mother
“Haaaaave you met Ted?” “This is going to be LEGEN Wait for it…DAIRY!” Funny story, HIMYM came out in 2009, when I had just started watching Friends. Obviously, I royally ignored the show because I was so smitten by FRIENDS. After the entire hoolah calmed down and everyone else had moved on to season 4, I finally got tired of Barney Stinson references and started watching the show only to see what’s the big deal about this Barney Stinson guy. His character is so fun and amusing, that you’ll love him as much as you hate him. Again, I liked the married guy in the show. I don’t know what’s with me and my attraction to good looking, smart, kind, caring married men LOL. Watch how I met your mother to see the modern version of friends living in New York and ofcourse Barney Stinson – if I hadn’t made it obvious enough.
The Big Bang Theory
No, you don’t have to like Science to watch this show. I was stupid to think that I might not enjoy the show because I didn’t like physics or math. The only reason to give the show a chance to prove me wrong was Raj Koothrapalli. The stereotypical Indian nerd on the show who was solely responsible to get a huge Desi audience to religiously follow all 10 seasons. The characters are soooooo smart yet sooooo funny! Spoiler alert: You might find one character to be too irritating and annoying but he mind end up being your favorite pretty soon. That’s Sheldon Cooper!! Sorry, I didn’t have any patience just like Sheldon haha. Watch The Big Bang Theory for nerd humor and dinner calendar. You gotta watch to get the reference.
The Office
It might take more than 5 episodes for you to warm up to the setting of the show and to get to know the characters. But once you get past this weird stage of “What’s going on in this office?” and “Why is no one really working” – you’re gonna get addicted. Nope, not making this up. I literally watched The Office on Netflix every single day at least 2-3 episodes in one sitting. And after the last episode of season 10 ended, I cried. Actually, I sobbed at the bittersweet ending. And then you can guess what I did next. I started over – Season 1 Episode 1. And I laughed all the more because I realized I missed so many jokes the first time. Watch The Office for workplace humor and tons of feel-good moments. You’ll also find the kindest, sweetest guy on the show who is adorbs! Sorry, Dwight 😀
Modern Family
If you’re looking for a light-hearted family show to watch during dinner time, this would be a great start. You’ll see an upper-middle-class, big family setup who’s not traditional in any sense. What I really like about this show is the characters grow in age and so does their characteristics. It’s a delight to watch them all on-screen and my favorite is the smart kid (obviously) and the 3 outsiders to the family. I started watching Modern Family by accident but I’m so glad I did. Watch Modern Family to see blended families and parenting humor.
Sex And The City
This was one of those shows I thought I’d never watch till I was in my 30’s. During one of my work trips, I was in my hotel room, switching tv channels and I end up catching an episode of SATC. Next thing you know, I was texting my girlfriends to download all seasons to watch asap. I might have watched the movie before watching the show. And that only further strengthened my desire to get to know these 4 blazing women and their lives in Manhattan. And if you can’t tell yet, I’m super inspired by Carrie Bradshaw’s writing style. Watch SATC to see single American women’s lives in a big city like NYC and their equation with men and girlfriends.
Grey’s Anatomy
Okay fine, this is not a sitcom but it has to be on this list! There are so many medical dramas out there but I somehow started with Grey’s Anatomy and couldn’t find myself getting hooked to any other medical drama. Why? Because the creator of this show Shonda Rhimes tends to bring in the most gorgeous physicians and patients in one show who make you laugh, cry, fall in love, learn about unusual medical cases and get obsessed with the background music score. One line that still stays with me and brings that signature ‘Derek Shepherd’ smile in front of my eyes – “It’s a beautiful day to save lives”. Watch Grey’s Anatomy because you are going to meet lotta doctors in the US since most Desis are Doctors. It’ll be fun to throw in random medical jargons around to see their reaction lol.
Parks And Rec
I’m currently catching up with Parks And Rec. Before this show, I never thought about a government body like Parks And Rec to exist (how ignorant can a no-kids, no-pets woman be). Anywho, it took me a while to warm up to this show because I was comparing it to The Office and felt like the humor didn’t match up. But, after season 1 the show really picks up and the characters start to get quirky and dorky. My all-time favorite characters are Ron Swansorn and April 😉 Watch Parks And Rec to get a glimse of goverment department workings and for Amy Poehler aka Leslie Knope
If you haven’t watched any of these please do yourself a favor and get started! And if you have more awesome recommendations I’d love to add add more Sitcoms on my ‘Must Watch’ list. What are some of your favorites?
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