The end of a TV series is like losing a close friend. Season after season, you’ve become thoroughly invested in the characters. You’ve laughed with them, you’ve cried with them and now you’ve said goodbye to them. With 30 Rock ending in January and The Office coming to a close this May, the shows we’ve grown to love over the last few years seem to be disappearing at a traumatic pace. Like any great friendship, no show can truly replace those we’ve held so dear to our hearts, but these sure-fire substitutes can certainly dull the pain.
Then: 30 Rock
Now: Portlandia
Well-known but vastly underrated, sketch-based comedy series Portlandia stars Saturday Night Live cast member Fred Armisen and Wild Flag's lead guitarist/singer Carrie Brownstein. The show satirizes Portland, Ore. and its faux-cool residents, featuring Armisen and Brownstein in various roles including the owners of a feminist bookstore, members of an adult hide-and-seek league and eccentric couple Bryce and Lisa who put cut-out birds on everything. Though the plot is less quick-witted humor and more senseless sass than its fallen predecessor, Portlandia serves as an effortless fix for numbing the heartache of your now 30-Rock-less life, thanks in large parts to its clever skits and talented, SNL-alum heavy cast. It’s like 30 Rock’s less-hot rebound: all the fun with little of the emotional investment.
Then: The Office
Now: Workaholics
The burnout older brother of The Office, Workaholics follows three former college roommates trying to navigate their way through the corporate world. Refusing to give up their college antics, Blake, Adam and Anders find themselves in a series of compromising situations, most often resulting from the failure of their half-baked schemes – schemes not dissimilar from the ones Michael Scott cooked up for years as the nefarious boss on NBC's The Office. These three "workaholics" spend their days as telemarketers at the dull TelAmeriCorp, avoiding both their foul-mouthed boss Alice and the prospect of doing any real work. Spent primarily with drug dealer Karl, their nights consist of getting stoned, drinking beer and pretending they have even the slightest handle on where their lives are headed next. While the humor is raunchier than The Office's and at times a little too self-deprecating, one can’t help but laugh along as the trio falters ungracefully through post-collegiate life.
Then: Dexter
Now: Criminal Minds
Now in its eighth season, Criminal Minds is a well-seasoned but often overlooked show. This sleeper series centers around an elite team of FBI profilers who investigate the country’s most deranged criminals, anticipating their next moves before they can strike again. Unlike its procedural drama counterparts, this psychological thriller goes beyond basic crime, letting viewers into the complicated personal lives of its seven-member team. As the Criminal Minds team strives to solve increasingly twisted cases, its members struggle to separate their personal lives from the horrifying realities with which they constantly face. Their struggles are similar to those of Dexter Morgan, the serial killer protagonist of the critically-acclaimed drama Dexter, as he, too, wrestles with his own reality-bending demons in the criminal underworld. Though Dexter isn’t rumored to end until after its eighth season airs this summer, easing into a new show like Criminal Minds may lessen the blow by the time the series' imminent end rolls around.
Then: Jersey Shore
Now: Buckwild
For many, the end of Jersey Shore last December was the end of an era, and the show's dedicated viewers have since been left with a gaping hole in their Jersday routines. In an effort to remedy its now-lackluster Thursday lineup, MTV has introduced a new reality series, Buckwild, which follows the exploits of a gang of childhood friends as they wreak havoc in the rural foothills of West Virginia. Whether it be throwing a dump truck pool party or crafting a homemade mechanical bull, the 20-something adolescents of Buckwild will stop at nothing to find themselves a good time. While Shore spin-offs like Snooki & JWOWW and The Show with Vinny privilege viewers with an inside look at their favorite Jersey stars' lives, Buckwild boasts a fresher young cast, one that is equally rowdy and charming. Though Buckwild was recently removed from the MTV line-up due to the deah of star Shan Gandy, the entire first season is still available for your indulgement and distraction in these Jersey-less times.