Items15The creator’s order
  1. 1The Thick of It (2005)The Thick of It (2005) 8.7/10 on IMDbFirst aired May 19, 2005Armando Iannucci's BBC comedy is the meanest and most accurate thing on this list. A hapless minister at the fictional Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship lurches from crisis to crisis while Peter Capaldi's Malcolm Tucker, the government's foul-mouthed communications chief, arrives to…0
  2. 2Veep (2012)Veep (2012) 8.4/10 on IMDbFirst aired Apr 22, 2012Iannucci took the Thick of It method to Washington and made something louder, glossier and just as vicious. Julia Louis-Dreyfus plays Selina Meyer, a vice president who wants power far more than she wants to do anything with it, surrounded by staff who would sell each other out for a better parking…0
  3. 3Yes Minister (1980)Yes Minister (1980) 8.6/10 on IMDbFirst aired Feb 25, 1980The original civil service comedy, and still the best explanation of why nothing in government changes. Jim Hacker arrives at the fictional Department of Administrative Affairs full of plans, and his permanent secretary, Sir Humphrey Appleby, smothers each one in perfectly polite, endlessly…0
  4. 4Yes, Prime Minister (1986)Yes, Prime Minister (1986) 8.6/10 on IMDbFirst aired Jan 9, 1986The sequel sends Jim Hacker to Number 10 after an unexpected promotion, and the stakes rise with him: every grand plan of his now runs into Sir Humphrey's machinery at national scale. Watch it straight after Yes Minister, since it picks up the same cast and the same war of attrition. Nigel…0
  5. 5Utopia (2014)Utopia (2014) 8.3/10 on IMDbFirst aired Aug 13, 2014The Australian answer to the Whitehall comedy, from Working Dog's Rob Sitch, Santo Cilauro and Tom Gleisner. Sitch plays Tony, head of the Nation Building Authority, a new government body meant to oversee major infrastructure, who is permanently exasperated by the people around him and the…0
  6. 6Servant of the People (2015)Servant of the People (2015) 7.3/10 on IMDbFirst aired Nov 16, 2015A high school history teacher's profane rant against government corruption is filmed by a student, goes viral, and turns him into president of Ukraine. The comedy comes from an honest man colliding with scheming oligarchs, systemic corruption and the trappings of office, and it is warmer and more…0
  7. 7The New Statesman (1987)The New Statesman (1987) 7.8/10 on IMDbFirst aired Sep 13, 1987Rik Mayall's Alan B'Stard is a greedy, lecherous, ultra right-wing Conservative backbencher who wins the fictional seat of Haltemprice and treats Westminster as a personal cash machine. Where Yes Minister is subtle, this is pure cartoon villainy, and the fun is watching him survive scandal after…0
  8. 8Parks and Recreation (2009)Parks and Recreation (2009) 8.6/10 on IMDbFirst aired Apr 9, 2009The friendliest show here, and still a sharp satire of local government. Amy Poehler's Leslie Knope is a relentlessly optimistic mid-level bureaucrat in Pawnee, Indiana, whose boss, Nick Offerman's Ron Swanson, is an anti-government libertarian working inside the government. The town hall meetings…0
  9. 9Spin City (1996)Spin City (1996) 7.3/10 on IMDbFirst aired Sep 17, 1996A classic network sitcom about the person who keeps a mayor from destroying himself. Michael J. Fox plays Mike Flaherty, Deputy Mayor of New York, handling a blundering boss and herding a staff of oddballs through one press disaster after another. It is the lightest take on spin here, closer to a…0
  10. 10Alpha House (2013)Alpha House (2013) 7.5/10 on IMDbFirst aired Apr 19, 2013Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau's take on the Senate: four Republican senators share a rented house in Washington while facing re-election fights, looming indictments and each other. John Goodman leads as Gil John Biggs of North Carolina, a former Tar Heels basketball coach turned senator. The…0