Items21The creator’s order
  1. 1Fleabag (2016)Fleabag (2016) 8.7/10 on IMDbFirst aired Jul 21, 2016The gold standard, and the show that turned the knowing glance into a weapon. Phoebe Waller-Bridge's asides start as jokes you're thrilled to be in on, then slowly reveal how much she uses you to avoid the people in the room. That's what makes series two land so hard: a priest starts to notice when…0
  2. 2House of Cards (1990)House of Cards (1990) 8.5/10 on IMDbFirst aired Nov 18, 1990Ian Richardson's Francis Urquhart is the original that the American remake borrowed its asides from. The BBC's Chief Whip plots his way toward Downing Street and keeps stopping to share the plan with you, a trick taken straight from Shakespeare's Richard III, which Richardson used as his…0
  3. 3House of Cards (2013)House of Cards (2013) 8.6/10 on IMDbFirst aired Feb 1, 2013The first series a studio produced for Netflix took Urquhart's asides and moved them to Washington, with Congressman Frank Underwood confiding his revenge plots straight down the barrel of the camera. Those early seasons are at their best when he lets you watch him lie to someone's face and then…0
  4. 4Vladimir (2026)Vladimir (2026) 6.7/10 on TMDBFirst aired Mar 5, 2026The newest show here built entirely around talking to you. Rachel Weisz plays a professor, writer, wife and mother whose name you never learn, and throughout the eight episodes she speaks directly to the camera while her obsession with a new colleague throws her marriage and career into chaos. The…0
  5. 5Chewing Gum (2015)Chewing Gum (2015) 7.7/10 on IMDbFirst aired Oct 6, 2015Michaela Coel's Tracey is a sheltered, churchgoing, Beyoncé-obsessed 22-year-old on an East London housing project, and she tells you all about her mishaps straight down the lens. Coel came to TV from performing poetry, and the asides do real work: they show you when Tracey is lying to herself, or…0
  6. 6High Fidelity (2020)High Fidelity (2020) 7.7/10 on IMDbFirst aired Feb 14, 2020This 2020 Hulu series flips the novel and the John Cusack movie by making Rob a woman, played by Zoë Kravitz, who runs a Brooklyn record store and keeps turning to the camera to walk you through her history of failed relationships. Kravitz makes the asides feel offhand and wry, like a friend…0
  7. 7Malcolm in the Middle (2000)Malcolm in the Middle (2000) 8.2/10 on IMDbFirst aired Jan 9, 2000The best family sitcom for direct address, because Malcolm is a genius who still can't win. He turns to you mid-chaos to explain what his brothers broke, why Lois will find out and why none of it is fair, and the gap between his commentary and what actually happens is where most of the laughs…0
  8. 8The Bernie Mac Show (2001)The Bernie Mac Show (2001) 7.3/10 on IMDbFirst aired Nov 14, 2001Bernie Mac doesn't just talk to the viewer, he talks to the whole country. Between scenes he leans into the camera and addresses you as "America," venting about the three kids he's suddenly raising for his sister and asking you, man to man, whether he's wrong. Those confessionals give the show a…0
  9. 9Mr. Robot (2015)Mr. Robot (2015) 8.5/10 on IMDbFirst aired Jun 24, 2015The darkest use of direct address on the list. Elliot introduces himself with "Hello, friend," and he means you: a lonely hacker who has no one else to talk to and soon admits he's talking to an imaginary person. You become his confidant, his accomplice and eventually someone he suspects of keeping…0
  10. 10It's Garry Shandling's Show (1986)It's Garry Shandling's Show (1986) 7.7/10 on IMDbFirst aired Sep 10, 1986The sitcom that knows it's a sitcom. Garry Shandling plays himself, a neurotic comedian fully aware he's on television, and he spends about as much time chatting with the studio audience as with his cast, who sometimes get pulled into the storyline too. Even the theme song is a song about being the…0